“As a player he’s got everything. He can play deep, left, right or in the middle. He scores goals inside the area but can also score from outside the box. As if that wasn’t enough, he sometimes plays in goal in training.” — Wes Brown
That quote from Wes Brown epitomizes the problem with Wayne Rooney; no one really knows what he is.
Gifted with the desire to play any position for the sake of the team, he has seemed to put technical skills aside for positional play, a man who has forgotten what he was all about.
From an explosive 16 year old, who was a ball of energy and hope, to a jaded, confused and an ultimately infuriating 30 year old who ambles around Old Trafford, and whose 2nd touch is usually a tackle.
As a young player, it is extremely common to see players shifted around the pitch in an attempt to find their best position. Rooney broke through as a barnstorming striker, a barrel chested 16 year old with the frame of a 26 year old, from there he was played in a withdrawn role as a number 10, as a left winger, on the right flank. And on the rarest of occasions, Rooney was deployed in central midfield.
One foray into the midfield mire was the result of an injury crisis in the early months of 2006 as United went on to concede 4 goals away to Blackburn Rovers. Rooney was partnered with Rio Ferdinand that day, a centre back, and a centre back only, one who was drafted into midfield as a for the only time in his Manchester United tenure.
Thrown around the starting 11 to “do a job” was the height of Rooney’s form during United’s most successful period in modern history, from 2006-2009. During that time, Rooney would often play as a foil for the more technical talents of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. While Ronaldo would hog the left wing, and save his energy for attacking the opposition, Rooney would be asked to track and cover the space that Ronaldo would vacate. While many journalists saw this as a demeaning task for the great white hope of English football, there could be no argument when presented with the success of the method by Sir Alex Ferguson. From 2006-2009, Manchester United swept up trophies at an alarming rate, winning 3 Premier Leagues in a row, 2 Capital One Cups, a Fifa World Club Cup, and the Champions League in 2008. That Champions League win had a familiar feel throughout the tournament, Ronaldo would be afforded the freedom of the park by Sir Alex, and Rooney was to be his errand boy.
United’s season of 2007/08, in which they captured the Premier League, Capital One Cup & the Champions League is regarded by Manchester United fans as arguably the 2nd greatest season that the club have ever had. In that season, Rooney was firmly placed in the back seat, and was often playing 2nd or even 3rd fiddle to more talented forwards.
From playing as an auxiliary left & right winger for the 2008/09 season, Rooney found himself as the focal point of the side in 2009/10, as Ronaldo & Tevez both departed for pastures new.
In the 09/10 season, Rooney was arguably at his potent best, playing as a number 9, a central striker, who the team would base themselves around. Backed capably in that season by Nani & Antonio Valencia, Rooney plundered 34 goals in just 44 games, and found himself honoured with the PFA Player of the Year accolade. In my opinion during that season, Rooney was amongst the best players in the world, his touch was as good as it’s ever been, he would drop deep to link attacks, he began bulleting headers in, and his finishing was up there with the best of them. In my opinion that was Rooney’s best individual season, and I would class him for that season as being one of the top 5 players in the world, and perhaps even in the top 3 (after Messi & Diego Milito)
Going forward from there, he would be positioned as a number 10 for a static England side who, it is safe to say, were an average team shuffled into a horrible system. Additionally Rooney went into the 2010 World Cup clearly unfit, as he was injured during the business end of the season for Manchester United. So from having the best season of his career curtailed by injury, he would find himself lampooned with a nation’s hopes and would be the poster boy for a failure of a tournament. England’s problems in 2010 were huge, and they weren’t helped by trying to accommodate a clearly unfit Rooney into the starting XI.
Number 10
He then handed in a transfer request in the autumn of 2010, stating that the clubs ambition did not match his own. All was settled and wrapped up in a neat little package, as Rooney’s ambitions were met with a brand new contract, which included a major bump in pay for Wayne.
His form during the first half of the 2010/11 was nothing short of embarrassing, ambling around the pitch, misplacing passes, chasing his first touch, only added to the fact that he scored a meager 4 goals by mid February.
His undeniably brilliant bicycle kick vs Man City at Old Trafford in February 2011 seemed to light a fire inside Rooney. Having spent the whole game up until the 78th minute doing an awful Wayne Rooney impression, he exploded into life.
Rarely have I seen a players form become as good as Rooney’s in the remaining part of that season, after scoring a goal. It was like a switch had been flicked and Wayne Rooney was back.
Sir Alex would then change the line up to try to max out on the space that Rooney would receive, dropping him back into a number 10 position behind the rapid Javier Hernandez. From being a striker as a teenager, to a left winger, to a striker again, and then a number 10, Rooney had seemed to find his true position, at least for the next few years.
