Manchester United manager David Moyes has admitted that he will never ask striker Wayne Rooney to calm it down on the football pitch as he believes the player has every right to have some fire in his belly.
The English striker has had a past of lashing out against his opponents, especially in recent years, and he took it upon himself to kick-out at Cardiff City midfielder Jordon Mutch on Sunday during their 2-2 draw, which luckily for him, was only seen as a yellow card offence.
Rooney wasn’t so lucky the time before that when he kicked out at a Montenegro international during England duty as he saw a red card which then ruled him out of the Euro 2012 group stages.
However, despite his tendancy of losing his cool on the field, Moyes has backed Rooney and has said he wouldn’t want the striker to behave any other way.
‘His form and attitude and temperament have been first-class this season,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t fault any of it.
‘There will always be times when players have little bits that don’t always quite go for them and on that occasion (against Cardiff) Wayne was probably a little bit fortunate.
‘But I don’t want him to change. I still think the referee made the right decision. I want Wayne to have fire in his belly. He plays better when he’s tough and aggressive.
‘I don’t want to change Wayne Rooney, that’s for sure. I don’t want him to be kicking at anybody, but I want him aggressive, challenging and full of running.
‘And at the moment we’re seeing a really good Wayne Rooney who’s in top form and scoring goals as well. It’s a big part of his game. He’s an aggressive player, he plays with his heart, as well as the skills he’s got in abundance. That’s a big part of what he is. That’s the way he was when he was a boy at Everton with me.
‘A lot of people said that might have been missing from his game last season — it’s certainly not missing now.’
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
