HERE’S my plea to Mr Gareth Southgate: play Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling in the Group G World Cup opener against Tunisia in Volgograd on Monday.

What a statement of intent that would be to include the speed kings from United and City in the same starting line-up.

We haven’t got the best defence, a new keeper and a midfield that isn’t the most creative, but what we have in abundance is pace to burn – and a world-class striker in Harry Kane.

Rashford is oozing confidence with the Three Lions, unlike on the majority of occasions he’s in the red of United, which is a reflection on Jose Mourinho’s tactics and inability to get the match-winning best out of him.

Regarding Sterling, his runs creating space for others are amazing and like all patriotic fans, I just wish he could dramatically up his scoring ratio for he always seems to need three or four chances before hitting the target.

It is one of the most open World Cups I can remember, with a case to be made for at least eight nations to be outright winners.

Being based here in Warrington, we’re getting a lot of interest from Merseyside with Liverpool fans taking a cheeky punt on Egypt to win outright at 250/1 or at least progress to the knock out stages from their group while Senegal, with Sadio Mane as talisman, have been backed in from 6/1 to 4/1 to win Group H.

Brazil, after an impressive build-up, are the new 9/2 Betfred favourites to win the tournament ahead of Germany at 5/1, with Spain and France both at 13/2.

Argentina, with Lionel Messi out to replicate his Barcelona form for his country, are 10/1 while England’s Group G rivals Belgium are 11/1.

We’re 18/1 that England are outright winners, while the most popular bet in the last few days has been for England to win their opener against Tunisia 3-1, which is available at Betfred at 10/1 with Kane 2/1 to score first against the nation ranked 22nd in the world.

Neymar is the new 9/1 Betfred favourite to be top scorer in Russia.

Brazil’s PSG superstar, who is being heavily tipped to switch to Real Madrid, has this week overtaken Argentina’s Messi, who is now 10/1 to top the scoring charts in Russia.

Neymar, who with his glamorous actress girlfriend Bruna Marquezine are the Posh and Becks of Latin America, is 8/1 favourite at Betfred to be player of the tournament, with the FIFA shortlist voted upon by affiliated journalists traditionally favouring players from the winning nation.

France’s Antoine Griezmann is, like Messi, 10/1 to be top scorer, with Portugal talisman Cristiano Ronaldo and Germany’s in-form Leipzig striker Timo Werner both 12/1.

Meanwhile another Brazilian, Gabriel Jesus of City, is 14/1 to end up leading scorer in Russia and England skipper Kane is 16/1 to celebrate landing a lucrative new contract at Spurs by top scoring.

With the wall charts printed, fans are pouring over the potential winners and losers in the group stages.

Betfred have Uruguay the 8/11 favourites to win Group A with Saudi Arabia, who play hosts Russia in the opener tonight, 2/5 to finish bottom.

In Group B, Spain are favourites to finish on top with Iran 4/5 to be bottom, while Morocco have gone from 15/2 to 13/2 to be top African nation.