Bad start for Rooney but he vows to ‘fix mess’
WAYNE ROONEY spent most of his illustrious playing career in a Manchester United team who turned smash and grab raids into something of an art form.
But in his first match as Derby County’s full- time manager, he found himself on the receiving end of a late sucker punch.
If Rooney did not fully understand the full scale of the challenge that awaits him in the Derby dug-out, he certainly did after Jamie Lindsay’s 86th-minute winner for Rotherham United. It was a scrappy goal to suit a scrappy game that was precisely what you would expect between two basement dwellers in the Championship.
Rooney was honest enough to admit Lindsay’s goal, bundled home from close range amid a packed six-yard box after Derby failed to clear their lines, summed up a performance in which they did not merit a point, let alone three.
If the nature of the goal was troubling enough for Rooney, who signed a two-and-a-half year contract on Friday, then the fact it came against a Rotherham team who had lost their last eight away matches may have left the former England captain wondering what he has let himself in for.
Rooney has undoubtedly improved Derby in so many areas during his interim tenure after Phillip Cocu departed the club in November, but the brutal reality is that there are plenty of far superior teams to Rotherham in this division. The result leaves Derby marooned in the bottom three and there is plenty for the rookie boss to fix in order to banish the spectre of League One football. And the much-anticipated takeover by Sheik Khaled cannot go through soon enough as it unlocks funds to bring in new players that can add some spark.
Rooney said: ‘Rotherham got what they deserved, we didn’t deserve anything out of the game. It was a sloppy performance, we passed balls out of play, we didn’t seem confident enough to take the ball under pressure.
‘We have ourselves to blame and I won’t make any excuses. I felt if we’d got a point out of the game, we would have got away with one. Over the 90 minutes, we didn’t seem to be awake to the game.
‘But we have a lot of games left and I am confident in my ability, my staff’s ability and the players to get us out of this mess we’re in.’
Rooney is a quiet and composed presence on the sidelines who does not betray too many emotions or bellow t oo many i nstructions, instead trusting in his players and the game plan.
Only in the second half, when Derby moves continuously broke down with a misplaced pass out of play or a careless t ouch, did frustrations come to the surface.
At one point, Rooney removed the chewing gum from his mouth, dropped it to his feet and volleyed it along the touchline with that fine technique we have seen so often.
He has l ong since i dentified January transfer targets in expectation of the Abu Dhabi takeover but the clock is ticking.
Creativity y through the middle seems one e element missing missing, as well as a clinical touch in attack.
Rooney said he remains ‘confident’ the new owners will be in place sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, he will have to work with what he has and one source of relief pre-match was a fully available squad following a Covid outbreak that forced Derby to field the youth team at Chorley in the FA Cup.
They seemed to get some first-half joy with overloads down the right flank, Nathan Byrne pushing forward to deliver inviting crosses to first Graeme Shinnie and then Lee Buchanan, who both forced sharp saves out of Millers goalkeeper Jamal Blackman.
Rotherham’ s players felt aggrieved when Richard Wood saw a goal disallowed for offside late in the first half. The linesman did not raise his flag but referee James Linington adjudged Matt Crooks, who flicked the ball through to Wood, to be returning from an offside position.
Derby stepped up the tempo after the break but created little more than a Martyn Waghorn effort that went wide wide. Rotherham piled on the pressure and gained their reward four minutes from time when Lindsay scrambled home.
‘Getting that late goal, it gives them less chance to get back and throw the kitchen sink at us,’ said Rotherham manager Paul Warne.
‘Our away form is honking, we’re a good team at home but we stink away so to come here and keep a clean sheet was paramount. It gives the lads a real belief.’
Something Rooney will urgently need to restore to Derby.