Wayne Rooney Appreciation Thread

I say it a lot but I just wish his prime had lined up with our other attackers prime.

Tevez and Ronaldo left before his prime. Robin van Persie’s prime came after his. The real shame is that they both came one seasons apart. Rooney hit his prime just after Tevez and Ronaldo left - who both hit their primes after us - and Rooney really dropped off in 2012 just as Robin came.
 
berbatrick said:
I think the decline was pretty evident in LvG's first season. Near the end of that season was the "silent domination" game, everybody here was laughing at the desperate spin on his poor performances. Agreed about the Moyes season - he did well there - best outfield(;)) player.
Click to expand...
Decline doesn't automatically mean the player has become totally shite though. I would say he began to decline after that injury against Bayern in 2010, and even though he had a few productive seasons after that he wasn't the same player as before. But that doesn't mean he was embarrassing or shite. He was still easily in our top 2-3 players every season barring his last 2.

Even after he began declining he led us to the title in 10/11 during the second half of the season after Berbatov stopped scoring. He was out top scorer the following year where we missed out on the title on GD. Was happy to play second fiddle to RVP and yet had double figures in both Goals and Assists after that. Best player under Moyes and again highest goal contributions in LVG'S first season. He was not what he was but to call him embarrassing....I mean a season like Rashford had last season with 5 goals is embarrassing. Don't think Rooney had any such season barring his last after which he was rightly shipped out.
 
Rooney was bad for a few years. It just took people a very long time to come to the realisation. He would be shite all game, poor touches, poor passes but end up scoring so it would be ignored.

With that said, prime Rooney was amazing.
 
next_number_seven said:
He had few injuries really. Ankle injury before a tournament and a metatarsal. Very few really
Click to expand...

I distinctly recall a somewhat serious ankle injury before of perhaps during the Euros which was favored to win, an injury which wrecked the Euros for Wayne and England. True, he never suffered a season-ending injury, but he seemed to fighting off niggling injuries quite often.
 
Rooney at 23 looked like he was a baby because of his face
Rooney at 38 looks like he is 52

Ronaldo at 23 looked like a mature gigachad
Ronaldo at 38 looks like a baby (tantrum, botox, anti aging serum and siuuuuuuuu)
 
Rossa said:
I was never the greatest fan of Rooney, but a prime Rooney would transform our team.
Click to expand...

Hard to say given the state of our team.

But one thing is certain: prime Rooney was considerably better than anyone in our team right now.

By which I mean, he was considerably better than even our potentially best players, like Varane and Casemiro (neither of those has ever been better than prime Rooney, and they sure as feck aren't at the moment).

Comparing him to players more or less in his position(s) is just depressing: prime Rooney versus Bruno or Rashford?

Let's not.

(There is no comparison - the difference in both talent and actual quality is just too great.)
 
Chesterlestreet said:
Hard to say given the state of our team.

But one thing is certain: prime Rooney was considerably better than anyone in our team right now.

By which I mean, he was considerably better than even our potentially best players, like Varane and Casemiro (neither of those has ever been better than prime Rooney, and they sure as feck aren't at the moment).

Comparing him to players more or less in his position(s) is just depressing: prime Rooney versus Bruno or Rashford?

Let's not.

(There is no comparison - the difference in both talent and actual quality is just too great.)
Click to expand...
I would argue that the only 2 players of our current squad that may have a chance of starting in the team of prime Rooney are the 2 players you mentioned. Imagine how good a defensive partnership of Rio-Varane would be and Casemiro in midfield with Scholes and Carrick.

Very hard to judge Varane and Casemiro based on the team around them, we can also see a very significant drop off in our current team when those 2 players are out.

Would prime Rooney look as good in this team as he did in teams of old ?
 
the_cliff said:
Would prime Rooney look as good in this team as he did in teams of old ?
Click to expand...

No, definitely not.

Playing in a good/functional team will obviously make you look better than playing in a mediocre/only partially functional team.

Still, would inserting prime Rooney into this mess of a team improve us?

Yes, it probably would - because he was individually brilliant on a completely different level than someone like, say, Rashford is: I'm sorry, I like Rashford, but he doesn't possess any extreme/outstanding qualities whatsoever that are comparable to anything prime Rooney had.

So, yeah, it is likely that Rooney's individual traits would have elevated us regardless (of...anything). But not to the point of it making any very great difference.
 
He's accepted as a great player but he happened to be around his peak when two of the best ever were emerging in Messi and Ronaldo so he gets shunted even further back in people's minds. He was an outrageously talented and unselfish player. I think he played everywhere for us besides the back line and DM and still managed to put up those numbers.
 
Samid said:


Ridiculous how underrated he is.
Click to expand...

As someone on twitter wrote

"Kane has played 170 games less than Rooney and kdb has played around 250 games less than him."

Not sure how accurate the numbers are, but hes played a LOT more than those 2.
 
Shane88 said:
He's accepted as a great player but he happened to be around his peak when two of the best ever were emerging in Messi and Ronaldo so he gets shunted even further back in people's minds. He was an outrageously talented and unselfish player. I think he played everywhere for us besides the back line and DM and still managed to put up those numbers.
Click to expand...

Am I hallucinating or did LvG put him at DM and he was spamming Hollywood passes for a good while?
 
Hammondo said:
As someone on twitter wrote

"Kane has played 170 games less than Rooney and kdb has played around 250 games less than him."

