Dwight Yorke Believes Paul Pogba's Arrival Will Affect One Manchester United Player
His weakened influence on matches from playing as a striker over the last few years has caused many to doubt whether Rooney’s best days were now behind him.
Louis van Gaal, and then England, toyed around with Rooney in midfield towards the end of last season and during Euro 2016, but even that didn’t really feel like it solved the problem.
In Mourinho’s very first press conference as United boss, he made it very clear Rooney would not be playing in midfield while he was in charge.
But the emergence of Marcus Rashford and the arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic gives the Portuguese boss the licence to tinker with Rooney’s position if required.
In the background, United continue to try and complete a world record deal for Paul Pogba and one former United legend believes it is actually the Frenchman who holds the key to bringing the best out of Rooney.
Dwight Yorke feels the Red Devils have lacked a game changer in midfield for a while now which has forced Rooney to drop deeper to help influence proceedings – something which will not be necessary with Pogba in the side.
Yorke told Sport 360:
“Hopefully, with the acquisition of Pogba coming into the team, he [Rooney] doesn’t have to worry about coming looking for the ball. The ball will finally come to him.”
“I can see why Mourinho said ‘listen, he’s going to be playing up top’ because that’s where Rooney is good. That’s a specialist position.”
“When you play in that position all the time, your mindset is like that. He doesn’t have to go looking for the ball now. I think that’s part of Mourinho’s plan.”Rooney could very well make his first appearance of pre-season against Galatasaray in Gothenburg tonight and all eyes will be where Mourinho picks him to play.
Ibrahimovic is also expected to feature and Man United fans will be interested to see how the highly experienced duo link up together if given the chance.
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