NO SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR ROONEY

Last updated : 13 January 2006 By Editor
Stuart Pearce has said that he won't try to man-mark Wayne Rooney in tomorrow's derby.

“I man-marked players three times when I was at Forest and it always worked very successfully for me,” said Pearce.

“But when I used the tactic, it was always against a team that had one big danger and I knew by nullifying it, the chances were we would get a lower standard of performance from the opposition.

“With the talent United have, if you allow one of your own players to get dragged out of position all the time man-marking one of theirs, it would probably cause us more problems than then.

Wayne is one of the most exciting talents since Paul Gascoigne was young,” said Pearce.

“He has a sense of confidence and arrogance about him. When he steps on to an international field, he believes that is where he belongs.

“When you look at his age and see what he has achieved so far, it is quite remarkable.

“If he keeps doing that he can definitely become a great player and not many would back against him becoming the big star of next summer’s World Cup.”