Wayne Rooney’s natural evolution into a midfield star is being stunted by Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, according to club legend Gary Neville.
Rooney played in the centre of midfield for the final month of the 2015-16 season under Louis van Gaal and fulfilled the same role at the Euro 2016 finals for England, but Mourinho has deployed the 30-year-old as a second striker behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic since becoming United manager.
But Neville, who was an assistant coach for England under Roy Hodgson during the summer’s tournament in France, claims that Rooney will eventually find himself in a deeper role once more.
“I don’t think the transition has happened fully yet. For England sometimes he played left of a three in midfield, sometimes even deeper,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“He needs stability, with a club manager to stay with him for two or three years and say: ‘You’re going to play in that position, that’s where you’re going to play.’ And that might be what Jose Mourinho is actually looking at.
“He’s been moved around three positions in the last two to three years he now needs to settle into that latter phase of his career position. He will continue to come deeper, it’s where he’s comfortable.
“Before the tournament, he said: ‘I’ve been looking at Gerrard and Scholes all my life, it’s where I thought I’d end up: as a midfield player.’ But Jose Mourinho has thrown a spanner in the works by saying he needs to play further forward.”
Upon his arrival at Old Trafford this summer, Mourinho insisted that Rooney will never play in a deep midfield role on the Portuguese’s watch.
“Maybe he is not a striker any more, maybe he is not a No.9 anymore. But he will never, with me, be a No.6,” said Mourinho at his United unveiling. “He will never be 50 metres from the goal. For me he will be a No.9 or a No.10 or a nine-and-a-half, but with me he will never be a No.6 or even a No.8.”
As a No.10 Rooney netted his first goal of the Mourinho era in Sunday’s 3-1 opening-day win at Bournemouth, taking him to within three of Sir Bobby Charlton’s United career record of 249.
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