Alex Netherton and Andi Thomas got
stuck right into Rooney in The Daily Mirror. Just some of the gems:
And yet he is first choice, for club and country, with the consensus being that he is a very good player. He is not. He is not even, right now, very good at scoring, his saving grace.
Might him playing as deep as an out and out midfielder in quite a few games this season have something to do with his reduced scoring rate? And indeed, is his rate actually much lower than his career average?
And that has come with another move. He announced that he was now a number 10, and would be ‘more intelligent’ with his running, meaning he would be covering less ground (remember, his workrate was perhaps his saving grace as his talents left him). He did this at a time that Radamel Falcao had joined and after Robin van Persie had scored that ridiculous goal against Spain for Louis van Gaal’s Holland.
A cynic would say he had identified he was no longer the main man, and correctly identified that Juan Mata was the most vulnerable. Duly, he began to occupy the number 10 role, and has so far largely been a disaster.
What's the implication here? That Rooney gets to choose where he plays? If so, I would guess that's utter nonsense. It's true he's played deeper this season, but at LvG's behest, rather than his own. LvG is on record as saying he thinks Rooney is multi-talented and that those talents are best utilized in a withdrawn role. Also, that he's been a 'disaster' is sheer hyperbole. He's usually been one of our better outfield players, as even some of his critics concede.
When he was sent off against West Ham, it started an undefeated streak for Manchester United. A cynic would note that, upon his return, they lost to a misfiring City.
A cynic might say that. But so would an agenda driven idiot. Like playing at home to Everton, away to West Brom, and home to Chelsea is equivalent to playing away to the current league Champions with ten men.
But because England are England, and critical faculties are not our strong point, he remains captain and focal point of the national side.
This is the 'Rooney as Ali Dia' argument. That he's some sort of conman supreme, pulling the wool over the eyes of successive managers who've picked him, convincing them he's a really good player when he's actually not. Fergie, Hodgson, Moyes, LvG, Capello. All have fallen for it.
He said last week that he could not be regarded as a true legend until he won something with England. That is not the reason. It is because he realised too late what it requires to be one, and once again he has shifted his perception of reality to avoid facing the truth. Sven-Goran Eriksson, when he left the England job, begged the nation not to "kill" Wayne Rooney, and England didn't. Instead, we got a slow suicide.
Won and scored the penalty to equalize in his last England game. Scored the winner in the one before that. Makes key contributions at vital times. But he's still as good as dead.
