Barcelona fullback Daniel Alves rates Manchester United star Wayne Rooney a better player than Cristiano Ronaldo.

Alves faces Ronaldo and Real Madrid tomorrow night in the El Clasico.

He told the Guardian: "I have a real weakness for Rooney … he's incredible, incredible. He's fantastic.

"The way he works. He's perfect.

"He's better than Cristiano Ronaldo but Ronaldo took protagonism off him last year.

"Rooney was practically playing at left-back sometimes. The game that he played here against Barcelona in the Champions League, when Ronaldo missed the penalty, he was at left-back …

"For us it's better - the further away he is from our goal the better. But for those who have a passion for football, it's a disaster.

"When you see a player that good with that quality stuck at left back, buf! But that's the thing: sometimes it's hard in a team to have lots of players with big names; sometimes they take something away from each other.

"Right now, maybe Manchester United play better as a team than before, when they had Ronaldo. They're as good, or better, as they were.

"But Rooney knows that his best position is up front - and he's proving that. He's got over 30 goals. It's incredible."