Ruben Amorim's brutal Marcus Rashford comment and mind-blown Aston Villa star's WhatsApp - The Mirror

Marcus Rashford has made a positive start to life at Aston Villa after being allowed to leave Manchester United on loan in the January transfer window

Marcus Rashford's training performance at Aston Villa was gushed over just weeks after his work ethic was blasted by Ruben Amorim.

The England international joined the Midlands club on loan last month after the Manchester United boss allowed the 27-year-old to leave his boyhood club. Rashford had been frozen out of the first team for a month after Amorim questioned his work ethic as he routinely left him out of matchday squads, beginning with the Manchester derby in December.

The forward opted to sign for Unai Emery's side until the end of the season and has since impressed upon his return to the football pitch. While he's yet to score in this three appearances for Villa, he played a starring role in their thrilling 2-1 win over Chelsea on Saturday, assisting both of Marco Asensio's goals while being a constant threat on the left side of the attack.

The criticism of Rashford's application in training by Amorim last month surely would have cut deep. The 40-year-old's damning statement came after he was questioned over the forward's continuous absence which caused him to declare that he'd rather play his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach instead of a player that doesn't give their all.

"If you do the maximum and do the right things, we can use every player," Amorim said. "And you can see today on the bench, we missed a bit of pace to go, to change the game. I will put [Jorge] Vital [on the pitch] before I put a player that does not give the maximum. I will not change in that department."

However, since his move to the Villans, Rashford's training participation has only had positive feedback, with Villa youngster Cole Brannigan left in awe when discussing how the Englishman performed when taking on the senior squad in training.

"We played them on the Wednesday and he (Rashford) trained... he's by far the best player I've seen technically with the ball - he was absolutely ridiculous," Brannigan told News Letter. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"We have a family group chat and I just put in 'Marcus Rashford is absolutely ridiculous'. Having Marcus Rashford at the club, he's someone for me to look up to." After his impressive cameo against Chelsea, Rashford was urged to be consistent by Emery, who said it is his goal to make him "confident and comfortable".

"Of course he played a fantastic 45 minutes," the Spaniard said after Villa's victory. "We now want to be consistent. Hopefully he is going to be important, like today, but then more and more and more. The most important for him is to try to be here with us and be confident and comfortable in a good atmosphere and this is my objective."

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