Jose Mourinho Dropped Wayne Rooney For Lack Of Speed; Stats Suggest Otherwise!
Nov 22, 2016 at 5:51 PM
When Jose Mourinho was asked why Wayne Rooney did not start against Arsenal, the Portuguese said that the United skipper was not fast enough to compete against the Gunners.
“I thought we were going to have the ball,” said Mourinho. “Arsenal are a team who let the opponents play. I thought we would have space and the ball would arrive quite easily to the attacking players.
“I believed ones like Juan Mata, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford were faster than Wayne — better-attacking opponents one-to-one in the last line. I thought it was the best option,” he added.
This was not the first time that Mourinho has spoken publicly about the England international’s lack of pace. In September, he had said:“When our main striker is Zlatan, we need fast people surrounding him. If he (Rooney) is on the pitch or at home, he is my captain. But we thought against a team like Leicester, the best solution for us was to play with the two fast kids and Mata in a position where he can interact with them. It did well for us.”
Well, it seems that pace is not the reason behind the out of form star’s exclusion from the starting eleven, at least the stats suggest so.
As reported in The Sun, Rooney is faster than the likes of Paul Pogba, Juan Mata and Ander Herrera. Here is a snapshot of the stat that was published in the news outlet:
Looking at the stats, it is quite clear that the reason behind Rooney’s exclusion from the starting eleven is not his speed. The striker started in United 3-1 win over Swansea City and was dropped to the bench against Arsenal, few days after his booze antics on national duty.