England Euro 2016 squad: Marcus Rashford inclusion gives Roy Hodgson his impact option

It was a talk Roy Hodgson heard Leonardo give at a UEFA symposium a year or so back which raised a point about the England team which he considers valid.

English players lacked the confidence and swagger of those from some other nations, the former Brazil manager told an invited audience. They would do well to shout about themselves a bit more. The national characteristic was evident again when Hodgson’s players had qualified for the European Championships finals, last November. Gary Neville felt the whole business had been too low key and was cause for some kind of celebration, so a small drinks event was thrown for them. Only five of the squad invited accepted a glass of the champagne on offer.

It is Hodgson’s desire for a little arrogance which has seen Rashford edge into his final 23-man squad for France. Contrary to the popular conception of the England manager as an arch-pragmatist, Hodgson wanted to be bold and take the risk attached to having Rashford in the ranks as an impact option, and one defensive option fewer.

Rashford started this season on the bench for Manchester United’s under-21s against Rochdale in the Lancashire Senior Cup and had not even made his debut for the club when the main Euro 2016 sticker album – from which he is notably absent - was signed off. There might be comparisons with Michael Owen, younger than Rashford though also 18 when he went to France with Glenn Hoddle’s World Cup squad in 1998. Yet Owen had started Liverpool’s 1997/98 league season thinking “I could be in from the start,” as he later put it, before an injury to Robbie Fowler gave him that chance. He was already established. Rashford has, by contrast, has appeared for United’s under-18s, under-19s and under-21s in the season which ended with him bound for Chantilly.

Hodgson certainly did not foresee this three months ago. After Rashford had scored twice against Arsenal and the England manager was asked about him, headlines appeared suggesting that he might be willing to take the teenager to France. Hodgson was irritated, indicating privately that he would never be willing to take a player on the basis of two goals, plus another two in the Europa League at obscure Midtjylland. Hodgson was delighted to see that Louis van Gaal had subsequently suggested, in a press conference, that the stories had exaggerated his comments. He personally telephoned the then United manager to thank him.

But an international manager can never be sure what a player might achieve in the moment, when pressure is applied, and it is this aspect which has come into play for Rashford. His performance against Australia at the Stadium of Light on Friday night told Hodgson that he has the capacity to be a game-changer and will probably not be daunted by the white heat of a senior international tournament.

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The intelligence of Rashford’s movement before scoring on debut – fractionally delaying a run into the box after a lay-off for Raheem Sterling so that he went undetected by defenders and was free to receive the deflected cross and score from it – will have impressed Hodgson. So too, the dummy around the half-way line which allowed a Jordan Henderson pass to find Sterling, who set off to supply England’s second. The way Rashford looked over his shoulder to see what trouble lurked as Henderson passed was in keeping with one of the old orders they’ve been barking out to United trainees for years. “Look around.” That temperament, allied to the player’s finishing – nine goals from 15 shots on target this season for United and England – left Hodgson prepared to select Rashford.

The final squad selection also illustrates a pronounced willingness from Hodgson to display faith in the younger players. It was right that Everton’s Ross Barkley was not omitted as a result of his dip in club form at a time when Roberto Martinez’s Goodison dog days saw Everton tank. Martinez has spoken often about work he had undertaken to improve Barkley’s game intelligence. Yet it is time for someone to help develop the game of a player who has the raw skills to walk into any England side, yet who will play a peripheral role in France.

On Tyneside, there is disappointment that Newcastle United’s Andros Townsend failed to make the cut. The club’s new manager Rafael Benitez has been encouraging Townsend to get on the ball more often and in better positions. Despite the side’s relegation, the result was an excellent end to the season. It had left Benitez to believe that Townsend would be a good option if Hodgson were looking to develop a high energy side who would run opponents off the park.

With Rashford, the close technical advice has not been terribly necessary. He has played the only way he knows these past six months or so: free and unfettered. There has been time for only five communications from the new Twitter account which was set up in the player’s name a few weeks ago: images of him lifting the FA Cup, training, playing and scoring for England and signing a new Manchester United contract. It seems that almost anything could happen next.