Jack Wilshere: Foden and Rashford have England looking electric… but that doesn’t mean they will start against Senegal

THERE were so many positives to England’s display last night it is hard to know where to start.

We pushed and probed and never panicked in the first half, then hit them with the old one-two early in the second half — and there was no way Wales were ever going to come back.

Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden impressed on a night where England were back to their bestGetty

England had quality in every department and confidence must be flowing through the team.

Gareth Southgate made changes and gave more players in his squad valuable game-time — and they are all staking a claim to start now.

I love Phil Foden, I’ve made that pretty clear. And, when he turned and had a shot as we approached the break, you could see that he was getting into his stride.

His tricky run produced the free-kick from which Marcus Rashford scored a beautiful opening goal.

Foden then got one for himself from Harry Kane’s cross, before Rashford got that third one to round off a great display.

Rashford has his swagger back and he’ll be fuming he didn’t get a hat-trick because he will feel he should have buried his first chance when Kane put him through and Wales keeper Danny Ward saved.

I was listening to the TV commentators saying Rashford has to start against Senegal in the last 16 on Sunday.

But we should take a step back before jumping to what many might feel is the right conclusion.

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Just because he’s scored two goals against Wales doesn’t make him an automatic pick for the next game.

Senegal will be a very different type of team and probably a tougher proposition than the insipid Welsh.

We have to plan properly and Southgate has proved how he will pick the right team for the right occasion.

I thought Wales were going to have a go, show us their passion, be committed and make it a fight.

But I was disappointed that they didn’t do that.

In truth, offensively, they didn’t show us anything.

Yes, they made it difficult for us in the first half early on, but only by sitting back and putting everybody behind the ball.

At no point did they try to put us under any pressure.

The Wales gameplan was simply not to take any risks and try and sneak a winner on the counter late on.

But against a team of England’s quality it was always going to be a tall order to hold out and I was never worried.

Kane will have been grateful that he was able to get a rest by coming off quite early once this game was in the bag and, while he hasn’t scored in this tournament yet, he’s certainly making up for it with his assists for his team-mates.

His low cross for Foden was the type he would have loved to have received himself.

It’s great that Callum Wilson got some more minutes in Kane’s place and is making his case to be Kane’s deputy, although I think Rashford could play as a No 9 too.

I also enjoyed seeing Declan Rice bringing the ball forward into the opposition half and trying to get attacks going.

At West Ham, I used to say to him he should score more goals, as he has two great feet and is a fantastic finisher.

I reckon we’ll see a cracker from Rice before this World Cup is over. If he adds goalscoring to his game, he will be a £100million man.

I’m really looking forward to the Senegal match.

We are coming good at the right time, we’ve got through the group pretty well and should be bouncing, individually and as a team.

Yes, there is a serious test coming up in a likely quarter-final with France, provided we get past Senegal.

But we have to believe we are in the shape to go all the way.