De Boer: It's a pity that Mourinho is Rashford's manager

Frank de Boer believes Marcus Rashford is unfortunate to have Jose Mourinho as his manager.

Speaking after the England attacker bagged a brace in Manchester United's 2-1 win over Liverpool at Old Trafford on Saturday, the former Inter Milan and Crystal Palace manager said on BT Sport: "It's a pity that the manager is Mourinho because... you want to give him time and he can then make mistakes.

"But Mourinho is not like that. He wants to get results.

"If he has one or two not good games, he puts him out. He's very young, he needs games, but he's so talented. You want to see this player every week."

However, Rashford's teammate Jesse Lingard insists United are developing the 20-year-old just fine.

He told Sky Sports: "Rashford is a player with very big potential. He is at a big club and they are nurturing him well."

Rashford, meanwhile, admitted that his first goal might have played out differently had he not had a poor first touch.

United's 14th-minute opener came when Rashford latched on to a Romelu Lukaku flick-on from a David de Gea goal kick.

(Rashford) is at a big club and they are nurturing him well. Jesse Lingard on teammate Marcus Rashford

The Manchester-born player proceeded to check inside and take out Trent Alexander-Arnold before beating Loris Karius at his far post.

After finding the net again 10 minutes later, the 20-year-old has now scored 44 per cent of his EPL goals against the "big six".

He has scored 29 per cent of his shots against the same opposition, compared to 10 per cent against other clubs.

Describing his first goal, Rashford said: "I think my first touch was actually a bad touch, I couldn't finish in my stride.

"So I had to revive it, recover it with my second touch and the rest of it was quite simple for me.

"It gives you the confidence to do more, and the second one just fell to me and I put it in."

According to Mourinho, that confidence has been missing for the past couple of months, but he insisted he still trusted Rashford despite not starting him in an English Premier League match since the 2-2 draw with Burnley in December.

He said: "Of course, he was fundamental.

"It's a good thing the first chance he had... he scored, because I think, in the last two months, that was not happening with him.

"He was feeling that a little bit in terms of his self-confidence.

"Today, he probably came in unexpected but we trusted him... It was because he was impressing a lot in training and, sometimes, that's the point.

"The media and the fans, in relation to the options, you are not on the training ground.

"You do not see what is going on and how well the players are training, how badly they are training."

The United boss added that he had spoken to England manager Gareth Southgate, who assured him that Rashford would go to the World Cup, whether or not he starts regularly for United.

Former England winger Chris Waddle agreed with Southgate's views, telling the BBC: "Southgate is right, Rashford is a must for the World Cup...

"One of the things Rashford does really well is carry the ball. England just don't have many players who can do that effectively...

"He does not strike me as the kind of player that gets rattled by very much anyway, which is another big positive.

"I like the fact he stands up for himself too - if someone kicks him, he can handle himself and he does not seem very bothered by it."