Wayne Rooney: Barça are as good now as they've been in the last 10 years

Luis Enrique's Barcelona side will be remembered among the best teams in history. The treble they won last season killed all the doubts that had surfaced after January's loss to Real Sociedad. 

Wayne Rooney, who plays for Manchester United, Barça's next opponents on their American tour, has analysed the current crop of plyers at the Catalan club, comparing them to Pep Guardiola's side, who Rooney played against the 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals. 

"Barcelona are a fantastic team and, after Real Madrid winning the Champions League [in 2014], they wouldn't have liked that and they've come out again and been incredible really," Rooney said to ESPN. 

"They're probably as good now as they have been for the last 10 years, I believe." 

Rooney spoke of the differences between the philosophy of the Guardiola side and the Enrique side. 

"It's a different way of playing -- they're defending a little bit deeper and not going and closing down teams the way they did and they're hurting teams on the counter-attack," the England international said.

"You can see there's a change in the way they play but, with the players they have got, obviously [Lionel] Messi, Neymar and [Luis] Suarez, they are a massive threat to anyone."

Rooney scored United's goal in the 2011 Champions League final and recognised that it was frustrating to lose two finals to Barça. 

"To be so close to winning [the competition] and to lose twice against Barça is hard to accept, sometimes you just have to put your hands up and admit the better team won the game," he finished, with humility.