Former Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has urged Manchester manager Erik Ten Hag to drop Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford their Premier League game against Liverpool at Old Trafford on Monday.
Manchester United has already lost their first two games of the Premier League conceding six goals in the process. Facing Liverpool could be the defining moment to their terrible start to the season as a win could help build their confidence.
Liverpool is also not in great form after earning just two points in their first two games against Fulham and Crystal Palace.
What did Wayne Rooney say?
The DC United manager wrote in his column in The Times, saying: “I wouldn’t play Cristiano Ronaldo, and I wouldn’t play Marcus Rashford.
“If I was in Ten Hag’s position my main concern would be getting energy on the pitch, and United’s failure to recruit a number nine means they relied on Ronaldo against Brentford, even though he hadn’t trained a lot with the team. He looked like he needs time to get match fit.
“He has also let it be known that he wants to leave the club. I don’t know his reasons but, as I wrote in my last column, I’d let him.
“He’s a great player and will always score goals but the task for Ten Hag is to produce a team that can compete for the title in three or four years’ time. That means rebuilding with younger players.
“As for Marcus, I think he needs to do a lot of soul-searching and figure out what he wants, for his own good, before anything else.
“Watching him is a real concern: he looks like he wants to be anywhere but on a football pitch. I haven’t seen him smile on the field for a long time. His performances have dipped — he hasn’t been selected by England for more than a year.
“I’m coming from a place of wanting the best for him. He’s a lovely kid and a local lad who came through the ranks at United, who everyone wants to see doing well.
“But you look at the difference between Marcus now and when he first came into the team: the passion he showed, the smile on his face when he scored. It’s night and day.
“He needs to look at himself and Ten Hag and the coaches need to figure out what’s going on, sit him down, and have really honest conversations because you can’t just keep rolling him out when clearly something’s not right.
“There has been speculation about a move to Paris Saint-Germain, and it could be that he is another, like Cristiano, who wants a change of scene.’
