Gareth Southgate says he has no regrets at only giving Marcus Rashford four minutes game time against France

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Marcus Rashford has scored 10 goals in 10 games since the World Cup, returning from the tournament in outstanding form.

You could even say the forward has a point to prove, having been given such little game time in the World Cup quarter-final.

England boss Gareth Southgate was in the stands at Old Trafford to watch him score the winner against City, making a big difference in a high-profile game.

Manchester United have flourished with Rashford banging in the goals, and it looks like Gareth Southgate made a big error only giving him four minutes in the nation’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to France.

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Southgate has no regrets

Speaking in an interview with BBC Sport, Southgate dismissed the suggestion he might have regrets about not utilising Rashford better, instead saying it was easy to be wise after the event.

He said: “I don’t really. What I’ve learned in this job, whenever the result doesn’t go as you hope then the solution is always the things you didn’t do, because of course nobody knows what they might look like.

“So I’m comfortable with that. I think we used the squad well. There can always be an argument for a different player providing something at a different time.”

Quoted by The Telegraph, he added: ““Had Marcus played and the result being like that, they’d have been saying Phil Foden should have played, or Jack Grealish, so I’ve got peace with what we did and how we went about it. I also know that’s how the narrative always works after our games.”

Southgate should admit he was wrong

Southgate would be better off simply admitting he was wrong on this. It wasn’t like Rashford’s form exploded out of nowhere after the World Cup.

He was England’s top goalscorer at the tournament with three goals, and giving him just four minutes in the quarter-final was bad management.

Rashford has 18 goals for the season for his club, and he was England’s most in-form player in Qatar. Even in his four minutes on the pitch, he nearly rescued England, with a free-kick grazing the bar in injury time.