Get the day's biggest United stories delivered straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Manchester United great Gary Neville believes Wayne Rooney will struggle to retain a fixed No.10 role under Jose Mourinho.

Rooney was moved from the playmaker role to the right wing in the second-half of United's derby defeat after City, as Mourinho switched to a 4-3-3 formation with Ander Herrera behind Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini.

City outclassed United in the first 40 minutes as Rooney again struggled to apply pressure against a Pep Guardiola side, although he was seen urging his teammates to press more intensely.

Neville has been one of Rooney's most impassioned defenders in recent years, having played alongside him for seven years with United and England and coached the forward for four years at international level.

"I always look at the clock when I say something to think at what point in the game will Jose Mourinho be thinking of a change," Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast. "And I think it was 18 minutes in [when Juan Mata, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford warmed up].

"The game wasn't going well. City were dominant and they didn't have the counter-attack or the energy to be able to compete and it didn't surprise me [Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard were withdrawn].

"Wayne Rooney moving from No.10, he [Mourinho] said he's a No.10. He's now a right winger. He's having the same deliberations around Wayne Rooney's position that the last four or five managers have had that have managed him.

"Do you play him No.10? Do you play him at centre forward? Do you play him in midfield? Do you play him on the left wing?

"The reality is Wayne Rooney will have to play in different positions and Jose Mourinho has obviously seen that today. He wanted to get more strength into midfield with Pogba and Fellaini in front of Herrera and Rashford came on on the left.

"I thought he had an immediate impact, Rashford, for five or 10 minutes but then he didn't get back into the game, they didn't get the ball to him enough and when they did it didn't happen for him."

Rooney played at No.10 in United's 2011 Champions League final defeat to Guardiola's Barcelona and, although he was the brightest performer, Sir Alex Ferguson was believed to have been frustrated with his failure to press midfielder Sergio Busquets.