Wayne Rooney Defends Memphis Depay After Criticism From Fans

Manchester United attacker Memphis Depay has been the target of criticism from his own club’s fans all season long, with his misplaced pass against Chelsea infuriating the United fans even more. Fortunately for the young starlet, his captain Wayne Rooney has been there to have his back, and has had his say on the matter.

His comments in the Manchester Evening News point out that many of the team’s players misplaced passes against Chelsea, and believes Memphis Depay should not be blamed for Chelsea’s stoppage-time equaliser on Sunday.

“I think we’re all disappointed,” Rooney said.

“Memphis is a fantastic player and that happens, we all give bad passes away. A lot of things happened from when you give the ball away to when they’ve scored the goal, so I don’t think we can stand here and blame Memphis.

“I think there were other things which happened and why they’ve scored.”

The £25m signing has endured a difficult start to his United career and has not started for United since their Boxing Day defeat at Stoke, when his diving header allowed the Potters to open the scoring.

At Stamford Bridge, Manchester United got their noses in front after Jesse Lingard’s 61st minute strike, however Rooney agreed that the Reds invited pressure onto themselves after the opener.

“We did,” Rooney conceded.

“The game was broken up a bit, we gave too many free-kicks away and then we couldn’t get up the pitch.

“But with Chelsea, at times it’s difficult, because they pushed players up front and they didn’t really play with any system, so it’s difficult to work out how to defend against them.”