The Manchester United striker has been getting a lot of stick from the fans and media for his loss of form in front of goal but former England manager, Terry Venables is adamant that Rooney does not need to score goals to be useful for the Red Devils.

In his column for The Sun, Venables said:"I've mentioned Gazza and there are indeed many similarities with Rooney. Just like Wayne, he wanted to win games single-handedly, score breathtaking goals and walk off with man-of-the-match awards.

"But, like Wayne, he also had periods when he didn't score and critics would start whispering about a crisis.

"But every time that happened, I said to Paul: 'Just go out there and do everything else you bring to our team. Go out and beat players, go out and split open the opposition with breathtaking passes - go out there, and enjoy yourself.'

"Rooney's exactly the same and if that's a crisis, then I suspect there's 19 other Premier League managers who'd like to have it as well!"

Venables was also quick to add that the rest of the United players have what it takes to carry the team forward while Rooney continues to find his form and hopefully break his goalscoring duck.

He added:"Last year Rooney took it upon himself to score practically all United's goals. He had to, because nobody else was doing it for them.

"The net result was he notched 26 goals in 32 games. The next highest scorer was Dimitar Berbatov, who only managed 12.

"How people can start talking of a crisis in any case when the league season is only one game old is laughable. And, as far as I can see, the rest of United's team are already pulling their weight.

"Paul Scholes was breathtaking against Newcastle: Ryan Giggs, Darren Fletcher, Javier Hernandez, Antonia Valencia and Berbatov have already bagged goals. United have got off to a great start, so please, what's all the fuss about?"

United started off the new Barclays Premier League campaign with a comfortable 3-0 win over Newcastle United and will hope to secure all three points later tonight when they take on Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Rooney has been ruled out of the game due to a stomach bug.