Wayne Rooney: Has he lived up to the hype

azza21

azza21

azza21

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Wayne Rooney was dubbed the next big thing in football 5 years ago when he hit the scene in BIG style for Everton, mostly by the British media and some fans alike.
Rooney is 23 in just over 2 weeks, he has had 4 years at one of the biggest clubs in the world to develop as a player. Do you think he has matured into a better player, gone downhill, changed his style....

The real question is do you think Wayne Rooney has turned out to be the world class striker a lot of people/experts touted him to be?
 
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He's still good but not as good as people expected when he first played for England. You expected him to score everytime he got the ball ( and he often did ) but I feel the hype around him has died down a lot.

I'll always remember the way he played in 2004, he was fantastic.
 
Not even close. I don't think the way he gets shoved out on the wing every other game helps though.

The world class tag gets thrown around way too easily. Imo he's 1 step down from being world class.

edit: I think he's in a very similar situation to what Torres was in prior to joining us. Broke onto the scene at a very early age and was expected to be the countries saviour straight away and although they done very well neither lived up to their promise. Another similarity between Rooney and the pre-liverpool Torres was the work they done out of the box rather than in it. Reportedly the first thing Rafa changed about Torres' game was to stop him drifting outwide or dropping back and told him to be more direct, soemthing Rooney could do with doing imo.
 
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As others have said no he hasnt reached where everyone expected him too, but he is still a fantastic player and can turn a game around in a matter of seconds, he will only get better though in my eyes.
 
Interesting...

I would say no not at the moment although I think it would be fair to judge him in the next 4 or 5 years, not the last.

Its unreal to think he's still so young. I think he's a quality player although ironically i often think he's perhaps not suited as a Man U player? He often looks awkward and uncomfortable playing in their system?
 
I agree he's world class. However I do think he's been asked to play in such a way that he's not playing to his strengths. Hence the feeling that he is slightly subdued.
 
Greenlizard0 said:
I agree he's world class. However I do think he's been asked to play in such a way that he's not playing to his strengths. Hence the feeling that he is slightly subdued.
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BaZ87 said:
edit: I think he's in a very similar situation to what Torres was in prior to joining us. Broke onto the scene at a very early age and was expected to be the countries saviour straight away and although they done very well neither lived up to their promise. Another similarity between Rooney and the pre-liverpool Torres was the work they done out of the box rather than in it. Reportedly the first thing Rafa changed about Torres' game was to stop him drifting outwide or dropping back and told him to be more direct, soemthing Rooney could do with doing imo.
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Indeed.
 
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I think he's a pretty good player but he's trying to hard to be the centre of the team, rather than part of it and it hurts him and his team. If he stayed up front and didn't chase down every ball he'd get more goals himself and whoever is in the attacking central mid role would do better aswell. He's neither striker nor midfielder but tries to play both.

You just don't need strikers to make tackles and run around like loonatics, is there a correlation with say him dropping deeper and deeper and their being less space for the likes of Scholes to work and having a significant drop off in Scholes form? maybe, its obviously partly due to age and injuries but Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard Fabregas work best when they, and they alone just run the game and own that area with two strikers making great runs to pass into or to play off from. For England Lamps looks poor because Gerrard, Rooney, anyone just runs around and frankly gets in the way and theres no one to pass to upfront. LIkewise there are few of the worlds best strikers who end up with a average of one goal every two games(or better) who don't stay high up the field.

I really don't know though, did he drop deeper because he felt he couldn't score enough so wanted to do more, or did dropping deeper cause him to score less, chicken or the egg basically. I still think he'd operate better as a flat out striker who stayed on the defenders. He seems unable/unwilling to do so though, I can see Fergie eventually having him sit in the attacking midfielder role, which I think he'd also be good at with two real strikers infront of him. I think he'd become a much better and more effective player sticking to one role rather than be a bit of everything.
 
He is a world class player - but hasnt grown as expected due to not having a proper world class striker in front of him for 2 seasons,

Now that he has, as long as he doesnt get any more injuries, I hope he can improve a lot more
 
A lot of the early hype was that he would go on to be the greatest English player ever, which clearly he hasn't done yet.

I just think his rate of development was so abnormal, that people thought he would also progress at a more common rate on top of his own unconventionally early development (and had this happened we probably would be looking at a candidate for England's greatest ever player). In reality he has made relatively little progression since he first came onto the scene, which still leaves him a high quality player, but also explains why there's talk of unfulfilled potential.
 
He hasn't lived up to the hype simply because he was over-hyped, much like Walcott.
The difference between the 2 though is that Rooney actually seems to believe it all and that's why he get's so frustrated at times when he's playing poor and starts chasing opponents around and lunging in to them whereas Walcott is more level headed and grounded about it all, you can tell that from his interviews.
That's not to say Rooney isn't a good player though, just not as good as he's been led to believe:)
 
Sorry but as a Manchester United fan I can't help but chuckle at the notion that he is not suited to us :rolleyes: Having seen his performances against Blackburn and Bolton this season, and the linkup play he enjoys with Tevez and Ronaldo in particular, I think thats a laughably silly suggestion.

I would agree that he hasn't quite reached the level everyone expected, but maybe that is simply due to overly high expectations caused by the media. He is still a fantastic player, kind of like Kuyt in terms of his work effort but with a lot, lot more skill :p

Besides, it would just be unfair on everyone else if Rooney had reached where everyone expected him to, we'd have both of the worlds best players :D
 
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He is 23 on the 24th, he is a brilliant player and i think there is still a lot more to come from him. I think its wrong to brand players as the next best thing as its always a let down when there not.
 
Gilly said:
When did Messi sign? :confused:
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Hehe, you can claim all you want that Messi is the best player in the world but the stats don't lie.... Ronaldo scored 49 goals in 42 appearances last season in all competitions, and for all the incredible footwork etc Messi just isn't the effective footballer that Ronaldo is. Hence why Ronny will be deserved World Player of the Year this year.
 
Last season he was great, yes. At his peak form was playing better than anyone else in the world.

He needs to do it for longer if that is to be borne out.
 
He hasn't lived up to the hype at all but that was some serious hype that people piled on a kid of 18

I still wouldn't swap him for anyone else
 
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