Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has now reacted to what he has seen from Barcelona forward Marcus Rashford during England’s World Cup encounter with Panama.
England punched their ticket to the round of 32 in the World Cup this summer after Thomas Tuchel’s men topped Group L ahead of Croatia and Ghana.
Marcus Rashford, who is out of contract with Barcelona at the end of June, was handed his first start for England at this summer’s World Cup last Saturday.
The 28-year-old Manchester United saw out the full 90 minutes against Panama at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which ended in a 2-0 win for England.
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Rio Ferdinand responds to the stats that emerged from Marcus Rashford’s England performance at the World Cup
According to Statman Dave on X, formerly known as Twitter, Marcus Rashford had 63 touches during the Panama match and nine of his touches came inside the box.
Rashford was unable to score against Panama at the MetLife Stadium at the weekend, despite his five shots during the Group L encounter at the World Cup.
Speaking on his podcast, Rio Ferdinand insisted that Rashford’s stats could be used to paint a negative agenda compared with what he actually showed on the pitch.
“Yeah, I think sometimes stats can skew the way things are in reality,” he said on Rio Ferdinand Presents.
“I think that you can massage the stats to suit your argument sometimes. But I think if you’re just talking about the eye test with Marcus, I think his whole energy looks much better.
“It looks really good. His body language is really positive. I think to really go, this is what his performance was like for me, it was a performance that showed a lot of promise without being decisive and without being clinical.”
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Rio Ferdinand on what Marcus Rashford offers for England after the Three Lions reach the World Cup knockout rounds
Rashford has already made an impact at the World Cup this summer after he climbed off the bench and netted against Croatia in England’s 4-2 win.
United legend Ferdinand added that on-loan Red Devils forward Rashford showed his standout qualities for England during his recent display from out on the left wing.
“I thought he got into some really good areas,” he added.
“I think up until the decision-making part at the end of it, I think he would have been doing everything that the manager would have wanted, running in behind, being a threat behind on the last man, getting to one-vs-one situations.
“But him and [Bukayo] Saka — on both sides — it was just the end product that wasn’t there this game.
“But I saw enough to make me still have the belief in those guys to be the ones that are going to really unlock things for us outside of Jude [Bellingham] and Harry Kane.”
England will now face DR Congo in their World Cup round-of-32 clash at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Wednesday.
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