Wayne Rooney says Plymouth Argyle's Under-18 side would have performed better than his first team during their humiliating 6-1 defeat by Norwich City.

The former England captain suffered his heaviest defeat with the Pilgrims, who are just two points outside the relegation zone having failed to win an away game all season.

Plymouth, who were missing the likes of skipper Joe Edwards, goalkeeper Connor Hazard and Morgan Whittaker through injury, recorded an xG of 0.62 compared to Norwich's 3.15.

The visitors also enjoyed just 27.5% of the possession, and Rooney pulled no punches in his assessment of the performance at Carrow Road.

"We were nowhere near good enough," he said. "We are down to the bare bones with injuries, but that is no excuse.

"But if players want to come in the team and stay in the team, then they need to perform better than that. I could probably put the under-18 team out there, and they wouldn't concede six goals.

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