Jose Mourinho says he “trusts Wayne Rooney completely” and believes the Manchester United captain remains an important player despite dropping him for the 4-1 win over Leicester.
It was the first time Mourinho had dropped Rooney, and United were 4-0 up before half-time against the champions.
“He’s my man, I trust him completely. He’s as happy as I am at this moment and that’s the team,” Mourinho said.
“He’s a big player for me, for United, a big player for this country.”
Rooney was last dropped for a Premier League game on Boxing Day last year.
Without him on Saturday, United overcame a slow first 20 minutes to score through Chris Smalling, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba.
Mourinho introduced Rooney for the final seven minutes and the manager was frustrated by further questioning in his post-match news conference.
“If I don’t play Rashford you ask me why, if I don’t play Jesse Lingard you ask me why and you prefer always to ask why somebody is not playing,” he said.
“Sometimes when I read you, I feel I know nothing about football.
“But there is one thing I know and that is the rules of the game and I can only start with 11. Until somebody tells me there is a change to that I can only start with 11.”
–
Source: BBC