Wayne Rooney insists he can deal with the anger of Birmingham City supporters after their furious reaction to his St Andrew’s debut.
New Blues boss Rooney was subjected to boos after his team were beaten 2-0 by Hull City last night. A small section of the Tilton could also be heard chanting ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ towards Rooney after being prompted by Hull’s following.
“That’s part of football,” Rooney commented. “You need to win football games to change that. As I said yesterday, the former manager was very popular here and did a good job.
“It’s what you want, what you want in terms of, do you want to be where the club has been for 10 years or do you want to move forward? And sometimes there’s a bedding in period while we are asking the players to do different things. I can deal with that. That’s part of the game. That’s part of my job. It’s not an issue for me.”
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It wasn’t the night Rooney hoped for and he admitted afterwards that some Blues players are not comfortable with their new way of playing. Blues are now unrecognisable from the side John Eustace left two weeks ago.
“It’s been two weeks,” added Rooney. “They have had snot and guts for the last 10 years and it has been difficult. There is a clear way we want to move forward as a club, and a clear way of moving the club forward - and that’s not going to happen overnight.
“There’s been expectations put on myself, within a timeframe, which I accept and understand. I am happy to face that. But it’s not going to change within two weeks, especially when the players have been used to a completely different way.
“I can get players up the pitch and boot the ball forward, and look to pick up second balls, that’s fine. That’s not an issue, but I think we need to get the balance right.
“This is on me. Maybe I have asked them to do too much, that’s fine, I will take that responsibility. As I’m getting to know the players more, I’m getting to know strengths and weaknesses. We will find that balance and make sure we get that right.”
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