Rashford not focusing on World Cup

Marcus Rashford insists winning a place in England's squad for the World Cup is not in his thoughts as he looks to maintain his strong form for Manchester United. Rashford powered home a header to lift United to a 1-0 Premier League win over West Ham on Sunday, his 100th goal for the Red Devils in all competitions. The forward needed 25 Premier League appearances to score four goals last season, a tally he has already matched after 12 games of the current campaign. 

Rashford's poor performances last season saw him lose his place in Gareth Southgate's England squad, but the 25-year-old is not obsessing over his fight to make the trip to Qatar.

"I'm not thinking about the World Cup at the minute," Rashford said. "I'm concentrating on the next game, we have to try and keep winning games here, we've got two more league games before the World Cup.If we win those two games, we'll stay in touch with the top four, so that's what I'm focused on."

United have won seven of their last 10 league games after starting the season with back-to-back defeats to Brighton and Hove Albion and Brentford, and Rashford puts that improvement down to the approach of Erik ten Hag.

"I just think the energy is different, that's the biggest thing, the energy is more positive within the whole team and at the training ground, for me that is the biggest thing. I just want it to keep going really and keep enjoying it. If we're winning games, I'm sure that will happen. It's stuff that he mentioned as soon as he came in, we've been working on that, not meaningfully, but we've been improving and the best way to do it is on the pitch and in games," he added.

Rashford's goal against West Ham was just his seventh in club football with his head, and the forward has been working with Ten Hag to improve his aerial prowess: "Getting into the areas is one thing, but the technique and the desire and wanting to get your head on the end of it, that's what I've been working on. It's nice to get a couple of goals out of that. He just wants me to be in the right areas, scoring goals, pressing high up the pitch, little things I'm trying to keep chipping away at, keep working," he added.

"Even if you're not having the best of days, let's try and stick to those principles [and] use that as a base, those fundamentals, to round off your performance," he concluded.