Man United boss not to blame for form - Rooney

Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has once again stressed the players - not manager Louis van Gaal - must take the blame for the team's poor season.

United lost 2-1 at Sunderland on Saturday and ended the weekend 10 points adrift of third-placed Arsenal in the Premier League.

And Rooney reckons the squad have "got off quite lightly", with Van Gaal taking "a lot of stick" for their below-par performances.

It's a very good group of players. At times it's been frustrating for us as we've under-performed.

And actually the manager has taken a lot of stick for some performances. It's down to us - we're players and we have to perform.

At times this season we haven't done that. In terms of that, we've probably got off quite lightly and the manager has taken a lot of it.

But we're going on the pitch. We have to create chances and win games and we haven't done that enough this season.

– WAYNE ROONEY