Valentino loves Joe
MICHAEL CARRICK says Wayne Rooney could thrive in his own defensive midfield role for years to come. deal with things, and his mentality was incredible. Now I’d say he is likely to go into coaching.
“He knows the game so well, he’s intelligent on the pitch, and he’s gone on to lead like he did in his final years at United, as one of the older ones with me in the dressing-room.
“So he definitely took that role on. Therefore it wouldn’t surprise me if he stayed in the game for a long time.”
Rooney is still only 34 and has several years on Carrick, who realised his own playing days were over at 37.
“I can see why some lads want to play on, regardless of where it is, but it just wasn’t for me,” Carrick said.
“I’d had enough of playing by the end. My career was done and I was happy with it.
“My final season I played against Huddersfield in the FA Cup and I had not played for a little bit and realised I was half a yard off here and there.
DERBY Roos; Bogle, Clarke, Davies, Forsyth; Rooney, Bird; Lawrence, Martin, Knight; Waghorn.
MAN UTD Romero; Dalot, Bailly, Maguire, Williams; McTominay, Fred; Fernandes, Mata, Pereira; Ighalo.
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VALENTINO Lazaro has backed goal-shy Joelinton to win over the doubters.
Joelinton, a £40m Newcastle club-record buy, has not scored a league goal in six months.
But Lazaro, who knows Joelinton well from their time in the Bundesliga, said: “OK, a striker is judged by his goals, but he’s helping in a lot of ways.We
❑ need Joe up front. I’ve known him for years and when you play the long balls, he’s always there, he goes deep, he’s very quick.”
Lazaro, on target in Newcastle’s 3-2 win atWest Brom on Tuesday, added:
“He was running into positions so I had the space to score against West Brom.”