Louis Van Gaal Advised to Drop Wayne Rooney Deeper by Barcelona Legend Xavi

There are few players in football more expertly versed in the minutiae of central midfield play than former Barcelona star Xavi, and he’s offered some timely advice to Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal: Drop toiling forward Wayne Rooney deeper in the team.  

The England international has received a lot of criticism for some poor displays at the point of the Red Devils attack in recent weeks, especially with Anthony Martial dazzling. It’s prompted some supporters to call for Rooney to be dropped from the starting XI, but Xavi feels a mere positional tweak is in order, per David Anderson of the Daily Mirror:

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Personally I think Rooney still has much to offer, but maybe it's time for him to adapt. You get to an age and you can't play the game you once used to, you can't cover the ground you used to.

But intelligent players adapt and there's no doubting Rooney has a very good footballing brain. Maybe it's time for a new striker at Manchester United, who can run for 90 minutes, but Rooney would be very dangerous in a deeper role.

He has the vision and the passing range to play that role very well.

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Rooney has been a shadow of his former self. Playing at the point of the attack, the forward has cut an isolated figure, struggling to get into games due to slack movement, poor touches and a subsequent lack of confidence. However, Van Gaal backed his captain in the wake of another moribund display against Manchester City last weekend, per Sky Sports.

Given how well Martial has fared when deployed up front, the Dutchman has left many baffled with how he’s tried to shoehorn Rooney into the side. The Republik of Mancunia Twitter feed certainly thinks it’s time for a change:

Although Rooney will bring experience and leadership to the team, given how poor his performances have been recently, they’re qualities which are not being sufficiently offset to warrant a guaranteed starting spot.

Perhaps Van Gaal, like a lot of managers, is simply a little tentative about dropping a senior player?

Not according to Xavi.

“It doesn't matter if you are the best player in the world, if he wants to drop you from the team, then he will drop you from the team,” the veteran midfielder said, per Anderson.

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Van Gaal certainly needs to make amendments, and having moved Rooney into the midfield for spells last season, maybe a switch in position would stir something in the 30-year-old. However, with Ander Herrera, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin forming a formidable midfield triumvirate, it’s tough to see whom the skipper would dislodge in this facet of the team.

As Manchester United writer OffsideLiam notes here, the midfield balance is arguably the best feature of this current team:

There’s a hesitancy among a lot of managers to leave out regular first-team players given the power footballers have in the modern game, but at the moment, Van Gaal simply has to drop Rooney. 

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That’s not to say the forward is finished; he just needs to be pulled from the firing line, given a chance to recharge and then integrated again further down the line. If that doesn’t happen, Van Gaal is setting a dangerous precedent to the rest of the squad and could damage the morale of those young players that are looking to dislodge senior figures from the first XI.

Rooney will have to adapt his game more and more as he heads into his twilight years; for a player who has a lot of miles on the clock, it’s important he gets more time to recuperate as well. Dropping the captain into a midfield position is not the answer currently, but taking him out of the first XI, for a few games at least, could spark something in a player who needs rejuvenating.