Rashford highlights United's pressing

Marcus Rashford praised Manchester United’s pressing after our 4-0 friendly win over rivals Leeds United on Wednesday.

The forward cited our fitness and intensity as a major factor in the two victories in Western Australia - which have provided a strong hint about how we’re going to play this season.

“There’s a lot to improve on still but, for us, it’s about getting the pictures in our heads,” the 21-year-old said in an interview with MUTV after the game. “It’s been a while since we’ve been a real pressing team and I feel that now, in this pre-season, we’ve laid down the fundamentals of how we’re actually going to press.

“The first game against Perth, the way we pressed in the first half was brilliant. It’s tough going for 90 minutes but we’ll improve and we’ll get better at it.”

Solskjaer cited fitness as a key area for the United squad to improve and Rashford agrees that perfecting this over pre-season is paramount ahead of our first Premier League fixture against Chelsea on 11 August.

“I think it can still go up another level. I've not been training for as long as some of the other boys, so it's about trying to get back up to speed. It's been going well,” he added.

“As a team, everyone's fit, everyone's healthy and, as much as we want to work hard and improve, that's important as well, because we want to hit peak form come the start of the season.”

The England star continued his fine goalscoring form on Tour 2019, making it two in two games by netting United’s second on a dominant evening for the Reds at the Optus Stadium.

Rashford showed great composure to slot the ball beyond Leeds goalkeeper Kiko Casilla, but he also had time to praise Scott McTominay for his part in assisting the goal.

“As a forward, you want the midfielder to wait with the ball as long as possible before he releases it and Scott did that today,“ he added.

“I think that’s one of his strengths when he manages to drive with the ball. When there’s space in front of him, he’s got very good timing of the pass. It was good that he could show that today.”

Mason Greenwood opened the scoring for United in the seventh minute with his first senior goal and Rashford believes there's plenty more to come from his fellow Academy graduate.

“Psychologically, I said to him that, once you get the first goal, the rest will come naturally and I think that’s nothing but instinct for him,“ said Rashford. ”He’s a natural finisher and that’s what he’s best at.”

A Phil Jones header and an Anthony Martial penalty wrapped up the scoring in the second half as Solskjaer once again rotated his entire line-up at the break.

United now travel on to Asia, where we face Inter Milan in our first International Champions Cup game in Singapore on Saturday.

“It’s been enjoyable and we just want to thank all the fans out here because the [Perth] support’s been brilliant,” Rashford concluded.