Wayne Rooney has been awful... the only remarkable thing about his performance against Burnley was that he got paid £300,000 for it! Ex-Manchester United star Paul Parker blasts Red Devils skipper

• Former Manchester United player Paul Parker has attacked Wayne Rooney
• He says the striker was 'awful' against Burnley and questions how he earns such vast wages at Old Trafford
• Parker also believes Rooney should be dropped after the arrival of Radamel Falcao on loan from Monaco
• Louis van Gaal should play the Colombian alongside Robin van Persie according to the ex-England man
• The 50-year-old thinks Juan Mata and Angel di Maria provide a better options in the No 10 role than captain Rooney

Former Manchester United defender Paul Parker has launched an astonishing attack on club captain Wayne Rooney, branding the striker 'awful' and calling for him to be dropped after the arrival of Radamel Falcao.

The prolific Colombian has arrived at Old Trafford on a season-long loan deal and Parker, who made over 100 appearances for the Red Devils between 1991 and 1996, believes that should spell the end of Rooney's time in Louis van Gaal's first team.

The 50-year-old also blasted Rooney's performance in Saturday's lacklustre 0-0 draw with Burnley and questioned why he earns a reported £300,000-a-week at United.

After discussing Robin van Persie's disappointing display at Turf Moor in his Yahoo! Sport blog, Parker wrote: 'As for Wayne Rooney, he's been awful. There he was at Burnley this weekend, supposedly captaining the team - but I saw a player interested only in himself, doing nothing to try and lift his game or inspire his team-mates. 

'The only thing in any way remarkable about his performance is that he collects £300,000 a week to play that badly.'

The loan deal for Falcao has left many pundits coming to the conclusion that Juan Mata will drop to bench, leaving Rooney to play as a No 10 and Van Persie up-front with the club's latest signing. But Parker thinks otherwise.

He added: 'Once Van Persie is fully-fit again, Rooney must be the person to be dropped from United's new attacking line-up: for me, it'll be RVP and Falcao every time. And though there's lots of talk about him playing in the hole behind that front two, I think that'd be a huge mistake - why would you have Rooney there when Juan Mata or Angel Di Maria would do the job so much better?'

Rooney was made captain by Van Gaal over the summer after the departure of Nemanja Vidic to Inter Milan, but Parker feels the Dutchman will not shy away from benching his skipper. 

'That'll leave Van Gaal with a big call to make: dropping Wayne Rooney,' he wrote. 

'He's always shown in his career that he's not afraid of the big decisions; he showed it most recently with his goalkeeper substitution for the shoot-out at the World Cup, and he'll have to show it once again because the way things are looking there will be no place for Rooney in that starting line-up soon.'