Rooney shouldn't retire... but England and Man Utd shouldn't be forced to play him either, which they have regardless of form and/or position. He should play (or not) according to his current skillset. He's already been given a lot of rope for his past greatness. But the welfare of a team should never be compromised due to one player regardless of his status.
10
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 39
- Goals
- 8
- Assists
- 10
- Yellow cards
- 8
- Status
Scholes it was more to do, funny enough, not playing in his best position. It did help his United career, but Scholes was still a good player when it happened. Wayne seems to want to be involved in everything. Not sure if his body can take that much action. As I have said I cannot see him retiring from international football unless he is no longer picked in the team. It might do him good to take the matter into his own hands and would take some of the media pressure off him.
Although if he did ditch England the media will then say he is taking the cowards way out. Not sure he can win no matter which course he takes.
Mate, it was all sarcasm of the post.
You'd think that at least one of the hundreds of cameras would make him look good.
We're gonna need a bigger camera!
Ibra's probably a better example but, again, he's 35. People keep saying age is irrelevant but it will be hugely relevant to the players themselves. Retiring at 30 (in the absence of any serious, long-term injury) would be a VERY unusual thing to do. So of course Rooney will assume he can still turn things round. Especially when his managers have been showing so much faith in him.
This is true.
But Southgate (like Hodgson, LVG, Allardyce, etc) would rather be sacked than drop Rooney for a better player. This sounds crazy, but that's what is happening.
Something tells me that there are managers out there who don't actually value their careers.
Hodgson and LVG were coming to the end of their careers, so we can assume that perhaps they don't give a damn about being sacked, but Southgate is a young manager who needs to do a good job. He can't afford to put Rooney's career ahead of his own.
Tuesday game will say a lot. He won't get loads of space like yesterday, so Southgate has to decide between him and Dier. I think we need legs in there.
Dier is more of a goal threat than Rooney?! Oh come on.
Normally I would say no, but watching his free kick efforts and shooting efforts, even if Dier only comes forward for corners he is more of a threat at this moment.
Southgate's excuse will be that Dier isn't fully fit yet
He has too much confidence. Listen to his interviews where he says that he has nothing to prove and that everything is fine.
The killer passes which you are talking about were taken out of him by LVG. LVG liked safe and risk averse football, which is why Rooney does the side/back passing so much. I think it was the Watford game where he did not make a single forward pass!
That's the problem Rooney has due to being in the limelight for so long, he's profited massively off the media but when they turn it will be viscous, unless he frames it in a way that he says he's doing it for the country. I think the big problem is that he's got no self awareness and like most big stars he's surrounded by Yes men telling him how great he still is.
Guys like Ibra and Ronaldo are physical freaks that have looked after themselves religously, they are hard to compare with others, but I'm sure Rooney sees plenty in his age brackett still playing, 31 is not old in todays game by any means, so I agree it has to be hard to accept your legs have gone, but you'd think he'd know it in how he moves on the pitch, he looks laboured when just trying to change direction and he's a guy like Gerrard that was very reliant on his physical attributes to be a top player, he's not a Xavi, Pirlo, Iniesta, Scholes type whose career success was more about technical quality and game intelligence, his drop off was always going to be a lot sharper due to this and add to that the fact his genetics and not taking care of himself over the years would hasten the decline.
Well, not really. In fact the bar is quite low for him at the moment because hes been poor for so long. Especially his mates in the media have showered him with praise for utterly average performances. The fact that he even gets played in CM speaks volumes really. Even when he was at the top of his game and was one of the best strikers in the world was he no good as a CM.
I wonder where this idea comes from that any old striker can just be converted to a CM once they get older. Its insane
I love the arrogance in posts like this, some people really cant handle their opinion being in the minority.
He's survived criticism for several seasons exactly because of the media, to suggest their influence here is 'hysterics'. He's been on a downward spiral and nothing was said, now its caught up with him.
He's been done as a top level footballer for at least 3 years now.
Sadly the funeral procession has taken this long.
No he's not going to turn it around.He'll probably hit a 3-4 game spell of good form at some point which will result in claimstating that he is ''back''.Then he will simply revert to his current level again.
