Wayne Rooney has said he decided to deliver team talks as he felt the responsibility of captaining Manchester United and had to galvanise the team.
Louis van Gaal said Rooney’s team talk helped helped his side on to beat Tottenham last month, while Daley Blind said the 29-year-old rallied the troops ahead of last Sunday’s derby by speaking with them about previous derby defeats.
“There are though obviously times when you have to speak up,” Rooney said.
“I did that before the Tottenham game because I felt I had to.
“We had had a bad defeat in the FA Cup against Arsenal and I just wanted to reiterate to the players what our targets were for the remaining games of the season. The players responded to that and we have had some good results.”
Having played under Roy Keane, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Nemanja Vidic, Rooney had plenty of examples to look up to in terms of captaincy but he insisted he wanted to do things his own way.
“You can obviously look how people have done it before you,” he said.
“There are different styles and different ways other people have done it, but I have to be my own person and do what I feel is the best way for me to captain the team. That is all I try to do.
“Giggsy wasn’t captain here full time in my time at United but the things he’s done have been a big help and still now. There were also leaders like Roy Keane, Gary Neville and David Beckham.
“You can’t say I want to be like him or I want to be like someone else. You have to do it your own way.”
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