Unai Emery says Marcus Rashford is regaining confidence at Aston Villa

Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery feels Marcus Rashford is regaining confidence in his new club. The English striker scored in Wednesday’s 3-0 Premier League win over Brighton. Rashford scored the opening goal for the visitors at the Falmer Stadium after a goalless first half. It was his first Premier League goal for Villa.

Rashford had also scored a brace in the FA Cup quarterfinals last weekend against Preston. The 27-year-old had a difficult spell for Manchester United as he was not picked by new manager Ruben Amorim. The Portuguese had questioned Rashford’s work ethics and the forward later signed a deal on loan with Villa.

“We practised him playing as a striker on Sunday and decided for him to carry on,” Emery told a post-match news conference. “The most important is how he is feeling and recovering confidence and being focused in only football and being comfortable with teammates.”

Rashford said he is growing in confidence after scoring goals for his club.

“It’s a great feeling. I feel like I’ve slowly been getting fitter and playing better football since I’ve been here,” Rashford told the BBC. “So yeah, it’s obviously nice for a forward to always get goals, so hopefully it continues.

Earlier in January, Ruben Amorim was not pleased with Marcus Rashford for not putting in the hard yards in the training session.

“It’s the same, it’s always the same reason,” Amorim said when asked why he continued to overlook Rashford. “The reason is the training, the way I see what footballers should do in training, in life, it’s every day, every detail.

“So if things don’t change, I will not change. It’s the same situation for every player. If you do the maximum, if you do the right things, we can use every player. And you can see it today on the bench, we miss a little bit of pace to go and change the game, move some pieces.

“But I prefer it like that. I will put Vital on before I put a player on that don’t give the maximum every day. So I will not change in that department.”

Aston Villa will next take on Nottm Forest at Villa Park on Saturday.