Marcus Rashford has admitted watching Liverpool and Manchester City’s success last season has left him hungry to fire Manchester United back into trophy contention.
The Reds, of course, lifted a sixth European Cup after defeating Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in the Champions League final in Madrid on June 1, while Pep Guardiola’s men secured their second successive Premier League title.
Rashford's United, though, were left trophyless at the end of the campaign and missed out on Champions League football after a disappointing sixth-place finish.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have a massive season ahead of them and are still tasked with tackling off-field issues such as Paul Pogba’s long-term future.
The 21-year-old striker believes that witnessing their two bitter rivals win two of football's most prestigious titles has only left United determined to climb back to the top.
"For me, yeah,” Rashford told The Mirror in response to whether or not this has acted as extra motivation.
"That just makes it an even bigger challenge to us. We never shy away from a challenge and we have to move forward as a team.
"The mood now is how it should be, everyone is positive. Last season wasn’t good enough. But we're in much better condition than we were this time last year.
"For me it has always been a goal to get us back to where we should be,” said Rashford. “It wasn’t a hard decision and we're all looking forward to it.
“I think we have to take it one game at a time. But for us we can’t look too far ahead, we just have to concentrate on ourselves.”
The Red Devils have, so far, secured the services of defender £50million Aaaron Wan-Bissaka as well as winger Daniel James from Swansea City as they aim to improve on last season.
Further arrivals are expected at Old Trafford in the coming weeks to strengthen chances of reducing the gap at the top of the table.
In contrast, Liverpool have so far added just 17-year-old Sepp van den Berg to their ranks, with the Dutch defender joining from PEC Zwolle for £1.3million.
