Laura Woods ‘shocked’ by Man Utd star who brought her ‘great joy’ in Liverpool display

Laura Woods has hailed Marcus Rashford for his man-of-the-match performance in Manchester United’s 2-1 win over Liverpool on Monday evening.

The 24-year-old was chosen to lead the line for Erik ten Hag’s side ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Anthony Martial, and repaid his new manager’s faith with a smartly-taken second half strike that would ultimately prove to be the difference in a much-improved display from the Red Devils.

Prior to his goal against Jurgen Klopp’s men, Rashford hadn’t found the back the net since January, but Woods is of the belief that his showing at Old Trafford was much closer to the kind of form that made him into a household name in the first place.

Speaking on talkSPORT, she said: “One thing I wanted to talk to you about that brought me great joy last night was watching Marcus Rashford.

“If you go back to not even that long ago, just last summer, when he missed the penalty at the Euros in the final, the subsequent racial abuse came, all that sort of thing. This stat shocked me; he’s missed 13 England games since then, through injury and through form as well, because he really sort of lost his form, didn’t he?

“Tough season last season, only four Premier League goals. He got a lot of stick, even though he was doing amazing charity work, from people saying, ‘Well maybe he just needs to concentrate on football, maybe it’s a big distraction’.

“This window as well, there were calls to sell him. There were certain fans saying, ‘Sell him, get him out, he’s not good enough to lead the line for Manchester United’. He was linked with PSG not so long ago.

“Now the new manager comes in, he gets a full preseason, he’s injury-free, and that kind of performance last night, I just thought was incredible.

“No goals in any competition since January, started up top instead of Ronaldo - so you know Ronaldo’s on the bench, and there’s a lot of criticism about that.

“He managed to keep his cool, as well, in that one-on-one with Alisson, which I thought was such a brilliant finish. He danced through Liverpool’s defence all night, could have scored again.

“It kind of looked like the old Rashford, despite the fact he’s only 24. It still shocks me that he’s only 24.

“Under huge, huge amounts of pressure in the league as well, he gets a man-of-the-match performance. It’s the biggest club game in world football, or one of the biggest club games - it doesn’t get a much bigger stage than that, does it?”

Reflecting on United’s performance on Monday, Rashford himself praise his teammates for their application and fortitude in the face of a late Liverpool rally.

He said: “We started the game at a higher tempo.

“We tired towards the end but we kept going and we just stuck at it.

“They got a goal back and we didn’t fold, we kept defending well. It was an enjoyable game to play in.”