Wayne Rooney says Manchester United’s success during his playing days was down to the communication they built up playing video games on the team bus.Speaking on his BBC podcast The Wayne Rooney Show, the former United, Everton and England forward said he and his team-mates would play five-versus-five on the army game SOCOM on the PlayStation Portable.”I really believe a big part of our success was playing on the PSP,” said Rooney, who won five Premier League titles and a Champions League under Sir Alex Ferguson.”It got us communicating more – we used to play it on the plane, on the team bus.”It would be me, Rio [Ferdinand], Michael Carrick, John O’Shea, Wes Brown. You have to talk, you have to tactically be right, go and revive people when they get killed and it was a massive part of our success – ask any of those players, it was brilliant.”Rooney even says his team-mates’ playing styles on the video game reflected what they were like on the pitch at Old Trafford.”How you played that game reflected that player, how they play the game,” he added. “Michael Carrick was a little sneaky calm one, you would be lying down hiding and you’d hear a little grenade bouncing by where he’d thrown it.”I was just all in, straight in, frontline of the trenches, get in there.”However, it was not to everyone’s taste, as Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar would attest.”Edwin van der Sar used to get annoyed, because we’re on the team bus and there’s just shouting on the team bus all over the place where you are telling people where you are,” said Rooney.”Sometimes if they have got one player left, you communicate, so you flank them, go and get them. Van der Sar used to get annoyed and move, he used to try and get as far away from us as possible!”
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The Wayne Rooney Show: PlayStation game was key to Man Utd success
