WAYNE ROONEY has launched a furious attack on his Plymouth side after they were smashed by Norwich City.
The Pilgrims lost 6-1 to the Canaries in the Championship clash at Carrow Road.
Rooney, 39, was without star players such as captain Joe Edwards, goalkeeper Connor Hazard and forwards Ibrahim Cissoko, Morgan Whittaker and Muhamed Tijani.
The defeat has gone down as one of the worst in Rooney’s entire football career as a player and manager.
It matched the 6-1 thumping he suffered as a player at Manchester United to cross-city rivals Manchester City in 2011.
It is only beaten by the 6-0 defeat he suffered as DC United manager against Philadelphia Union in 2022.
After the horror result, Rooney laid into his first team and claimed that Plymouth‘s Under 18s would have performed better.
He blasted: “We were nowhere near good enough – we are down to the bare bones with injuries but that is no excuse.
“But if players want to come in the team and stay in the team, then they need to perform better than that.
“I could probably put the under-18 team out there and they wouldn’t concede six goals.
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“So I’m very disappointed, angry, frustrated and the next 24-48 hours are not going to be very nice for the players, but we need to get to the bottom of why this is happening.”
Rooney and Plymouth have now failed to win any of their nine away games this season.
The thrashing is his worst on record since taking over at Home Park in the summer.
Plymouth are now just two points above the relegation zone but have played more games than three clubs below them.
And Rooney know his side must start picking up points on the road.
He added: “Getting that win and better results away from home – we know it’s difficult in this league for teams to win away from home – but we have to be a lot better than we were tonight.
“I feel for the fans who came here because I know the distance they’ve travelled to get behind the players and I know for any fan when you see your team put in that performance and get that result you’re not going to be pleased about it.
“I’m dealing with it, I’m trying to get to the bottom of why every now and again we’re having these results and hopefully I can do that sooner rather than later.”
Against Norwich, Plymouth got off to the worst possible start as Borja Sainz netted his first after just two minutes.
He then doubled up 15 minutes later before Plymouth cut the deficit in half to 2-1 through Mustapha Bundu.
However, the second half was all one-way traffic from the hosts.
Shane Duffy restored the two-goal margin and then Sainz completed his hat-trick to make it 4-1 in the 72nd minute.
Anis Ben Slimane and Ante Crnac both scored in the final ten minutes to put some shine on the result for Norwich.
The Canaries are now 9th in the Championship, thanks to their first win in eight games.
Meanwhile Rooney is looking to the loan market to bolster his striker force in January.
SunSport has exclusively reported that the former Man United star is keen on bringing in Liverpool prospect Jayden Danns
