Wayne Rooney is 30... it's time he moved back to No 10 role for Manchester United

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The Manchester derby is one the D-Days of the Premier League season. And yet neither side are especially convincing at the moment. I have assessed the key personalities and problems afflicting United and City as they meet on Sunday.

Rooney at 30: Take him off the front line

You have to be sharp, full of energy and a lethal finisher to play up top as the lone striker these days. But it’s clear Wayne Rooney isn’t in that kind of form. So I’m puzzled by Louis van Gaal’s persistence with him in that position and why he played him there again on Wednesday against CSKA Moscow.

That’s not to say he hasn’t got an important role in this Manchester United team. But I will keep banging the drum for him to be played as a No10, the second striker, as I feel it is a position he could make his own in his thirties for club and country.

I'm puzzled by Louis van Gaal's persistence with Wayne Rooney as a lone striker, he isn't in the right form

A player like Rooney, who turned 30 on Saturday, needs pace around him as he no longer has the same burst of speed he once had. But he does read the game well and has years of experience.

By dropping a little to become more involved in the build-up play he could influence the game with that experience — and arriving in the box from deeper positions would provide him opportunities to score.

Anthony Martial is the perfect foil for Rooney to play off. He’s a young player with superb speed who is willing to take men on.

But he struggles with his defensive duties when played wide, as we saw with him and Marcos Rojo against CSKA. In a central position, that won’t be a factor. And with Rooney behind him, the pair could become a formidable partnership.

Rooney can still have an important role for Manchester United but he should be dropped back to No 10

The England captain needs pace around him and Anthony Martial is the perfect foil for Rooney to play off

Schweinsteiger: Bit-part player or real deal?

When Bastian Schweinsteiger signed for United in the summer many of us had concerns about how he would adapt to the Premier League. He had a stop-start season following injuries after the World Cup and when he came back into the Bayern Munich side he no longer looked an obvious first choice.

He remains a superb player who has won everything in the game. But it may be certain contests just don’t suit him. He was replaced by Marouane Fellaini on Wednesday with United very pedestrian in their build-up before his withdrawal.

It may be that he is still getting back to his previous sharpness after his injury-ravaged season last term. But you would hope there is more to come from him. At the moment, the pace of games — notably against Arsenal — has proved difficult for him. The next few months will decide whether he can cut it in the Premier League playing against the very best teams, or whether he is going to be a bit-part player, able only to perform an important role during certain periods of matches.

Bastian Schweinsteiger is superb but he has struggled with the pace in England - he may be a bit-part player

City’s damaging tactical flaw — The charge of their defensive brigade

Manchester City’s back four have an alarming habit of running out of defence to hold the 18-yard line at the earliest opportunity. It’s a good tactic when the ball has been cleared 20 yards because it gives the goalkeeper space and presses the game. But City are doing it as soon as the ball is being cleared, when it is still on the same line as their defenders, and that just invites trouble.

It’s why they conceded against Sevilla.

You can see Bacary Sagna, Nicolas Otamendi, Eliaquim Mangala and Pablo Zabaleta racing to get to the 18-yard line as the possession is moving back to Sevilla. They’ve obviously been told to do it and it’s designed to catch players offside.

The problem is it leaves them with a lot of work to do when the ball is wide and a cross is about to come in. They have to back track and the defensive line isn’t tight or organised as it should be; positionally they’re in a mess.

By trying to hold the 18-yard line, they present a large area for the opposition to attack.

The space between Joe Hart and the back four is football’s corridor of uncertainty. Strikers thrive on that space. When I was at QPR last season, Charlie Austin scored one and had two disallowed by working in those areas. When City face the best teams, that vulnerability will be ruthlessly exploited.

Sterling: Still has to prove he’s a £50m player

Raheem Sterling will need more than a hat-trick against a depleted Bournemouth to convince me that he has moved into the elite level of players worth the kind of money paid for him in the summer. Don’t get me wrong, he may well make that jump over the next two seasons. But he is still raw and yet to prove himself. I’ve spoken before about his finishing and, though it is never bad to score three, Sterling needs to start dominating the A-list fixtures, like on Sunday. Or in the Champions League, where City still look fragile.

Sterling’s best football to date was in that 2013-14 season when he was young, fresh and seemingly playing without a care.

Now it’s different: he is a £50million man and an England player. Then he had Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard to ease the burden; now he’s the man City will look to in times of crisis. City’s Kevin De Bruyne, a £55m man, showed him the way forward on Wednesday night. He is four years older than Sterling and that experience shows. It’s those kind of goals — last-minute and critical to City’s season — that a club pays such big money for.

Sterling can get there, he just isn’t there yet. Playing well in a game like on Sunday would be another step in the right direction and help him bridge the gap from promising talent to established game-changer.

Raheem Sterling is still raw and is yet to prove himself, he needs to start dominating the A-list fixtures

Sterling's best season to date was in 2013/14 with Liverpool and he had several star players around him

Manchester City's £55m man Kevin De Bruyne showed Sterling the way forward on Wednesday night

Overall verdict

City still look tactically vulnerable in Europe. You would expect Vincent Kompany back on Sunday even though Manuel Pellegrini left him out on Wednesday. But you would be much more confident of the win if Sergio Aguero and David Silva were playing. Their big test is to demonstrate they can still perform without those two.

As for United, they hardly look like a dynamic or enthralling side. They’re not a side to be feared. There’s very little pace to their play and, when I watched them on Tuesday, there is no way they looked like a team that could win the Champions League. Given all that, a draw looks the most likely result.

Louis van Gaal (left) and Manuel Pellegrini (right) in a huge Premier League clash - a draw looks most likely