Interview

Koscielny – My battle with Rashford

Laurent Koscielny is back.

After 225 days on the sidelines and seven months in injury rehabilitation, the 33-year-old returned to his best form to produce a man-of-the-match performance against Chelsea last Saturday.

 

Next up for Koscielny is Friday’s Emirates FA Cup clash with Manchester United, featuring a revitalised Marcus Rashford, and our captain knows he’s in for a tricky test against the in-form England striker.

 

“I think he’s progressed a lot,” Koscielny said. “He’s gone forward in every year and he’s getting better in his career. He’s still young and he’s still learning about the top level, and has the quality as well to progress in different parts of his game.

 

“I think they have a lot of good strikers at their club with Martial, Lingard, Lukaku and so on. I think their danger can come from any side. You need to be careful of everyone on the pitch.

 

“Their results show the difference with the new manager. After that, I don’t know what he’s changed in the squad but I think they play more together, with more freedom maybe, and you can see that with Martial or Pogba. They have more freedom on the pitch. When you play with this freedom, you have more confidence in your quality and you can show that on the pitch.

 

“For a football player, this is a typical game that you want to play in. Afterwards, the result is another thing, but you are very excited to play against big teams, big clubs, with lots of history in the competition. It’s very important to be focused on this.”