Rashford: How Ole is raising the quality

Manchester United’s work in Perth, Australia, has been impressively intense so far and Marcus Rashford is confident that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has already increased the quality of training.

This is the manager’s first pre-season campaign at the club following his appointment midway through 2018/19 and the benefits are already being felt by the players, who have completed a number of concentrated and educational sessions at Perth's iconic cricket ground, The WACA.

Here, in an extract of the conversation, Marcus explains why this pre-season is already benefiting him.

“I just think that little things like pictures in our heads are a lot clearer already,” he says.

“Some of the other lads have been here in pre-season longer than I have, but in the short time I have been here things are becoming clearer to me on what the manager wants and how we are to do it on the pitch, so that will put us in good stead for the rest of the season.”

Solskjaer’s sessions in Perth so far have been really intense and it is clear that every player in the squad is extremely competitive, from small-sided drills all the way to practice matches. Rashford believes that is encouraging and states the quality of work in Australia is high.

“Yeah, I think that has stood for the last few years that I have been here anyway, and I think that stands forever - footballers want to win, but the thing that has gone up for me is the intensity and just the level of training,” says Marcus. “We are starting to understand it all a bit better.

“We can use this. This is Ole's first pre-season and he can really stamp down what he wants to do. We have got to use the remainder of the time here and then in Singapore and China to keep progressing and improving.”