Rashford warned Man Utd teammates have blocked his route to Ballon d’Or

Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford would be on the list to win the Ballon d’Or alongside Kylian Mbappe if he had a team that played with “confidence”.

That’s an opinion held by Louis Saha, who believes that Rashford is one of the best players in the world right now and the only different between him and Mbappe is that the latter has won the World Cup. The 25-year-old has been in excellent form for the Red Devils this season, scoring 15 goals in 25 games in all competitions.

Rashford also had a superb World Cup with England in Qatar, having chipped in with three goals at the tournament, which included a brace against Wales in the group stages. The forward has scored in his last three Premier League matches and will be looking to continue his impressive form into the Manchester derby on Saturday.

However, ex-United striker Saha has admitted that Rashford would be on the list with the usual Ballon d’Or contenders if he played in a side with confidence. This is despite United flying high in the Premier League at the moment, having lost just one of their last 10 top-flight outings dating back to the last meeting with Manchester City.

Speaking to BoyleSports, Saha said: “Marcus Rashford is a top five player in the world right now. The one difference between him and Mbappe is the trajectory as Mbappe has won the World Cup already so his confidence has been right up. If Rashford has a team that play with confidence, he’d already be on a list with all the usual Ballon d’Or contenders.

“Everytime he’s played with directness and his fitness is right, he’s unplayable. He’s an amazing talent and it’s been frustrating because he’s been overthinking.”

Rashford’s up-turn in form this season was something many pundits and supporters didn’t see coming, having scored just five times last term. However, the influence of Erik ten Hag and a change in mentality from the Wythenshawe-born attacker has helped him improve and post some impressive numbers in recent months.

The United boss revealed following their 3-1 win over Everton in the FA Cup that Rashford has been putting in a lot of hard work on the training ground. Ten Hag has been impressed with Rashford’s dedication in training at Carrington – and revealed that he has been working hard on his heading in a bid to become a better all-round finisher.

Ten Hag said: “I see technical class every day with Marcus Rashford. He impressed me from the first training session.

“In the penalty area, every shot goes between the posts and is hard and pure. Everything is of such high quality – and always at pace. Of course, you start working with such a player to see where the biggest improvement can be. With Marcus, for example, that’s his heading game, which wasn’t really top-notch yet.

“We touched on that and started working on it with assistant coach Benni McCarthy. So it was great to see Marcus score against West Ham with a header. That was a great moment because then you see that there’s been an improvement by paying attention to it.”