1 hour ago
1
The assembled Man United and Premier League legends, with their vast football IQ and experience, reached a damning verdict after watching the derby defeat on Sunday.
Wayne Rooney was joined in South Korea by fellow United alumni Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Michael Carrick.
The group were in Asia to play in a legends match and appeared to be in a hotel suite together for the game during down time after the exhibition.
They were also joined by former Arsenal legends Robert Pires and Gilberto Silva, along with Ashley Cole and former Brazil star, Maicon.
And speaking on his BBC Sport podcast, Rooney revealed that the group as a collective agreed on the overriding concerning factor for United and Ruben Amorim.
He said: 'I was watching it with Rio, Vidic, Maicon, Robert Pires, Gilberto Silva, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Ashley Cole and we’re all watching it and all struggling to answer how we see Man United play.
A group of Manchester United legends including Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney got together to watch the Manchester derby
Amorim's side have no recognisable pattern of play, agreed the room full of legends
'If we sit down and watch United for a six-game period what the patterns are that we’re seeing that might improve the team going forward?
‘All the players who I’ve just mentioned have played the game at the highest level and it’s very difficult to see that.
He went on: ‘Me more than anyone else wants to see the club doing well. The difficult thing we have is we want to support the team and manager as best we can but we also have to be honest because the fans are not fools.
‘City weren’t great. I think it was one of the worst Manchester derbies I’ve seen in a long time and City played their part in that too but still won 3-0. They’re finding their way and playing a bit of a different style.
'What’s important when you’re trying to implement a new style is win games while you do it but unfortunately for United and the manager it’s been not far off a year now and not far off less than a point a game. In a lot of Premier League seasons that’s relegation form.’
Amorim is under enormous pressure at Old Trafford and United, who ended last season in 15th, are not showing any signs of life this term.
They currently sit down in 14th place and a tricky game against Chelsea awaits next weekend.
A Phil Foden header and Erling Haaland double saw Man City cut through their rivals with ease on Sunday and afterwards, Amorim confessed that the team 'need to work on a lot of things.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe (second from right) could hardly watch as Man United were hammered by City
He said: 'In these kind of games we need to be perfect, and we weren't perfect. If you look at the goals, we can avoid them. We suffer goals that we can avoid. We can do better, that is clear - like the first goal, we can be more aggressive.
'The frustration is there. We need to take our chances. We need to work on a lot of things. The biggest difference is where we had transitions, we couldn't score.'
'I'm not going to change. When I want to change my philosophy, I will change. If not, you have to change the man.
'We will talk about that every game we lose. I play my way and I am going to play my way until I want to change.'
