Wayne Rooney critical of the hunger of his attacking Derby players in loss to Millwall

BY KAI BENNETT

Derby County manager Wayne Rooney believed his side were the better team against Millwall but lacked hunger in the final third.

Shaun Hutchinson scored the only goal of the game just before half time.

“We were the better team throughout the 90 minutes,” said Rooney. “We controlled the game. What I was disappointed with was in the box, both attacking and obviously for their goal.

“That’s where the attacking players need to come alive, we put some good balls in the box but they need to be hungry to score and today I didn’t feel we were.

“I’ve told the players in there, if I was a defender or a midfield player, I would be asking questions; in terms of we’re getting in  some very good positions today and put some very good balls in the box but they were wasted because our attacking players weren’t prepared to put their body in there and to get across their defenders. It’s cost us today.

“These days can happen sometimes, against Wycombe [Wanderers] it went for us. Today we were the better team but we lost the game so it’s disappointing of course.

“We need to want it, it needs to mean more when we get into the final third because if it doesn’t in this league you won’t score.”