"Have to be inventive" - Wayne Rooney reacts to frustrating Plymouth Argyle situation | OneFootball

Injuries to Ryan Hardie and Michael Obafemi have left Andre Gray as the only fit out-and-out striker at the club.

Wayne Rooney has admitted he and his Plymouth Argyle side will “need to be inventive” to get around their frustrating striker situation over the next few weeks.

Both Ryan Hardie and Michael Obafemi went off injured in the Pilgrims’ 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough at Home Park on Saturday, leaving Andre Gray as the only out-and-out striker at the club who is available for selection.

This leaves Rooney with a big challenge to effectively juggle his squad over the Christmas period, especially considering Plymouth face a huge ‘six pointer’ away at fellow strugglers Oxford United on Sunday 29th December.

While the situation is clearly an unfortunate one for Plymouth, it’s vitally important they find a way to work around it, or their situation in the Championship could look even bleaker by early January.

Rooney must be creative to find a way around Plymouth’s issue

With Nigerian forward Muhamed Tijani not expected to be back until mid-January and second-year apprentice Joe Hatch out for a prolonged period, Gray is the only remaining fit striker at the club.

However, his situation poses its own issue entirely. The 33-year-old striker is on a short-term deal which runs out in January, so even he would only be a very short-term solution at present.

Saturday’s unfortunate injuries – Hardie suffered a gashed leg and Obafemi was forced off with a groin problem – mean Rooney may have to use young winger Freddie Issaka through the middle instead of out wide, or even turn to 16-year-old Tegan Finn, who debuted in the defeat to Leeds United back in November.

Mustapha Bundu, who’s scored three in his last four games, could be another option, but Rooney will want to avoid breaking up his partnership with Bali Mumba down the right if at all possible.

With a busy Christmas schedule on the horizon, Rooney will simply have to trust his players and rotate his squad.

The Plymouth boss has already accepted that he will have to be creative to find a solution. He said: “Obviously, Andre is experienced at this level and with the games coming up we will have to be inventive. Someone at some stage will have to play out of position.

“That’s something I will look at, and it’s not ideal of course, but we will have to be creative and try and get the best out of whether that’s Moose (Bundu), Freddie, Tegan.

“We have got attacking players and one of them will have to play out of position, I’m sure, over this next couple of weeks.”

The injuries have come at a particularly bad time for Plymouth

With Argyle preparing to face a run of three games in seven days, the injuries have come at a particularly bad time for them, especially since they have both come in the same area of the pitch.

Their three upcoming encounters are against Coventry City, Oxford United and Bristol City – all arguably winnable games for the Pilgrims.

However, Rooney, as any manager would, would have loved to have gone into these games with as close to a full-strength squad at his disposal as possible.

Whoever he ends up turning to in order to cover his injured frontmen, they will need to adapt well to the central role, as Argyle need to start seeing an upturn in their fortunes pretty soon.

If they fall any further away from that all-important 21st place over the Christmas period, they will likely be in serious danger of dropping back into League One.