Everton manager Sam Allardyce says he will have a conversation with Wayne Rooney regarding his outburst on Saturday but said he understands it was borne out of frustration at being substituted.
Rooney, 32, came off after 56 minutes of the 0-0 draw against Liverpool in the Merseyside derby and shouted at Allardyce before putting on a training shirt and continuing his outburst.
The captain, who made his return to Everton in July after 12 seasons at Manchester United, has not scored a goal since a victory against Swansea City on Dec. 18 -- a run of 13 appearances in all competitions.
It was also the third consecutive time he had not finished 90 minutes and the second in as many weeks that he had been taken off inside an hour.
"I think that Wayne's disappointment was frustration -- the fact that he's an Evertonian through and through and he's been an Evertonian all his life," Allardyce has told talkSPORT.
"He made his debut for Everton when he was 16. He was playing in a great big derby match against Liverpool on his own [pitch] and he got substituted by the manager and that was too much for him to take and he had to show his frustration. So, we'll sit down in the next week and we'll talk it through and we'll see how he feels."
Allardyce said he made the decision to take Rooney off because Everton were "having to defend a little too much." Idrissa Gueye replaced Rooney, and Allardyce also took Yannick Bolasie off after 61 minutes with Dominic Calvert-Lewin coming on.
"In the end, we finished the game stronger than Liverpool and nearly won it, so that, as a manager, is what you have to do," Allardyce said. "No matter who is on the field, if you feel you need to change it, you change it. You look at the game from there on, and if you give them a better opportunity to win it, then that's what you have to do. The player will, at times, show frustration."
Allardyce was appointed in November after Ronald Koeman was sacked, continuing a season that saw the club make a number of changes -- including the return of Rooney -- in an attempt to improve upon a seventh-place finish in the Premier League a year ago.
The manager said that the changes have been "difficult for everybody," not just Rooney, but that he has an eye on improving conditions for the club this summer.
"There's been obviously lots and lots of changes -- not just behind the scenes with myself and the staff I've brought in, but lots of changes with the players," Allardyce said. "I think we have to get that stability back, which I think we're slowly but surely doing, and then we have to look at what the summer will bring and what next season will bring.
"There's no doubt there will be some changes, and I'm not particularly talking about Wayne Rooney or anybody now, but there will be some changes because we want to do better. I think when you want to do better, you have to try to improve that way and we'll be out in the market."
When asked if that means that there will be a "clearout" at Everton this summer, Allardyce said he wouldn't use that word to describe the situation.
"That's too strong, but there's players who will generally know and want to leave because they've not played as much as they want to play," Allardyce said. "When you have a squad of about -- I think we've got about 38 professionals, and when you can only fit 25, then you do know we're running a bit too heavy, so I think we need to address that to give us more stability and [make us] more capable of doing better next season."