Dwight Yorke: 'Wayne Rooney is greatest English player'

Former Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke has hailed Wayne Rooney as the "greatest English player", despite recent criticism of the 30-year-old's form.

Rooney has started United's last three matches on the bench, and also lost his place in the England side under Gareth Southgate for the recent 0-0 draw with Slovenia.

However, Yorke believes that it was a "strange" decision by Southgate to drop him, and also criticised the lack of respect shown towards England's highest ever goalscorer.

"People forget he's the greatest English player and the goals he has scored. We've all gone through spells where you're not playing well and it's a real battle, but the way people have talked about him is really disrespectful. It's a real difficult time because he's asked to play all these different positions and gets all the flak he does, yet he tries his hardest every single game," he told 888sport.

"Then you get people like Gareth Southgate taking him out of the team because of the pressure from the media and I think that's wrong especially coming off the back of a positive result. Sometimes you have to show people a little faith and for Gareth Southgate to make that call, well I thought that was a little strange. To then put him in front of the media to face the music and say he isn't going to play was disrespectful and a disgrace in my opinion.

"It's a different situation at club level. His England performances have been stronger than his performances for Manchester United. Anyone can see that he's struggled there this season and sometimes it's not a bad thing to take a back seat. Where England are concerned he has not been the worst player on the pitch by any standards and you have a young manager like Southgate trying to make an impression but you need someone like Wazza around to keep things in check."

Rooney will hope to return to the United team for Monday night's clash with fierce rivals Liverpool at Anfield.