Marcus Rashford has said he’s feeling sharper than ever as Manchester United prepare for the first pre-season game in Australia on Tour 2019 in Australia.
Speaking at the Reds’ press conference ahead of Saturday’s friendly against local side Perth Glory, the 21-year-old revealed he feels he's in a position to get out of the blocks quickly for the coming campaign.
“I feel now like I'm in a better condition to [start the season],”
Rashford said.
“It's been tough [in the past], as before pretty much every pre-season I've had a tournament with the national team so your break is shorter and you have to come back quicker and it can be difficult to start the season up and running.
“But I feel that this year, between myself and the manager, we've managed it better and physically I feel in better condition.“
Rashford scored 13 goals in 47 games in all competitions last season, his joint-best tally for the Reds, but he says his game is about more than just finding the net.
“They play as number nines for 38 games in a season,”
added the forward, when asked to size up Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane's feat of regularly topping 20 Premier League goals.
“I've not done that once so it's two completely different situations and I've always said from the beginning it was never my goal to be a number nine that can't play anywhere else. It was to try to be as free-flowing as possible.
“I know what I've worked on since I was six or seven years old and it was never to be a number nine. It was to be able to play as a number nine but also be able to adapt to playing in other systems and other formations.
“And for me that's what Man United is, we've always had players who can change, and chop and change between each other.”
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has previously said that Rashford can add more goals to his game by making different runs, and the striker was asked to explain this further.
“A lot of the things he's speaking about are instinctive,
“ replied Marcus. ”
So it's not necessarily something that you work on it, it's just recognising certain pictures.
“If someone else is shooting, it's instinct to follow in. You don't practise that out on the [training] pitch but I think you get a lot of that from speaking to him.”
The Academy graduate recently signed a new contract keeping him at Old Trafford until June 2023, with the option to extend for a further year, and Rashford has said he wants to help the club regain its position at the pinnacle of English football.
“For me, it's always been a goal of mine to help the club back to where we were and to what we all know as Manchester United,” explained the Mancunian who made his debut for United in February 2016.
“So my decision [to sign the new contract] wasn't a hard decision because I don't feel like we've done that yet. That's not only me [who feels that way], it's something that the dressing room shares. Everyone's looking forward to trying to get that dream done."
United's first test of the summer is against Australia's 2019 A-League runners-up at Optus Stadium on Saturday and Rashford is eager to get started.
“To be honest I don't know much about them,”
he admitted. “But we do know the facilities have been good here, we've had a good couple of days of training so everyone's looking forward to that game and I'm sure Perth Glory are as well.
“We've got another couple of days before the game so we're just going to keep training and keep working hard.”