Plymouth pressure won’t keep Wayne Rooney ‘up at night’ as Man Utd legend sees Pilgrims captain explain what he is doing right in latest coaching post

Questions had been asked of the former England captain’s credentials as a coach after enduring an ill-fated 83-day spell in charge of Birmingham last season. He also failed to convince everybody during a stint in MLS with D.C. United and suffered relegation out of the Championship at Derby.

His reign at Plymouth got off to the worst possible start, when being hammered 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday on the opening weekend of the 2024-25 campaign, but results have improved since then and a first league win of the season was secured last time out in dramatic fashion at home to in-form Sunderland.

Pilgrims captain Joe Edwards has told the Plymouth Herald of a Premier League and Champions League winner being able to handle the demands of second tier management: “He has probably had more than his fair share over his career. I don't think it will be keeping him up at night necessarily. As a place, we just needed a win, to kickstart our season, it's as simple as that. We want to progress here. He has come in, he has shown his confidence in us and what he wants us to achieve, and what he thinks and believes we can do, which is brilliant for us to hear from him. We are working hard on the training pitch. He knows the capabilities we have got. We have won now and I'm sure we will kick on and get really stuck into the season.”

Edwards added on the regime that Rooney is running at Home Park, with the 38-year-old creating a happy camp: “It's brilliant. First and foremost, he's a top guy. Really nice, really down to earth and I think that rubs off on the team. I think we have got a group of lads who are respectful of each other and doing really well. I think that win (against Sunderland), not just for us but for the gaffer as well, was massive. It gives us all confidence, it gives him confidence because we are working really hard off the pitch. In the previous three games we probably could have won all of them but we didn't, and that can be hard to take at times. He knows he has got the lads on side and working hard for him, and for each other, so I think it's a good combination.”

Plymouth have moved up to 16th place in the Championship standings, with five points being collected from as many games. They will be back in action on Saturday when taking in a testing trip to table-topping West Brom.