‘I don’t think you have to be a genius to see’ – Marcus Rashford says Gareth Southgate has raised coaching standards since Euro 2016 failure under Roy Hodgson

Marcus Rashford says it’s not hard to see England’s improvement since Gareth Southgate took over as manager.

The current Three Lions boss took over in 2016 following a hugely disappointing European Championship in which England were knocked out by Iceland in the round of 16 under Roy Hodgson.

Since then, Southgate has overseen an evolution in England’s setup, bringing in a crop of incredibly hungry and talented players to complement more experienced stars such as Kyle Walker, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane.

Rashford has always been part of the new-look squad and according to the Manchester United star it’s clear to see how England have developed.

The 25-year-old played for Hodgson at Euro 2016 and is therefore well placed to judge the differences between the schemes.

Rashford said: “I don’t think it takes a genius to see how we’ve improved since 2016. I was only there for a short time before [Southgate] but the level of training was not as high.

“For the players it’s black and white, if you don’t train well you can’t expect to play well and get in games and win just because you think you’re better players.

“Before, it was a bit of an issue in terms of the quality of training and people’s dedication to training. But since Gareth has been coaching England, it’s been good, it’s been intense, it’s been difficult.

“In 2016, if you look at that performance when we were knocked out of the Euros, that’s a million miles from where we are now. You can’t really compare the two situations. And for me, you can’t compare the feeling around camp. I think the confidence levels are as high as they should be.

Rashford added: “We have come so far.

“We learned a lot about ourselves along the way. I feel like we are a very strong team that has the ability to win against any team we play against. We fear no one. We believe in ourselves and we believe in how we can impact the outcome of games.

“We want to win games, we want to score goals, we want to play attacking football. And if we can entertain, we really want to do that.

“We stick together in the hard times and the good. It’s up to us to prove we have what it takes to win – but do I believe it? Yes.”