England players don’t ‘need the fans booing them’ to know they haven’t played well, says striker Marcus Rashford.
The Three Lions top Group B and remain in a strong position to reach the knockout stages, largely due to their 6-2 loss to Iran in their opener.
Friday’s 0-0 draw against the United States was greeted with mockery from fans at the final whistle.
“I feel like if we play well in the next game, that game against USA will be forgotten,” said Rashford, 25.
“It’s not a nice feeling. But to be honest, we don’t need the fans to boo us to know we didn’t play well. It was a feeling that was mutual within the group – that we could have done better.
“You wonder if you would have changed things in the preparation for the game, but it’s natural as players because you want to win as many games as possible. When you don’t win it’s disappointing but we can’t not be so negative about it. We are in a good position in the group.
“When you win a game, you are the best team in the world. When you lose, you are the worst. That’s football. As players, you have to keep a balance.”
The lackluster draw with the United saw England miss out on the chance to conclude qualification for the knockout stage, but Gareth Southgate’s side will go through regardless if they avoid a four-goal loss to the Country of Wales on Tuesday.
England’s performance and the reaction of the fans brought back memories of the 2010 tournament in South Africa where they were disappointed and Wayne Rooney was forced to apologize for comments follows a disappointing 0-0 draw against Algeria.
Since Southgate’s appointment as manager in 2016, England have reached the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and Euro 2020 final, with Rashford saying it doesn’t take ‘a genius’ to figure it out that there have been significant improvements over what has gone before.
“The level of training wasn’t as high,” added Rashford. “For the players, it’s black and white: if you don’t train well, you can’t expect to play well, you can’t expect to get in games and win.
“There has obviously been a clear change and a marked improvement. We have done much better in the major tournaments, but even in the matches of the year we have had better results.
“It’s not often that I go back to England and feel like we’re going to lose games. As a collective we’re very strong and that’s a big characteristic that Gareth puts his mind on. ‘accent.
“I don’t think it takes a genius to see that we’ve improved since 2016. You look at that performance against Iceland when we were knocked out of the Euros and that’s a million miles away. where we are now.”
