Wayne Rooney believes Manchester United should drop Cristiano Ronaldo and maybe could ‘snatch a draw’ when Liverpool visit Old Trafford on Monday night.
The DC United manager has explained why Ten Hag should drop Ronaldo for the visit of Liverpool after rumours about his future hit the media this summer.
“Play like they did against Brentford, and United will suffer an even worse result than their 5-0 defeat by Liverpool last season,” Rooney told The Times. “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.”
New Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag has not enjoyed the best start to life in Manchester with the 4-0 hammering at Brentford last time out coming on the back of a 2-1 home loss to Brighton on the opening day.
Jurgen Klopp’s side beat United 5-0 in last season’s corresponding fixture but Rooney believes his former club will avoid a repeat – as long as they do not play as badly as they did last weekend.
New Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag has not enjoyed the best start to life in Manchester with the 4-0 hammering at Brentford last time out coming on the back of a 2-1 home loss to Brighton on the opening day.
United’s all-time top goalscorer would also leave Marcus Rashford on the bench as well as his former team-mate Ronaldo.
“I wouldn’t play Cristiano Ronaldo, and I wouldn’t play Marcus Rashford,” Rooney added. “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 number nine 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. Ten Hag needs energy from his side and that may mean dropping Ronaldo.”