"We don't need boos to know we didn't play well"

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England players don’t “need to be booed by the fans” 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 last 16, largely due to their 6-2 thrashing of Iran in their opening match.

Friday’s 0-0 draw against the USA was met with loud boos from fans at the final whistle.

“I think if we play well in the next game, this USA game will be forgotten,” Rashford, 25, said.

“It’s not a nice feeling. But to be honest, we don’t need the fans booing us to know we didn’t play well. It was a mutual feeling among the group, that we could have done better.

“You wonder if you would have changed things in the build-up to the game, but that’s natural as players because you want to win as many games as you can. When you don’t win it’s disappointing, but we can’t be. Very negative, we’re in a good position in the group .

“When you win a game, you’re the best team in the world. When you lose, you’re the worst. That’s football. As players you have to keep your balance.”

A warm draw with the United States saw England miss out on the chance to finish qualifying for the knockout stages, but Gareth Southgate’s side will go through regardless of whether they avoid a four-goal defeat by Wales on Tuesday .

England’s performance and the fans’ reaction evoked memories of the 2010 tournament in South Africa, where they underwhelmed and Wayne Rooney was forced to apologize for the comments done after a disappointing 0-0 draw against Algeria.

Since Southgate’s appointment as manager in 2016, England have reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of Euro 2020, with Rashford saying it doesn’t take “a genius” to see that they have happened significant improvements over what went before.

“The level of training wasn’t that high,” added Rashford. “For the players, it’s black and white: if you’re not training well, you can’t expect to play well, you can’t expect to go into games and win.

“Obviously there’s been a clear change and a clear improvement. We’ve done a lot better in the big tournaments, but even in the games of the year we’ve had better results.

“It’s not often you go out with England and feel like we’re going to lose games. As a collective we’re very strong and that’s a great feature that Gareth emphasizes.

“I don’t think it takes a genius to see that we’ve improved since 2016. Look at that performance against Iceland when they knocked us out of the Euros and it’s a million miles from where we are now.”

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