Rooney during the tail end of the 2010/11 season would score a hat trick away at Upton Park with Manchester United 2-0 down to West Ham, to drag his team to victory, he would score during the Champions League quarters, and semi finals, snatching vital away goals at Chelsea and Schalke respectively. He would also grab a beautiful, but fruitless goal in the Champions League final, as United were brushed aside by Barcelona.
He would score the goal to win the title for United away at Blackburn, as he smashed his penalty to the left to leave the United fans delirious. From a transfer request, to winning the league & playing in another Champions League final, a 3rd in 4 years.
He then stayed as a number 10 for the 11/12 season as he would often line up behind Danny Welbeck & Javier Hernandez, as United ended up losing the title to city rivals, Man City on goal difference. Rooney would end the season with an impressive 34 goals in 43 appearances, which included a match winning brace at home to Liverpool, and a pair of hat tricks in consecutive league games, away at Bolton & at home to Arsenal in an 8-2 drubbing.
Rooney’s decline
Then, during the summer of 2012, arguably the best striker in the world at the time had become available, Robin van Persie, who had decided that he wanted to leave Arsenal in the search for a league title winners medal.
Sir Alex jumped at the chance to sign the mercurial Dutchman, and there seemed to be an obvious fit for the United team straight away, and on paper it looked perfect, Wayne Rooney was to play as a number 10 behind Robin van Persie.
But football isn’t played on paper, and van Persie & Rooney never truly clicked as a partnership. My opinion is that both aren’t the quickest, and they work better when they surround themselves with blistering pace to open up those smallest of gaps that they can wreak havoc.
Bar one fleeting moment of brilliance between the two, van Persie’s stunning volley vs Aston Villa, to capture the league title, there was never really any chemistry between the two.
By the business end of the season, Rooney would find himself on the bench in United’s biggest game, a home tie vs Real Madrid in the Champions League, and also on the bench for the majority of the remaining months. Sir Alex had seen the wane of Wayne’s powers long before anyone else, otherwise there was absolutely no way that Rooney would have started that 2nd leg vs Real Madrid on the bench. He had played the first leg away in the Bernabeu, playing the first half on the right wing, and the 2nd half on the left wing, as Danny Welbeck was trusted with the number 10 role, to use his work rate and pace to unsettle Xabi Alonso’s passing rhythm. A tactic that proved successful in the 2nd leg aswell, up until the mind boggling decision of one Cuneyt Cakir to send off Nani.
The 1st leg at the Bernabeu would prove to be a significant moment for Sir Alex, as he clearly saw that Rooney’s physical & technical had declined to the extent that he could no longer perform and influence games at the very highest level. A passenger when you need drivers and drivers only.
Rooney’s decline had forced Sir Alex’s hand, and he decided that Rooney was no longer the main man at United, and for the club to move forward, Rooney would have to leave.
After his final game at Old Trafford, a 2-1 win over Swansea, in which Rooney was did not figure at all. Sir Alex would reveal to the press that Rooney had asked to leave United for a 2nd time, and his departure was the only real solution to the problem.
David Moyes was then picked as a successor to Sir Alex Ferguson, and decided that he in fact needed Wayne Rooney, and would plan to make him a focal point of the side.
Moyes’ management of the United squad is a story for another day, and another blog. But his straight forward 4-4-2 style of play which relied solely on wing play, and crossing the ball constantly was never going to work for United. His use of Rooney sparked a trend that still continues, if he is fit, he has to play.
From Moyes’ appointment it was clear to see that he felt that Rooney was the main man for the team, often building the team around Rooney, and granting him undroppable status. A trend that would worryingly continue with Louis van Gaal, who once stated “My captain shall always play.”
Following a horribly disappointing season for United, the World Cup was the focus of the summer in 2014 for the country, as Rooney was again shoehorned into the team, unbalancing the team in a major tournament, where one defeat can spell the end of all of your chances.
From the first whistle vs Italy in Manaus, it was obvious that Raheem Sterling, who had flourished as a number 10 in the previous season, was to be the chief creator for England. Popping up on either side of Andrea Pirlo, and generally performing at a level well above the majority of his esteemed colleagues, Sterling was causing havoc as a number 10, while Rooney languished out on the left wing. Rooney however played an assisting cross to Daniel Sturridge to temporarily level the score, but his performance was abject on that left wing.
Naturally it seemed that the only real solution to the problem was to drop Rooney, and play one the more comfortable wide players on the left wing, either Adam Lallana, or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
But lo and behold, Rooney had his way yet again, and against Uruguay in a make or break game, Rooney was to be switched with Sterling, and Rooney was to be England’s number 10, shoving Sterling out wide.
