Manchester United striker Rooney insists festive schedule is tough

Wayne Rooney is unhappy with the heavy congestion of fixtures.

Wayne Rooney hopes a longer rest period will pay dividends for Manchester United when the Reds travel to Stoke City for the club's next festive fixture on New Year's Day. United played two matches in the gap of just 3 days which is very unusual for players to cope with.

"It’s not easy playing two games in three days. You do lose a lot of quality from both teams and the second half was a bit scrappy," Wayne was quoted by the club’s official website. "In the future, I think it [the schedule] has to change because it is tough and no-one wants to see any players getting really bad injuries from it. It is very demanding and I think it needs looking at."

"It's tough for the fans, too, travelling over Christmas, with the weather we've had over the last few days," Rooney added.

Not for just United, but it has been a tough schedule for all the teams where each team has been forced to play two matches in the period of 3-4 days. Players who are not used to this are finding it difficult as they are more prone to injury in such situations.

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal was also having the same opinion as his captain mentioned. “You could see [then] that the players could not recover in two days. I said already before the matches, it is the culture of England [to play twice in 48 hours]. I think the human body cannot recover with 48 hours and in the second half it was a struggle,” van Gaal said.

United meet Stoke City on January 1 which is scheduled, and the players will have three days to rehabilitate and come back stronger.