Wayne Rooney has accused Manchester United of making the same old mistakes in their 1-1 draw with Fulham and believes the club need ‘two or three more players brought in’ before the transfer deadline.
The Red Devils appeared on course to pick up their opening win of the Premier League campaign as Rodrigo Muniz directed the ball into his own net after Bruno Fernandes had skied a first-half penalty over the crossbar.
But Emile Smith Rowe came on as a second-half substitute and changed the game for Fulham, poking home Alex Iwobi’s searching cross to make it all square in the 73rd minute.
Harry Maguire had the best chance to win the contest for the visitors, but the defender’s header from Bryan Mbeumo’s inswinging corner went agonisingly wide of Bernd Leno’s upright – and the points were shared.
The result means Ruben Amorim’s side have accumulated just one point from a possible six after suffering defeat in their opening match of the season at home to Arsenal.
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‘It was a disappointing result,’ Rooney – United’s all-time top goalscorer – said on the BBC’s The Wayne Rooney Show.
‘I thought the start of the game was really positive. They were really taking the game to Fulham, there was some nice interplay.’
‘And then from getting the goal, in the second half they were really passive again and it was too easy to go into the backline.
‘Obviously, Fulham then got an equaliser and it looked like they were going to go on and win the game.
‘Thankfully they never, they came out with a draw, but I still think there’s a lot to be worked on.
‘It’s early on in the season, of course it is, but United really needed to hit the ground running this season and one point from six is obviously a bit of a worry.’
Rooney believes there was a lack of cohesion in United’s performance and fears the likes of Mason Mount, Matheus Cunha and Mbeumo may start to get ‘fed up’ with repeatedly getting moved around the pitch.
‘Players are getting moved around the pitch and into different positions,’ the ex-England captain added.
‘You see Mason Mount playing two or three positions. Cunha, Mbeumo and Amad [Diallo], players are moving into different positions.
‘From that, you can’t get a settled run in the team of doing the same thing, one thing.
‘I know from being a player that did that myself that that can be very frustrating and, all of a sudden, you’re fed up of it and that shows through body language as well.’
According to Rooney, the same gaps are starting to show in United’s game from last season, which comes as a ‘big concern’.
He added: ‘I just hope that doesn’t start to happen with these new players because there’s a lot of ability in there and already, early on, the worry is we’ve got three centre-backs, but it’s too easy for the forward and midfield players to get onto the centre-backs.
‘If anything, you should see at the start of a new season United saying, “Right, last season has gone so let’s make sure we have a good start, let’s stick together”, and already you’re starting to see those gaps so that’s a big concern for me.’
Asked if Amorim is the right manager to take United forward, Rooney replied: ‘It’s difficult.
‘Obviously, to sit here and say, “Yeah 100 per cent”, I don’t think anyone could do that and I don’t think Ruben Amorim would say that himself with what we’ve seen since he’s been at the club.
‘I think the recruitment has been good in the summer, but I still want to see two or three more players brought in, I’d like to see that.
‘But yeah, it’s difficult to say that this is going to be our manager for the next four or five years on what we’ve seen.’
Rooney – a five-time Premier League winner with United – hopes to see Amorim turn it around after some ‘worrying signs’ in their opening two matches of the top-flight campaign.
‘We’d love to see him turn it around and sometimes we might be going too quick on this because Manchester United brings a lot more attention and it’s only two games into the season,’ he went on.
‘But the worrying sign is that we’re seeing things we saw last season and that’s a concern.
‘I’d have liked to have hoped that all those mistakes, players walking and being easy to play against at times would have been gone, but today that was a bit of a worry.’
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