Redknapp: Drop Ibra or Rooney

Ahead of Manchester United against Leicester on Sky Sports on Saturday, Jamie Redknapp explains why United are facing a “reality check” and either Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Wayne Rooney will become surplus to requirements…

When you bring a lot of players together, as Manchester United have done this season, it’s never going to be perfect, but we are all guilty of jumping to conclusions so early.

I remember doing the Friday night game against Southampton and whenever it’s your first home game there’s a massive wave of adrenaline. That was the case for a lot of the players then and they played really well.

Now, it’s a bit of a reality check that it might take time for United to play to their full potential. The biggest problem for Jose Mourinho is how he fits everyone into the team. Without upsetting some really big egos, I don’t know how he can get his best XI on the pitch.

I’m talking about Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, because Marcus Rashford has to play. Sometimes you have to upset people to get what is best, even if that means leaving out Rooney, Ibrahimovic or Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who is probably on his phone to agent saying ‘this isn’t what I signed up for’.

The problem for Rooney is they have a lot of players like him. Ibrahimovic does the same job and without Rashford you are pretty much the paceless team you were under Louis van Gaal.

Mourinho can’t make those players quick unless you add someone like Rashford to the equation. They need players like that. People talk about Rooney being dropped and I think it’s a straight fight; either Rooney or Ibrahimovic will become surplus to requirements very quickly. One will probably get left out to get this team playing their best.

We always love to have a go at Rooney, that’s part and parcel of who he is, he is quick to be …

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