Rooney Calls Manchester United Players 'Childish', Points Finger at Bruno and Martinez
The whole Manchester United team is behaving like children — that is the claim of Wayne Rooney, one of the greatest footballers in the Red Devils' history. His sharp comments about the team's recent failures have sparked fresh debate in the football world.
Rooney alleges that instead of taking responsibility for Manchester United's recent failures on their own shoulders, the players are pointing fingers at the coach and officials. He believes they are doing so to hide shortcomings in their own performances.
Rooney has questioned two players in particular — captain Bruno Fernandes and Argentine defender Lisandro Martinez. In Rooney's view, the two are speaking against the team to cover up their own failings, and he has told them to look at themselves in the mirror first.
Rooney said: 'These players are selfish. They don't think about their teammates, coach, staff or supporters; they think only about themselves.' In the former star's words, whenever something is not to their liking, the players behave childishly and shift the blame onto others.
Behind this controversy lies Wednesday's Champions League match. After a 4-1 defeat to Italy's Como, United's unrest came further into the open.
After the match, Fernandes questioned coach Michael Carrick's tactics. Before that, Martinez had also made comments blaming club official Jason Wilcox. Such public statements by players have raised concern about the situation inside the team.
Rooney believes this kind of behaviour can spoil the atmosphere in the team's dressing room. Speaking on 'The United Stand' podcast, he said that after Martinez's comments he had felt the situation could turn dreadful.
In Rooney's words: 'When Martinez spoke, I said this would create an absolutely dreadful situation, because it will create division in the dressing room. It started from there.' In other words, he sees the public disagreement as the beginning of the team's crisis.
Drawing on his own playing days, Rooney said that even when he and Sir Alex Ferguson were at times not on speaking terms, on the pitch he gave everything for his coach. He sees an absence of that mentality among the current players.
Rooney's observation about Fernandes is even harsher. In his view, the Portuguese midfielder is probably going through the worst form of his time since joining United. Rooney believes he is criticising the coach to divert attention from that situation.
According to Rooney, this will not solve the problem; instead, every player must account for his own performance. Stopping the blame-shifting and focusing on the football is what the team urgently needs now.
United's camp was already under pressure after the heavy defeat to Como. Public criticism from one of the club's greatest-ever players has only increased that pressure. The players will now have to answer this criticism with results on the pitch.
