Former Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney ended the media interview and advised the new Manchester United manager Tenhag to abandon the main starting points of Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford for the following Monday night Manchester United's Premier League double red club match against Liverpool.
Both manchester United's players have played in United's first two Premier League games against Brighton and Brentford, and Cristiano Ronaldo is still seeking the chance to leave United's Old Trafford stadium, while Marcus Rashford has been in his own scoring drought since January.
United lost 5-0 and 4-0 against Liverpool last season, and Rooney wants Tenhag to keep the two strikers out of the main squad to play against Liverpool, who are close to Jurgen Klopp in the squad. "I'm not going to let Cristiano Ronaldo play, and I'm not going to let Marcus Rashford play in [against Liverpool]," Rooney wrote in a column for local media outlet The Sunday Times.
"If I'm in Tenhag's position, my main concern is the morale of the players on the pitch and the fact that United didn't bring in a No. 9 player, which means they rely more on Cristiano Ronaldo in their game against Brentford, and although Cristiano doesn't do much of pre-season training for the team, he looks like he needs time to slowly adapt to the game."
"Cristiano Ronaldo also let people know he wanted to leave the club. I don't know the specific reason for him, but as I wrote in my last column, I'll let him – he's a great player who always scores, but Tenhag's task is to build a team that can compete for the title in three or four years, which means he's going to rebuild with the young players."
"As for Marcus Rashford, I think he needs to do a lot of self-reflection, for his own performance, or for the good of the team, to figure out what he wants before doing anything. Because looking at his current one real problem: Marcus Rashford looks like he wants to run anywhere up front, but not in the scoring area up front. "I haven't seen Marcus Rashford smile on the pitch in a long time. His performance has gone down – he hasn't been selected for England in over a year. He comes from a place where he wants to perform at his best. He's a lovely kid, a local lad at Manchester United and everyone wants to see him perform well". "But you look at the difference between Marcus Rashford now and when he first got into the first team: the passion he showed, the smile on his face when he scored, it was day after day".
Rooney also said he was surprised by Casemiro's transfer from Real Madrid to manchester United and called on the club to sign more young players. "Casemiro, United's new signing, will not have the chance to play against Liverpool, which could be a pity as Casemiro undoubtedly has a chance to improve Manchester United," Rooney added. "He's a good player. I've played against him and he's brought a little bit of toughness in midfield, a little bit of midfield interception, but is he exactly what United need? I'm not sure". "It's back to the need to look to the future. Ideally, they should sign players in their early 20s to under 30s, and Casemiro is similar to Christian Eriksen – he's always been a good player, but will they help the club move forward? Tenhag's main midfielder target is barca's Frenkie de Jong would be more suitable.
"Casemiro's transfer deal seems to be a bit of a rush, looking like a player signed for signing – I would be surprised if he was identified as a priority player to bring in when Tenhag arrived. It seems that due to the inability to sign De Jong, United have only reacted to Casemilo's transfer.'
