Jose Mourinho comes to Wayne Rooney's defense, doesn't blame him for United's struggles
Manchester United have slumped in the last two weeks -- losing consecutive Premier League matches and against Feyenoord in the Europa League prior to winning ugly in the League Cup on Wednesday -- and Wayne Rooney has come under fire for his performances in the contests. Critics have said that he's played poorly and that the accommodations that the Red Devils make for him hurts the rest of the team, but Jose Mourinho doesn't want to hear it.
"We are a team, we are not Wayne Rooney," Mourinho said. 'We all started well, we all won four matches, and we all lost three matches in a week, so that is not Wayne Rooney.
"To be honest he did not even play against Feyenoord, so he was directly involved in the two matches.
"We had a very good start to the season, better than we expected and prepared for, and we were guilty of raising the expectations of the people and then we lost three matches in a row."
That's a perfectly fine response from Mourinho and he's right -- Rooney is not the reason that United have struggled. He's also right that expectations were probably too high after their strong start. But Rooney has definitely been very bad and it's hardly an outlier. Rooney has been a bad player for more than a year now and, more problematically, doesn't have a position. So not only is he playing poorly, but there's no way to fit him into the team.
Mourinho has always favored experienced players and has long been open about how much he admires Rooney so it's no surprise that Rooney is playing and Mourinho is defending him. But while Rooney isn't the reason United have lost some matches and Mourinho insists that he's in line with the rest of the team, it's also notable that Mourinho didn't say anything about Rooney playing well. Rooney has to pick it up, or even Mourinho won't be able to keep putting him in the team.
MORE FROM FOX SOCCER
