Any team in the world would take Rooney - Souness

Wayne Rooney's best years as a football player are still to come and he would be pursued by the world's top teams if he gets back to his best form, Graeme Souness believes.

The Manchester United striker has been criticised heavily over the past few seasons, with many calling for him to be dropped from the team after scoring just three goals in 16 Premier League games this term.

However, Souness feels there is more to come from the England attacker, insisting he can play even better than before as long as he gets fit and motivated.

"I think it has to be a psychological thing," he said on Sky Sports. "I would assume he's looking after himself, he has been a fabulous player, an absolute star.

"I look at his shape and I think he's a boy who has to play regularly to keep himself at the highest level. I know injuries this year have not helped him, but if I was talking to him, I'd be saying 'your best years are ahead of you'.

"I wouldn't entertain any chat about 'your best days are behind you'. I look at him and I go back to Wayne Rooney as a young player, I'd have loved to have played with him.

"I think the best years are ahead of him, it's just finding the position and getting him back fully motivated as the angry Wayne Rooney. I would take the occasional red card and say "get back to the angry Rooney, miss a few games through suspension but give me what you're giving me now - the 35 or 36 games', because when he's like that, any team in the world would take him."

Jamie Carragher, though, feels that the 30-year-old, having been playing in the English top flight since he was 16, is playing like a player much older than he really is.

"The reason he's getting criticism now is that he's at that stage of his career now - he's only 30 but we've said before he was playing at 16 so real terms he's like a 33 or 34-year-old player.

"But it comes back on all of this season and towards the end of last season, and for Rooney to answer his critics and show he's still the man to play centre-forward for Manchester United, he maybe needs a run of 10 games in which he scores seven or eight goals. And it's not just goals, it's his general play which I think was back against Chelsea. He didn't score in that game, but I think his general play was back.

"He must have played nearly 600 games as a centre forward and I think that constant pressure, and mental pressure, to play from that age at 16, I think we are looking at a player who is getting to that stage of his career.

"He may prove me wrong but I don't think Wayne Rooney will be playing at the top level at 34 or 35. It's 30 on his birth certificate but in terms of games played he's a 35 year old player."