Wayne Rooney conceded he is at risk of being sacked after Plymouth Argyle suffered a 2-0 loss to relegation rivals Oxford United.
Goals from Ciaron Brown and Przemyslaw Placheta condemned Plymouth to their 13th league defeat of the season and ensured they would end 2024 at the foot of the Championship table.
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The loss also extended the Pilgrims’ winless streak to nine, with six of those being defeats.
Plymouth also hold the worst defensive record in the second tier having shipped an alarming 51 goals from 23 games for an average of 2.2 goals per game.
Rooney’s side will be in action next on New Years Day as they host Bristol City.
However, Rooney is under no illusion he might not be in the dugout at Home Park for the fixture given he knows what traditionally follows such an alarming run of form.
“You have to look at every possible outcome, that’s normal with the results we’re going through,” Rooney said.
“You have to feel ‘do we have the players to turn it around? Can I turn it around? Can the coaching staff turn it around?’
“I’ll go back and try to prepare for Bristol but ultimately I know football and how it works.
“I understand the fans. I’ve been there myself. As a fan you want to see your team win, to see your team running, making tackles and when your team is losing games, as we are, the frustration is there. I get it.
“I know the work we’re doing is good work. Unfortunately we’re not getting the results.”
Worryingly for Rooney, he faces a serious fight to win Plymouth’s fans back over.
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Oxford supporters took delight in chanting ‘sacked in the morning’ at Rooney, but what made it even worse was how some of the travelling Pilgrims fans joined in with the tune, the PA news agency reports.
The loss to Oxford also marked the eighth-straight game Plymouth had conceded two or more goals.
Once again Rooney was left to lament the simple manner in which Oxford breached the Plymouth defence.
“It wasn’t good enough. We didn’t create enough chances, the goals we conceded – we didn’t do enough to stop them scoring goals,” he said.
“Defensively this has been going on for a few weeks now. We’ve been trying to score goals but we didn’t hurt them enough today.
“We’ve done a lot of work on trying to stop crosses, get tight enough to stop them and second phases at corners but that’s where the first goal came.
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“The second goal they break out and we don’t do well enough defensively in a one-on-one situation.
“I expected a bit more today but didn’t get it. That’s football. I’m always a balanced person, win, lose or draw but it hurts, and it’s hard to take the run of games we’re on.
“We had a couple of players who probably shouldn’t have played today, they played through the pain barrier.”
Should Plymouth pull the plug on Rooney prior to the Bristol City fixture, it would mark the second straight Championship job he had been sacked from in less than 18 months.
The Manchester United and England legend was controversially brought in to replace John Eustace at Birmingham City in October last year.
However, Rooney went on to win two matches in charge of the Blues before he was axed after just 15 games as the club was eventually relegated to League One.
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Despite the alarming stats from his stints with Birmingham and Plymouth, one of Rooney’s former rivals has come out to defend him from the criticism.
“I know the challenges of each job and you only know when you’re in it,” Lampard told talkSPORT after his Coventry side beat Plymouth 4-0 on Boxing Day.
“Wayne obviously has his career behind him and now his management career as well, which he’s gone straight into. There will be challenges for him there.
“It’s not for me to comment on that, I’m very happy with us today. I always wish Wayne well because he’s a proper football person.
“Again, there’s challenges so people have to understand he’s working. I hope to see him do well because he’s a young English manager with a lot to give and that continues to be the case.”
