Play Wayne Rooney as Manchester United's defensive midfielder, Trevor Sinclair urges Jose Mourinho

Mourinho has come under a lot of pressure to drop his captain

Wayne Rooney had a poor game against Watford (Getty Images)

Jose Mourinho should not drop captain Wayne Rooney, but play him as a defensive midfielder for Manchester United, believes former England international Trevor Sinclair.

Rooney’s position in the team is under heavy scrutiny after a series of below-par performances this season, leading to a number of fans calling for his removal from the team – something endorsed by 99.08 per cent of readers of popular United fanzine Red Issue Sanctuary.

United suffered their third defeat in a week against Watford on Sunday and Rooney in particular coming under criticism for his lacklustre display which included one shot so terribly mishit that it nearly went out for a throw-in.

Rooney has been playing in the number 10 position this season, behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic, after Mourinho said in his first press conference that he did not see the England captain as a midfielder, a position he held towards the end of Louis van Gaal’s reign and during Euro 2016.

When asked if Rooney should be dropped, Match of the Day 2 pundit Sinclair said: “No. Even on current form I do feel he is good enough to be in that team. But it’s the position that he’s playing in.

“For me he’s a number four or a holding midfielder now. I don’t think he’s got the mobility to get around, he’s not got the pace he once had.

“I feel if you play him alongside Michael Carrick, which would warrant [Paul] Pogba to get forward with a lot more creativity and freedom, I think that’s how you could play him in the team.”

Mourinho kept Rooney in the deeper attacking role for the whole of the Watford defeat on Sunday, despite his performance, but insisted after the game that he had no problem in dropping his captain if he felt it was the correct decision.

"I can take him out," said Mourinho. "It’s no problem for me to take him out, no problem for him to be out.

"But I was just reading the game and feeling that playing with the two strikers, Marcus [Rashford] and Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], I needed [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan and Rooney just inside because the full-backs were the ones playing really wide on the touchline.

"He was like the team. The first half he was okay but the team was a little bit slow in the transitions."