Wayne Rooney drops honest Plymouth Argyle claim after Norwich City embarrassment | OneFootball

Wayne Rooney fumed at his players in the wake of Plymouth Argyle's 6-1 defeat at Norwich City

Wayne Rooney held nothing back in his brutally honest assessment of Plymouth Argyle's chastening 6-1 defeat away to promotion hopefuls Norwich City on Tuesday evening.

The Pilgrims made the long midweek trip to Carrow Road with a certain degree of momentum after going unbeaten in their last three, a run which included a potentially vital 1-0 win over relegation rivals Portsmouth before the international break.

Norwich have faced wretched luck on the injury front as of late and had not won in any of their previous seven league fixtures prior to Tuesday's affair, with injuries to the likes of Josh Sargent, Angus Gunn and Marcelino Nunez catching up to Johannes Hoff Thorup's side.

While Plymouth headed into the match in better form out of the pair, Norwich's superiority showed as they put the Pilgrims to the sword in a real rout. Two goals in the first 17 minutes from Championship top scorer Borja Sainz seemingly set the tone for the evening, and although Mustapha Bundu gave Plymouth an inkling of hope after halving the deficit shortly before the interval, a second-half onslaught left little doubt.

Shane Duffy restored Norwich's two-goal advantage before Sainz, Anis Ben Slimane and Ante Crnac all struck home within the final 20 minutes to consign Plymouth to a 6-1 hammering on the road, leaving serious questions of both Rooney and his players.

The result has pushed Argyle down to 20th in the Championship, two points above 22nd-placed Hull City.

However, with Cardiff City set to face bottom side QPR this evening, the Green Army could quite well be dragged even closer to the relegation zone ahead of Saturday afternoon's trip to Bristol City.

Wayne Rooney's strong Plymouth Argyle message following Norwich City humiliation

Rooney felt his side rolled over far too easily in Norfolk and made little secret of his disappointment, urging his players to push harder and improve their away form - which has, of course, been an extremely well-documented issue this term.

The 39-year-old said, via The Pink Un: "We were nowhere near good enough.

"We gave the ball away too easily, we weren’t aggressive enough, we didn’t win our duels or make tackles. It was too easy for Norwich to create chances against us. That was a theme throughout the whole game, to be honest.

"We're very fortunate to go in at 2-1, and then you hope you get a reaction coming out to the second half. Once they scored the third goal, I think we went under a little bit. I could probably put the Under-18 team out there tonight, and he wouldn’t concede six goals. I'm very disappointed.

"I'm going to be frustrated and the next 24/48 hours are not going to be nice for the players, but I think we need to really get to the bottom of why this is happening.

“I don't question the players’ attitude at all. But what you need to understand and realise, as a player, is you have tough moments in games, and you have to dig in. You have to communicate. If one of your teammates is having a bad game, you have to help him out. That's football. That's how you progress as a team.

"When it went 3-1 I didn't feel we were ever going to get back in the game. It looked like the players felt that on the pitch, that they didn't believe they could get back in the game.

"I've praised players a lot this season, because a lot of the performances, most of my home games have been very good, but we need to really quickly figure out the away form, because it can't carry on this way."

Wayne Rooney needs to improve Plymouth Argyle away form

Plymouth have retained their resoluteness on home soil this season and have only lost out at Home Park once, winning four of their eight games there and scoring 15 goals in the process.

But it's becoming increasingly apparent that home form isn't going to be enough on its own to keep Plymouth in the Championship, especially when their fortunes on the road are typically dire. They're one of just four teams in the Championship yet to win away from home, although the manner in which their defeats have come in is a greater concern.

Plymouth have scored just three goals on their travels while conceding 23. They've let in three or more goals on four occasions, with thrashings away to Sheffield Wednesday, Cardiff, Leeds United and most recently Norwich underlining a potential soft underbelly without the backing of the Home Park faithful.

One way or another, it needs to improve - and fast. January acquisitions will be needed regardless, but Rooney will have to work closely with the squad at his disposal until then to make them more resolute on the road.