Gary Neville was thrilled to see Marcus Rashford’s reaction after his crucial winner for Manchester United against West Ham.
The 24-year-old came off the bench to strike deep into stoppage time at Old Trafford, and provide a huge boost for United in their race for the Premier League top four.
It has been a difficult season for Rashford, who has struggled for form amid United’s slump for much of the campaign.
Having found his scoring touch again at Brentford in midweek though, the England international followed that up with his most important goal of the season so far, with Neville noticing a marked difference afterwards.
“I think it was really important. There were a lot of questions being asked of Marcus Rashford,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“I’m not quite sure it’s fair that it’s suggested he’s distracted by off-field events. As soon as he has a difficult patch, that’s the easy thing to say because no-one knows why he’s in a difficult patch.
“He could be having a difficult patch because of a number of different reasons. It could be injury, loss of form, confidence, the team not playing well, but it’s the easy thing to do isn’t it to point towards the off-field stuff.
“But it was a big thing for him. The thing for me about Marcus Rashford [against West Ham] when I saw him celebrate that goal was that it brought joy to him, and I think that’s the most important thing when you’re a football player, passion and enjoying it.”
Neville added: “I’m not saying you have to walk around with a smile on your face because I was miserable as sin when I was playing football, and to be fair quite often cantankerous and argumentative!
“But the thing is I want to see either joy or passion, or fire. I don’t want to see that face of nothing.
“I think Marcus in the last couple of months or so, he’s just looked drained in his face, of any energy or any sort of spirit, and that can’t happen.
“You can have fire, you can have anger, you can have joy, you can have all those different emotions, but we need emotion. You can’t have lack of emotion, and I think for Marcus yesterday, it was a big moment for him.
“Hopefully, that now gives him the confidence to rise again, puff his chest out, and do the things he does because he’s an excellent striker and an excellent forward.”
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