Wayne Rooney Criticised, Anthony Martial Doubted by Michael Owen After UCL Win

Former England striker Michael Owen has criticised Wayne Rooney for his poor performance in Manchester United's 2-1 Champions League win over Wolfsburg at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

During BT Sport's coverage of the game, Owen noted Rooney's demotion as United's penalty-taker—Juan Mata stepped up to score the hosts' equaliser from the spot—and questioned Red Devils legend Paul Scholes' claim the Englishman would score more than 20 goals in 2015-16 (h/t MailOnline's Anthony Hay):

"

I didn't think he was at his best. He was unforgivably losing the ball. It was strange but he wasn't on song. But as Scholesy said, he is a confidence player. Once he's on, he's on, and once he's off, he can go missing a little bit. Normally Rooney is the penalty-taker so he scores the equalising goal and nobody mentions his performance. Because he's not on penalties now, it's a lot harder as a centre forward. He will do well to score 20-odd if he is not on penalties.

"

Mata's penalty cancelled out Wolfsburg's early opener at Old Trafford, and the Spaniard also created Chris Smalling's second-half winner.

It was a tense evening for the Red Devils, one that could have been made much more comfortable had Rooney netted a sitter from close range when United were 1-0 down.

The 29-year-old has not had the best of starts to the season, and Owen was not the only one unimpressed with another poor performance from the United skipper:

The former United, Liverpool and Newcastle United player is seemingly in the minority, though, when it comes to £36 million summer signing Anthony Martial.

The 19-year-old striker had another good night against Wolfsburg despite not scoring, but Owen refused to get carried away in praising him, insisting he is only performing as well as should be expected, per Alex Harris in the Daily Star: 

"

He has done what he had to do, that was the question mark before he came because he didn't have a goalscoring record. I am not watching him and he is doing things I haven't seen before, he's not taking my breath away but you can't pick any holes in his game right now.

"

The 35-year-old's reserved assessment of the young French striker is in stark contrast to many other pundits' opinions.

Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images

Since his arrival at Old Trafford, he has netted three times in three Premier League appearances, per WhoScored.com.  

His display against Wolfsburg had many viewers, including Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl, reaching for the superlatives once again:

It is fortunate for United manager Louis van Gaal Martial has so easily settled in up front given Rooney's continuing problems.

But the inexperienced Martial is unlikely to continue playing at such a high level throughout the season, so the captain needs to up his game.