Marcus Rashford's Resurgence and England's Tactical Dilemma
Marcus Rashford used to be the story. Manchester United’s local hero, the kid from the academy who carried a club and a fanbase on his shoulders. Then, less than two years ago, he looked finished at the very top level: out of form, out of favour, and out of patience after a fall-out with Ruben Amorim that ended with a pointed declaration that he was “ready for a new challenge.”
A short spell at Aston Villa flickered with promise. You could see glimpses – the sharp runs, the clean strikes, the swagger returning in flashes – but it felt like a temporary escape rather than a rebirth. Rashford needed a permanent reset, not another stop-gap.
Barcelona offered something in between.
They would only take him on loan, but the €30m (£26m/$35m) option in the deal was hardly a barrier for a club of their size. It was a calculated gamble: a proven forward, still in his prime years, dropped into a squad already stacked with Yamal, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres. Minutes were not guaranteed. A fresh start was.
Hansi Flick made it clear from the outset that this wasn’t a vanity signing. “[Barca sporting director] Deco and I, we spoke before the season about what we need. We need a player like him. I'm so happy to have him here in Barcelona," he said in September. Rashford responded exactly as a top-level coach would hope: 14 goals, 11 assists, and one outrageous free-kick in May’s Clasico that helped Barcelona clinch the Liga title with a flourish.
The numbers dragged his reputation back into the light. The performances did the rest.
Rashford has since spoken openly about wanting to stay at Camp Nou. Team-mates have pushed the club to trigger the option and keep him. His resurgence has also ensured that the lifeline Thomas Tuchel threw him in March 2025 – a spot in England’s plans for what will be his fifth major tournament – has stayed intact.
And yet, for Tuchel, this is not a straight shoot-out of goals and assists. If it were, Rashford would be very hard to ignore.
The runner England can’t do without
Modern international football is a systems game. You don’t just pick the best 11 footballers and hope their talent solves everything. You pick the pieces that make the machine hum: the runners, the pressers, the glue.
Anthony Gordon is one of those players.
He never stops. With the ball, without it, high up the pitch, deep in his own half – his game is built on constant movement. He lives in the channels, forever showing for a through-ball, darting into space even when he knows the pass might not come. When the run leads nowhere, he makes it again. And again.
Defenders hate that. Managers love it.
Gordon’s work without the ball is even more brutal. He presses like it’s personal. He hounds full-backs, forces centre-halves to rush, turns comfortable build-up into chaos. One moment from the 2023-24 season captured it perfectly: he nicked the ball off Trent Alexander-Arnold, burst past three Liverpool defenders and finished coolly. It looked like a solo wonder goal. In truth, it was the product of his default setting – relentless pressure.
The data backs up the eye test. Last season, Gordon ran further per game than Rashford: 7.43 kilometres on average. Statsbomb had him in the 96th percentile for defensive actions, 98th for pressures and 94th for counter-pressures in the Premier League. Those are elite, system-defining numbers.
Built around Kane
Everything England do in attack bends around Harry Kane. Tuchel has chosen to embrace his captain’s instincts to drop deep, to play as a 10 as often as a 9, to dictate from pockets of space rather than simply live on the shoulder of the last defender.
That freedom only works if someone else fills the gaps.
Gordon is that someone. Raised as a classic touchline winger, he learned to hug the flank, repeat the same runs and hit them with ruthless timing. Over the years at Everton and Newcastle he has also filled in as a No.9, and he may yet do that at Barcelona if they look for new solutions after Lewandowski’s departure. But his core profile remains the same: wide, direct, and endlessly willing.
When Kane drops, Gordon runs beyond. When Kane slows the game down, Gordon stretches it. When Kane needs a breather out of possession, Gordon’s work-rate buys him those seconds. The pair already have evidence of their chemistry: 528 minutes together across 12 games for England, nine wins, and a 5-0 demolition of Latvia in which both got on the scoresheet.
This is why Phil Foden and Cole Palmer, for all their artistry, are watching the summer from home. They are exquisite technicians, arguably “better pure footballers” than Gordon, but they do not fit Tuchel’s template as neatly. The German has made his choice. System over stardust.
Leaving them out was a statement. Benching Rashford for Gordon would be a continuation.
Tuchel’s risk – and Rashford’s new role
Tuchel was hired with his blueprint attached. England knew what they were getting: a coach who will happily leave big names on the bench if they don’t fit the collective idea. The failures of Sir Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2024 campaign still linger – a tournament where loyalty and reputation often trumped form and tactical fit.
Tuchel is not wired that way.
Gordon doesn’t just run and press. He can thrill with the ball at his feet, too. Last season he completed more take-ons per 90 than any other Newcastle player. He has the capacity to beat his man, to light up a game, to offer more than just industry. But it is the unseen work – the sprints that open space for others, the recoveries that snuff out danger – that makes him the cleaner fit for this England side.
Rashford, by contrast, is volatility. He’s more explosive, more unpredictable, more likely to conjure a moment that has nothing to do with the pattern of the game. That is precisely why Tuchel may see him as a weapon from the bench rather than the starting left winger.
The conditions in North America will only sharpen that logic. Heat, humidity, long travel – this is a tournament that will punish heavy legs. Tuchel will have to rotate, to manage minutes, to protect his runners.
With Foden, Palmer and others unavailable, Rashford becomes one of the few genuine game-changers waiting in reserve. If England are chasing a goal, if the structure needs to be bent in search of a breakthrough, he offers something Gordon does not: the ability to rip up the script with one strike, one dribble, one set-piece. Flip the scenario, though, and it is harder to picture Gordon arriving cold from the bench and transforming a broken game.
The roles, then, almost define themselves.
Club crossroads, country clarity
Barcelona now face their own decision. Do they convert Rashford’s loan into a permanent deal, potentially pitting him directly against Gordon for minutes if the Englishman’s €80m move leads him to Camp Nou? Or do they let a revitalised forward walk away and trust other solutions?
That debate will unfold in Catalonia over the coming weeks.
For England, the call is already staring Tuchel in the face. The numbers, the structure, the way Kane plays, the way this team wants to suffocate opponents and then sprint into the spaces they leave – all of it points in the same direction.
Start Gordon. He cost €80m for a reason.
