Marcus Rashford's Resurgence and England's Tactical Shift

Marcus Rashford is still a serious footballer. That can get lost in the noise. Not long ago, Manchester United’s homegrown poster boy looked finished at the very top level, worn down by a fallout with Ruben Amorim and ready, in his own words, “for a new challenge.”

A loan to Aston Villa hinted at recovery, but it felt like rehab, not rebirth. He needed a permanent reset.

Barcelona offered something in between. They would only take him on loan, but the €30m option tucked into the deal was hardly a barrier. The competition was fierce – Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, Ferran Torres – yet that was exactly the point. Rashford needed to prove he could live among that company again.

Hansi Flick wanted him. Needed him, even. The Barca coach made that clear before a ball was kicked, and Rashford answered with numbers that matter: 14 goals, 11 assists, and that outrageous free-kick in May’s Clasico that helped seal La Liga with a flourish.

The Camp Nou took to him. He has since made no secret of his desire to stay, and team-mates have pushed the club to trigger the option. His resurgence has been strong enough that the lifeline Thomas Tuchel threw him in March 2025 has held firm all the way to what will be his fifth major international tournament.

And yet, when Tuchel looks at his England XI, he keeps coming back to Anthony Gordon.

The runner England can’t ignore

On paper, Rashford’s season screams “starter.” But international football rarely lives on paper. It lives in structure, in sacrifice, in players who are willing to run for others and not just for themselves.

That is where Gordon separates himself. Not in the goals column. In the grind.

Gordon is the archetypal modern wide forward: incessant movement, endless running, perpetual menace. With the ball, he sprints down channels, constantly offering for the through-pass. Half of those runs go unrewarded. He makes them again anyway. And again.

Without the ball, he becomes something else entirely – a one-man press. He harries, he snaps, he chases lost causes that suddenly don’t look so lost. One moment from the 2023-24 season captured it perfectly: Gordon mugged Trent Alexander-Arnold, burst past three Liverpool defenders and finished the move himself. That was not just flair. That was work-rate turned into a highlight reel.

The data backs up the eye test. Gordon covered 7.43 kilometres per game last season, more than Rashford. Statsbomb’s metrics place him in the 96th percentile for defensive actions, 98th for pressures, 94th for counter-pressures in the Premier League. Those are elite pressing numbers, the kind that make system coaches sit up.

Tuchel’s England, Kane’s England

Tuchel is one of those coaches. He is a systems man to his core. Big names don’t buy minutes from him; tactical fit does.

England are built around Harry Kane. That much hasn’t changed. What has changed is how Kane is used. Tuchel is happy for his captain to drift, to drop, to play as creator as much as finisher. But that freedom comes with a condition: someone has to run beyond him, from wide, relentlessly, filling the spaces he leaves behind.

Gordon is almost purpose-built for that role.

Raised as a classic touchline winger, he still plays like one. Same run, over and over. Out to in. In behind. Timing it, perfecting it. At Everton, at Newcastle, even when he has been used as a No.9, that instinct to stretch the pitch has remained. At Barcelona, if he arrives to help fill the void left by Lewandowski, that same habit will make him invaluable.

For England, he dovetails with Kane. With the ball, he gives Kane a target for those clipped passes and disguised through-balls from deeper positions. Without it, his work-rate allows Kane to conserve energy, to pick his moments rather than chase shadows.

The chemistry is already there. Across 12 games together, Gordon and Kane have shared 528 minutes on the pitch. England won nine of those matches, including a 5-0 demolition of Latvia in which both found the net. That is not coincidence. That is a pattern.

Lessons from Southgate – and a brutal call

This is the kind of call England knew they were getting when they turned to Tuchel. He will bench a star if the system demands it. He has done it at club level, and he will not hesitate to do it with a national team.

The contrast with Sir Gareth Southgate’s final act at Euro 2024 is stark. Southgate stayed loyal to certain names long after their performances stopped justifying it, and England paid the price. Tuchel has no interest in repeating that mistake.

Phil Foden and Cole Palmer are arguably more gifted pure footballers than Gordon. On a training pitch, in a rondo, in a five-a-side, they shine brighter. But they do not fit Tuchel’s blueprint for this particular England as cleanly as Gordon does. That is why they are watching this summer from home, and why Gordon is not.

This is not to say Gordon is all industry and no spark. He completed more take-ons per 90 minutes than any other Newcastle player last season. He can beat a man, he can excite a crowd. It’s just that the qualities that truly elevate him – the pressing, the running, the tactical discipline – don’t often make the back pages.

Rashford, by contrast, is the chaos agent. More explosive. Less predictable. The kind of player who can change a game with one moment, one strike, one dribble. That is exactly why Tuchel still needs him – just not necessarily from the first whistle.

The value of a game-changer

Conditions in North America are expected to be brutal. Heat, humidity, long travel. No side will get through this tournament with just 11 players. Rotations won’t be a luxury; they will be survival.

With Foden, Palmer and others unavailable, Rashford becomes one of the very few genuine game-changers Tuchel can summon from the bench. He offers something different: direct pace, early shots, that ability to conjure a goal from half a chance. If England are chasing a game, or if an opponent sits deep and the match drifts, he is exactly the kind of weapon you want to unleash on tired legs.

Flip the scenario. England need a goal, 20 minutes to go. Does Gordon offer the same jolt from the bench? Probably not. His value lies in the full arc of a game – the pressing, the running, the repetition. He is a starter’s player, a structure’s player.

Rashford is the wildcard. Gordon is the system.

Tuchel has built his career choosing the latter and then using the former at the right time.

Barcelona still have a decision to make on Rashford’s future, a choice that could set him in direct competition with Gordon at club level if the Catalans move for the Newcastle man. That battle can wait.

For England, Tuchel’s verdict is already written in the way his team plays.

Start Gordon. He cost €80m for a reason.