Marcus Rashford will be among the several watchers viewing Friday’s draw for a World Cup the forward believes Gareth Southgate’s England will be well-equipped to fight in the tournament.
“Yeah, 100 percent I’ll be watching it,” the forward told Press Association Sport. “Before you know it, it’ll be right around the corner.
“The Premier League season is difficult but we have to make sure that each individual is playing at our best to get in the team first for all.
“You’ve got to be playing well for your club, and then you’ve got to come together and try and peak for the tournament, which is probably the most difficult thing because after a long season it’s another level of just your body physically. Sometimes it’s hard for it to cope.”
Rashford’s other major tournament experience came at Euro 2016 after being rushed into Roy Hodgson’s squad after a blazing start to life at Manchester United.
“That’s something just to [take] experience from, which you have to against the top teams in the world,” the 20-year-old said. “Take the experience, learn from it — which is the biggest thing — and then you move on so next time we play against them we’re more equipped to try and win the game.
“I think those two games that we’ve had are against world-class opposition and us playing against them only has a positive effect.”
“I think for England sometimes you do miss the moments. When we’re not always successful, you miss the moments of enjoying playing that game and being proud to play that game because you get caught up in wanting to win and wanting to please everyone.
“I think sometimes we have to sit back and relax and I think definitely over them two last games because we’ve understood that the opposition are in a better position than us at the moment, they’re ranked higher than us, and they are recognised two of the top teams in the world, we have sat back and respected them.
“And, for me, because we’ve done that and given ourselves time to think, you definitely get that feeling of proud playing for your national team. I think that can take you through games sometimes, so it is a big, big difference.”
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