Wayne Rooney has chipped in with his twopence ahead of Liverpool’s visit to Old Trafford as they face a beleaguered Manchester United side on Monday – with the former Red Devils star claiming that Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford should be dropped ahead of the derby clash.
Rashford has been out of form for the best part of a year now, scoring just five goals in that time with the majority of his time spent either coming off the bench or being hooked early for poor performances.
Ronaldo, on the other hand, has been less than exemplary at the start of the current campaign with his desire to leave being one of the worst kept secrets in the footballing world – and thus Rooney has told manager Ten Hag to drop the duo ahead of what is likely to be one of the most watched games of the season.
“We should remember that this is only the start of Ten Hag’s reign, that he’ll need time and that he’ll have identified a number of issues to address when the time is right. He clearly wants to see the players he inherited and give them a chance,” Rooney told The Times.
“But he also needs to do something quickly and the first priority is, against Liverpool, to just compete and have a go. Do that and the fans will accept it, even if United get beaten. Play like they did against Brentford, and United will suffer an even worse result than their 5-0 defeat by Liverpool last season.
“I don’t expect that to happen, by the way — I can’t see United winning, but I believe there’ll be a reaction and they’ll lose by the odd goal, or even snatch a draw.
“But 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 No 9 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.”
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United can leapfrog their rivals with a win in west Manchester, although a defeat would consign them to the bottom of the table should West Ham better their result against Brighton on Sunday afternoon.
