Southgate to snub Man Utd hero in favour of Newcastle star as England plan for Euros take shape

Man Utd star Marcus Rashford was left out of the Euros squad
Alan Shearer believes that Manchester United winger Marcus Rashford could lose his spot in the England squad ahead of the Euros this summer.
The 26-year-old scored a fantastic 30 goals in all competitions last season but has failed to replicate that form this term, scoring only eight so far.
Rashford’s lean spell has been replicated in his international performances, with the forward scoring just twice for England since the start of 2023.
With stars such as Anthony Gordon and Jack Grealish competing with Rashford for a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad, there is no guarantee that he’ll be on the plane in three months time.
Shearer thinks that Rashford needs to ‘force’ Southgate into picking him by improving his form significantly before the end of the campaign.
“If Rashford plays well between now and the end of the season, then that could potentially force the manager’s hand. But I don’t think he’s a certainty to go, no,” Shearer wrote for The Athletic.
“He’s not a centre-forward, he doesn’t want to play there. He’d be going as a wide forward who can play as a striker in an emergency. You can tell from his body language that he doesn’t want to play there for Manchester United.
“If he’s going to be in the squad, it wouldn’t be ahead of Harry Kane, Watkins or Toney, it’d be as a wide forward.”
Crunch time for Marcus Rashford
Rashford was only given 15 minutes of game time in England’s 1-0 defeat to Brazil at Wembley last week. He didn’t feature at all when the Three Lions drew 2-2 with Belgium on Tuesday.
Southgate has since explained that he wanted to take a look at other left-winger options instead.
When asked if Rashford was left out due to injury, the manager replied: “No, I wanted to see Anthony Gordon again.
“I thought he had an excellent impact in the first game and I thought that [James] Maddison coming into that area could open things up for us a bit.”
Purely based on form, Gordon arguably does deserve to start for England ahead of Rashford. The Newcastle star has scored 10 goals and made seven assists this term and seems to be constantly improving.
Rashford is now running out of time to show Southgate that he has to be in the Euros squad. Man Utd face Brentford this weekend and also have a FA Cup semi-final against Coventry City to look forward to in a few weeks.
There have also been rumours that the forward is unhappy at Old Trafford and Paris Saint-Germain are considering a move for him in the summer.
England are set to face Bosnia and Herzegovina and then Iceland in pre-tournament friendlies in early June, so it will be interesting to see whether Rashford can force his way back into the starting XI before then.
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