Not sure how accurate the numbers are, but hes played a LOT more than those 2.
Click to expand...

You could also say the standard of defending was better in Rooney’s day. The amount of world class CB’s then compared to now is insane.
 
Hammondo said:
But team defending is better now and they are fitter.
Click to expand...

But you breathe on a player in modern football and its a foul. Attackers are protected now. Todays players numbers are inflated because tackling has virtually been taken out of the game. Not saying they are not as talented but Rooney had to deal with Pullis Stoke, Big Sam, Moyes Everton teams that would kick the crap out of any gifted attacking player. I think modern defenders have had to become fitter and quicker they cant just leave a marker down now like they used to or they are off especially with VAR. i agree they are much more technically gifted on the ball.
 
Last edited:
Swedish_Plumber said:
Someone with as much passion and even an ounce of his talent in the current squad would be nice.
Click to expand...

Closest is probably Martinez but agreed.Amazing to think we had Robson, Keane, Stam, Vidic guys who would die for the shirt. I know football is a different game now, but this lot alway give me like the impression they are doing us fans a favour being here.The standards have dropped big time
 
The-Mezzala said:
But you breathe on a player in modern football and its a foul. Attackers are protected now. Todays players numbers are inflated because tackling has virtually been taken out of the game. Not saying they are not as talented but Rooney had to deal with Pullis Stoke, Big Sam, Moyes Everton teams that would kick the crap out of any gifted attacking player. I think modern defenders have had to become fitter and quicker they cant just leave a marker down now like they used to or they are off especially with VAR. i agree they are much more technically gifted but that is an advantage
Click to expand...
Those teams don't exist anymore because they got relegated a long time ago because they were not good enough, not because of a change in refereeing.
 
I dread to think of the posts on here if any of the current squad spent 3 months (allegedly) flirting with city.
 
Hammondo said:
As someone on twitter wrote

"Kane has played 170 games less than Rooney and kdb has played around 250 games less than him."

Not sure how accurate the numbers are, but hes played a LOT more than those 2.
Click to expand...

I love Rooney, but context matters. If the difference in number of games played is that staggering then the initial post was silly.
 
Last edited:
Hammondo said:
As someone on twitter wrote

"Kane has played 170 games less than Rooney and kdb has played around 250 games less than him."

Not sure how accurate the numbers are, but hes played a LOT more than those 2.
Click to expand...

The numbers are accurate, and obivously Rooney is less productive per game than those two, when you compare him on goals to Kane and assist to KDB. The nuance to this is that Rooney started playing PL full-time as a 16 year old, and had about 100 appearances as a teenager. He also spent several seasons in mid-table Everton sides and below-par United sides, whereas KDB has only been in dominant teams.
 
Samid said:


Ridiculous how underrated he is.
Click to expand...

Agenda tweets with no context are the worst.

Rooney is great enough that stuff like this doesn’t need to get posted. His records and trophies speak for themselves as well as what the fans think of him.

I don’t think he’s underrated at all.
 
Hammondo said:
Those teams don't exist anymore because they got relegated a long time ago because they were not good enough, not because of a change in refereeing.
Click to expand...

Stoke, Blackburn and Bolton all went down when they tried to switch philosophy. Everton have only just started getting results again by bringing in Dyce a throw back manager. David Moyes is probably West Hams best manager in ages maybe Redknapp in the late 90s. I am not saying its my favourite style to watch but it was and is still effective . Football has changed everyone wants to play like Pep. So its easier to smash a lower level team now. Bottom half teams are more technical than the past. I am watching teams in a relegation battle try and play City at their own game. It’s interesting that Brentford and Palace get the odd result against City by being more direct.
 
Last edited:
The-Mezzala said:
Stoke, Blackburn and Bolton all went down when they tried to switch philosophy. Everton have only just started getting results again by bringing in Dyce a throw back manager. David Moyes is probably West Hams best manager in ages maybe Redknapp in the late 90s. I am not saying its my favourite style to watch but it was and is still effective . Football has changed everyone wants to play like Pep. So its easier to smash a lower level team now. Bottom half teams are more technical than the past. I am watching teams in a relegation battle try and play City at their own game. It’s interesting that Brentford and Palace get the odd result against City by being more direct.
Click to expand...
No those teams were failing with the old way of playing, they changed to try and stop them dropping so much. that way of playing struggles even in the championship.
 
Mike Smalling said:
The numbers are accurate, and obivously Rooney is less productive per game than those two, when you compare him on goals to Kane and assist to KDB. The nuance to this is that Rooney started playing PL full-time as a 16 year old, and had about 100 appearances as a teenager. He also spent several seasons in mid-table Everton sides and below-par United sides, whereas KDB has only been in dominant teams.
Click to expand...
But Kane has not been in any dominant team.
 
Hammondo said:
No those teams were failing with the old way of playing, they changed to try and stop them dropping so much. that way of playing struggles even in the championship.
Click to expand...

Hammondo said:
No those teams were failing with the old way of playing, they changed to try and stop them dropping so much. that way of playing struggles even in the championship.
Click to expand...

The original point is football was a lot
More physical when Rooney played defenders could get away with a lot more. It is making football a lot more open so higher number of chances created and goals scored. Considering thr era Rooney played in and spending a lot of time out of position his stats are incredible. You’re borderline hating the guy and using personal dislike for him to judge him. Also Moyes , Thomas Frank and Sean Dyce all play direct football and it still has a place in the modern game
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.