John Barnes: Wayne Rooney still good enough to be in England side

Captain Rooney looks set to be dropped from the first XI by interim manager Gareth Southgate against Slovenia on Tuesday night having failed to convince in a deep-lying midfield role.

The 30-year-old is England's most capped outfield player with 117 appearances to his name and led the side in Southgate's first match in charge, a 2-0 win over Malta.

Barnes, who won 79 Three Lions caps between 1983 and 1995, thinks the Manchester United man is still one of the country's best players and should remain a regular.

"Wayne may not be the player he was but he is still good enough to be in this team," said Barnes, who was speaking on behalf of England team sponsor Vauxhall.

"If you leave Wayne Rooney out, who are you going to bring in?

"People have to stop saying Wayne is not as good as he was or not good enough unless they can give us somebody better to replace him.

"In the old days if you weren't playing to your level there was someone waiting to take your place, someone like Matthew Le Tissier - who didn't play much for England but was always ready to come in. The over-riding factor is there isn't anyone like that.

"Add his quality and his experience and that makes it a no-brainer for me."

While the vast majority of his career has been spent in attack, Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and now Southgate have sought to use Rooney in a withdrawn playmaking role in recent months.

And the player's willingness to adapt has also impressed Barnes.

"He's a great team player, he'll play wherever he's asked," he said.

"You tell 'superstar' Wayne Rooney to be a right-back and do the donkey work and he'll do it."

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