Rooney Charges Man United

By Joshua Walters

Wayne Rooney has backed Jose Mourinho to improve Manchester United and challenged the likes of Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku to live up to the billing before the season gets worse for the Red Devils.

Mourinho and his side have endured a frustrating start to the 2018/19 campaign with the Old Trafford outfit sitting eight on the Premier League log with twelve points adrift leaders Manchester City.

The development has been blamed on Mourinho’s tactics and senior players who fail to glitter when the need be.

Rooney, who is Manchester United’s all-time leading goal scorer, thinks it is about time the bigwigs stepped up to the plate to rescue the team during difficult times.

“Jose can do what I know he’ll be doing – he’ll be working with the team and setting them up.

“You have got players like [Anthony] Martial, Pogba, [Marcus] Rashford and Lukaku. When games aren't going well, they need to be the players who can just get that goal which wins you the game and calms everyone down,” Rooney told MUTV.

“I think a lot of the responsibility has to go on the players' shoulders,” he continued.

“They go on the pitch, they have to take that responsibility and they have to thrive on it. There will be tough moments throughout games, that is where the big characters have to lead by example on the pitch and almost drag the team through some games.”

Manchester United have a tough schedule in December, having been billed to play Valencia in the Champions League aside crucial league games against Southampton, Arsenal, Fulham, Liverpool, Cardiff, Huddersfield, and Bournemouth.