It was to be expected that on balmy evening in Sao Paulo, that England were to put in a disjointed performance with Rooney playing as a number 10, and the doubters were proven right, as Luis Suarez blasted England out of the World Cup, as Rooney ambled about the pitch as a number 10. Rooney did grab an equalizer for England, but a goal cannot mask an awful performance, no matter how much the statisticians among us try to convince us otherwise.
Raheem Sterling, England’s brightest spark fizzled out, out wide, while the pace diminishing Rooney clogged up the middle of the pitch for the national team, England were out of the World Cup, but hey, at least Wayne got to play as a number 10.
“My captain shall always play.”
Everything at Manchester United seemed to be heading to a rather confusing turn, when van Gaal signed another striker that was never blessed with blistering pace, Falcao, and also midfield schemers Angel di Maria & Ander Herrera.
Where on earth would Rooney fit in?
Well the answer has been clear to United fans since the summer of 2014; Rooney has to be in the line-up, by hook or by crook, “My captain shall always play.” Regardless of his own form, or the form of others, Rooney will always play.
From playing as a number 10 in front of di Maria & Herrera, behind Falcao & van Persie. To playing alongside van Persie as a striker, to playing as a holding midfielder, Rooney always seemed to find his way into the starting XI in the 2014/15 season.
With a starting XI that resembled a teenager’s FIFA line up, United played a brand of odd, slow, plodding football that seemed almost impossible with the stars on show. Further proving that football isn’t played on paper, or even a video game.
It may not be entirely Wayne Rooney’s fault, but the current malaise United find themselves in, is centered around their shouty captain and the decision that he must play every single game, regardless of the form or ability of other players.
The likes of Angel di Maria, Robin van Persie, Juan Mata, Ander Herrera and Falcao have all been benched at one time or another in the last 2 seasons under Louis van Gaal, but somehow, Rooney has always played.
United’s best run under LVG came as Rooney played as a striker in front of a 5 man midfield, and that seemed to be the way to go, but van Gaal is an odd man and has thrown a relatively successful formation aside for more tactical tweaks so that his precious captain can play.
This has never been more clear than this season, as Rooney initially started the season playing a striker, then as a number 10, and now in the dying embers of a faltering season, Rooney has decided to tell van Gaal that he prefers to play in central midfield, which all so conveniently seemed to happen once the emergence of Harry Kane & Jamie Vardy pushed Rooney down the pecking order in the stakes to be England’s starting striker at the Euros, and also having Dele Alli become a bonafide number 10 who does everything that Rooney is supposed to. Added to this, the central midfield version of Wayne Rooney, is endorsed by the man himself, and it happened almost as soon as Jordan Henderson was injured and at that time it looked like he wouldn’t be able to make it to the Euros.
So United fans have been stuck with Wayne Rooney doing a horrible Paul Scholes impression for the last couple of months of the season. Blessed with none of the vision of Scholes, and even less of the tactical reading of the game that Scholes had, Rooney often picks the ball up near the centre circle and sprays the ball out wide to Antonio Valencia, and that’s about it. There is not much else that Rooney does on the pitch or that he offers United or England at this juncture.
The majority of United fans have been sick of Rooney since that transfer request debacle in 2010, but indifferences were put aside as Rooney began performing at a high level. Then the decision to try and lever United into giving him a fat, new contract, and suckering David Moyes into agreeing to it, gave United fans fresh impetus to loathe Rooney. But again, good performances can mask the anger of fans, and his name has still been sung at Old Trafford when he’s popped in a goal or 2.
Nevertheless the underlying feeling at Old Trafford is that Rooney’s time as a star have come and gone. This feeling hasn’t been helped by fan favourites & promising youngsters being cast aside on the bench for Rooney for trudge his way through yet another 90 minutes.
His stock has never been lower as a footballer, the impact he makes on games has become less striking than it ever has before, and his counterparts in all of the roles that he plays are all better than him, so why on earth should he still play for England or Manchester United?
That’s a question for both Roy Hodgson, and hopefully soon enough, a question for Jose Mourinho, and I genuinely hope that both of them can answer that query and put Rooney out to pasture.
Imagine an England side at Euro 2016 with Rooney obstructing the midfield going up against a talented trio of Spanish midfielders in Koke, Busquets & Iniesta? Or even vs a ferocious French duo of N’Golo Kante & Paul Pogba? Croatia’s crafty couple of Luka Modric & Ivan Rakitic would have a field day picking up Rooney’s usual first touch that ends up 10 yards away from him.
I understand that football is a team game, but as I have said before at the highest level, you cannot afford a passenger, especially one who offers as little as Wayne Rooney.
To answer the question posed at the beginning of the blog, what is Wayne Rooney?
Is he a striker, a winger, a number 10, a central midfielder?
The simple answer is that myself, or anybody else actually knows what Wayne Rooney is, because Wayne Rooney doesn’t know what Wayne Rooney is.
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