Michael Owen heaps praise on Marcus Rashford after showing at Southampton

Former Liverpool and Manchester United star Michael Owen has heaped praise on the performance of Marcus Rashford following the Red Devils’ 2-2 Premier League at Southampton on Saturday. Jose Mourinho’s side experienced the worst start to the game after conceding two goals within the opening 20 minutes but they managed to level the scores before the break after a couple of assists from Rashford.

Speaking on BT Sport, Owen highlighted that Rashford was outstanding throughout the game and him conceding the free-kick for Cedric Soares’ goal could be termed as the sole negative from the match, he said: “I thought he’s been outstanding today. He made two mistakes for the free kick for Southampton. But he’s the one player, we spoke before the game about running, it’s very, very simple but in this day and age you have to run and run fast and be direct and make things happen. I think that Rashford by and large is the only player in the Manchester United team that does that. I thought Ashley Young had a good first half. But Rashford runs at players and it causes havoc, it changes the picture all the time.”

Rashford was guilty of missing a sublime scoring chance during the midweek Champions League encounter against Young Boys but he was nevertheless granted a starting role upfront alongside Romelu Lukaku in the 3-5-2 formation. He appeared to go through the same patch after having a wayward attempt at goal when United were trailing but he managed to make amends with two sublime assists.

Despite the efforts, United were only able to muster a draw on the road to Southampton and that is sure to put further pressure on the shoulders of manager Jose Mourinho, considering the club are already finding themselves getting adrift of the top four. United are currently six points behind the Champions League positions but that gap could extend with Chelsea, Tottenham, and Arsenal scheduled to play on Sunday.