If England are serious about competing for the world cup in 2018,they should seriously consider letting him go.But its England.The tourmament will serve as a glorified retirement party and then will lament why they are so poor.
Sadly the funeral procession has taken this long.
No he's not going to turn it around.He'll probably hit a 3-4 game spell of good form at some point which will result in claimstating that he is ''back''.Then he will simply revert to his current level again.
If England are serious about competing for the world cup in 2018,they should seriously consider letting him go.But its England.The tourmament will serve as a glorified retirement party and then will lament why they are so poor.
The houlier than thous are ysually the last ones on the sinking ship.
It was the same under Van Gaal. Eventually they will realise what everyone else did months or even years ago.
It's much easier to act condescending rather than actually defend Rooney's on-pitch perfomances. Because let's be honest,what can you defend?
Not only is it insane that forwards should become midfielders in old age, it runs contrary to logic.
As they aged, forwards like Zola, Bergkamp, Sheringham etc. spent more not less time in the box. Recognising they lacked the stamina to run around the pitch, these forwards hung around the area and used their energy when their experienced told them they could score goals and win games. Why isn't Rooney following this path instead of trying to become Paul Scholes?
Rooney seems to think the job of a midfielder is to hang deep and spray passes. That is totally wrong. When Scholes played direct balls they were usually behind the defence for one of ours to run onto. Rooney's floated passes might look nice but rarely do they get a player in behind. In fact, by time the ball has finished gliding through the air, usually the opposition defence is back in shape.
I wish Rooney would stop this fruitless experiment and work at being a #9 again. His best season for United, 2009/10, came as a striker. As he ages that is where he should focus his talent: staying in the box, not wasting energy running around, and using his experience to know how to get around defenders to get on the score sheet. This useless quest to become a midfielder is ruining him.
cant agree more
He's had a few deeper games over the years and people creamed themselves at the time because he sprays the odd 40 yard cross field ball. When you actually look at his short passing, touch, movement and mobility then it really is insane that he's ever been considered to start there.
And his positioning and (lack of) ability to create space for himself under pressure, something Scholes for example was insanely good at. But then again he had a first touch better than a brick wall, which naturally made it somewhat easier.
Hats off to you, sir!
It's quite remarkable how his mates in the media and his fanboys even tolerate this idea. They cite Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard and Pirlo as examples but fail to realise that these guys spent almost 20 years of career playing as CMs before moving deeper as a different kind of CM. It's so disrespectful because these guys were masters of the trade in their time
Can't wait for Balotelli to become the new Pirlo once he's 31.
It is painful to watch him play these days and that is even for England (a national team I'm not really fan of ). He'll only get worse with time and those who are still deluded about his level and contribution will have less and less to argue about.
Apparently now we are being brainwashed by the media, which is making Rooney look bad.
The media are finally seeing what we've been talking about for months.
Even Gerrard only lasted a year before being pressed and found out. Captain awful at the world cup aswell
More like years.
Some of us here saw the decline years ago.It might be the general consensus now but saying Rooney was in decline back then generally made you a pariah.
The funny thing is that Paul Scholes was one of the first to actually admit that Rooney was in terminal decline. He was right. But then he suddenly changed his tune even though the perfomances hardly got any better.
If anything it's the media backing for such a long time that made what was inevitable years ago generally acknowledged only now. His poor first touch,erratic passing and poor positioning whereby he occupies others spaces in the field can be seen as far as 2013.
Haven't matchgoing fans been critical of him for a few years now? Not that I have the pulse of that contingent, but the ones I talk to have been dissatisfied with Rooney for quite a while.
For years.
England manager's team selections have been appalling for the last 15 years. Rooney is just another example.
WHU fans should take heed of this example of football culture and stop complaining.
Alan Shearer at his peak or Wayne Rooney???? Yeah ok mate, I am just another joker
Or perhaps the last 50 years!
I wonder... why don't they hire a football Einstein? It would be cheap, too!...
Waiting for stupid stubborn Mouinho to drop Rooney to the reserve and use him instead!
I know right. Basically every good striker was better than Rooney. Rooney had soo much more to him than Inzaghi ever did
They got no internet access? Poor sods.
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