Amorim's side suffered their 16th Premier League defeat of the season at the weekend as his young team selection failed to pay off. They have now gone six league games without a win and sit 15th in the Premier League table in a season that could only be saved by winning the Europa League.
Rooney and former Liverpool star Danny Murphy spoke on Amorim's tactics on Match of the Day 2 with Murphy questioning United’s shaky defense.
“It is about intensity, but with wingbacks, different to a back four, it allows you to go and press because you’ve got the extra centre half behind you. But surely that’s what they do in training, no? If you’re a coach of a system – the basics of this system with wingbacks is they press the wide men quick and it doesn’t look like they’re doing it. It’s bizarre for me to see.”
Amorim named the third youngest Premier League starting XI of any club against the Bees as focus shifts towards Europe. Rooney was ruthless however and ripped a part the United side who will try and save face against Athletic Bilbao on Thursday night.
“It’s strange, because that’s why you play a back five with wingbacks. They have to put pressure on the ball or otherwise you get outnumbered in the midfield and the ball comes back into midfield. It was strange, but they had a lot of young players.
"There was a lack of movement and a lack of knowhow on the pitch. They’ve got a 17-year-old lad up front – the youngest ever to start up front for United – and they’re just launching balls up to him. I really felt for Obi today because you can tell he’s inexperienced but it looked like he had no help, they were just throwing balls up to him."
With the Europa League semi-final second leg against Athletic Bilbao looming, Rooney feels his former side must lift the trophy to cover up yet another dire season. This summer should see United rebuild their squad and sell a lot of deadwood players who have stagnated at the club for several years.
“I think the second team are playing a back four, which I found strange, because those players who are coming into the first team now with the under-23s or under-21s are playing a different system. For me, that’s a bit confusing. Getting to the Europa League final is papering over a lot of cracks for Manchester United and that needs solving quickly."