Manchester United news: Wayne Rooney 'damaged' by England criticism, claims Jose Mourinho

Mourinho has said that Rooney's form has dipped as a result of the criticism he faced following his England performance against Slovakia

Wayne Rooney was subject to extensive criticism following his performance for England in the side's World Cup qualifier against Slovakia (Getty)

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has claimed Wayne Rooney was so damaged by attacks on his performance in England’s first World Cup qualifier three weeks ago that his club form has dipped as a result.

At the end of a week of clamour for Rooney to be dropped when United face champions Leicester City on Saturday lunchtime, Mourinho said there was culture of acute negativity towards players and managers in England, perpetuated by critics with blatant disregard for the effect on families.

Asked if Rooney would be affected by this, he replied: “Honestly? I think there was a Wayne before the Slovakia/England and a Wayne after the Slovakia/England. And I am not blaming [manager] Sam [Allardyce]; not at all.

“I am blaming the people that after the England/Slovakia was, in my opinion, too strong with somebody that is a very important player in the history of English football, is the captain of England, is the record of goals, is almost the record of matches. I think it was too much but I still think, a big boy like he is, he has to face it in a strong way.”

Rooney – who on Thursday evening described criticism of him as “rubbish” – is unlikely to be delighted by his manager’s suggestion that he has been psychologically damaged after England’s 1-0 win. He has certainly endured far worse in a 14-year senior career and the press criticism - for unbalancing England by failing to adhere to the No 10 role he was cast in – was not intemperate.

Headlines which followed – such as: “Rooney plays where he wants” and “Rooney looks miscast in quarterback role” - were not the most negative he has known.

Mourinho seemed on Friday night to be leaning towards taking Rooney out of the firing line on Saturday and dropping him to the bench. That would allow him to deploy the midfield three of Paul Pogba, Ander Herrera, and Michael Carrick behind Marcus Rashford, Zlatan Ibrahimovich, and Ashley Young.

Mourinho did not directly answer the question when asked if the captain was right to have dismissed criticism of himself as “rubbish” on United’s in-house TV channel on Thursday night.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Everyone is a different person. Everyone analyses things in a different way. Some they read every word, some they don’t read. It depends. Some are affected by it. Some are not. “I can’t be in their heads to try and analyse what they feel and the way they feel it.

“I think many times you – [and] when I say ‘you’ [I mean] media and Einsteins - you forget there are family and kids and parents and wives and girlfriends. People forget that and people react in different ways. The way they react can also affect the way the professional reacts.

“It’s part of the job and it’s part of your culture and part of the culture of this country. I know, in spite of not being English, I have been here many years, I know one of the reasons of the English disaster over the years in the Euros and in the World Cups.”

The United manager, who said that only Anthony Martial is unfit to face Leicester, issued a robust defence of his decision to criticise his own players in pubic, insisting that they have to be tough enough to deal with it if they are to succeed.

Players on the receiving end from Mourinho in the past few weeks have included Jesse Lingard, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Luke Shaw, but he said: “The critique is part of the evolution. The critique is part of the process. The critique helps people to learn how to cope with critics. It’s their life. From you, they cannot expect other thing than be ready to smash them when they have periods of not so much success.”