Wayne Rooney: Has he lived up to the hype

G|mp said:
You don't watch Manchester United very often do you?
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Yes i do, most weeks I watch as much football as is humanly possible, I also watch it live i don't watch the highlights which frankly can make anyone look good.

I also don't rate someone as having had an effective game because they were on the ball a lot, or they really really tried hard, or he tracked back so well, or he never stopped running and could really see his passion and need to work hard. He's a striker, he has a good game in my eyes when he does well as a striker. Some people seem overly swayed by simply how many touches someone has of the ball, rather than how much time they are completely out of position leaving other players with no one to pass to.

If he wants to be on the ball all the time and be the playmaker thats fine, however he should be playing for instance, instead of Scholes, not playing in the area of the pitch Scholes would normally dominate. As I said if he did what he does now, with ANOTHER striker up there infront of him for his work to pay off and plays as that attacking midfielder fine.

Look at it this way, when Adebayor gets a hatrick against a woeful defence then for 5 games trys to be Henry, dropping deep to get the ball and going out on the wing I cringe, why? because he leaves no one for Fabregas to pass to and simply gets in his way. You need a striker and a attacking midfielder, he is not as good a striker, or as good a midfielder as he could be if he stuck to ONE of those roles.

I also didn't say Rooney was particularly inconsistant, however he DOES have games where he's not even noticeable except for the frustrated bad tackles, theres already been a few(including england) this year, Ronaldo has them aswell, but Ronaldo's consistant goal scoring really speaks for itself.
 
Gilly said:
Not that Messi is a great, just that I think he's been more consistent. I said at the time he was at his peak that Ronaldo was the best player in the world. At that time he was, at this time I don't believe he is - mainly through injury.
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I think the exact opposite. At his best last season nobody came close to Messi but (mainly down to injuries) he didn't play at that level all season. Ronaldo maybe didn't reach the same level as Messi but he was excellent throughout the season imo.
 
No.

Maybe this is just something in my head, but whenever Rooney misses a game, or a few games, he seems to come back a better player. He is full of energy and more direct, but then after 1-2 or two games he seems to lose it.
 
Gilly said:
No.

However, he is a world class forward.
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Spot on. He's truly excellent at what he does, but what he was being hyped up as was ridiculous.
One thing that does get overlooked is that Ronaldo shines because of the work Rooney does, take that away and Ronaldo doesn't look the same player. It's all the other stuff aside from scoring that Rooney does that works, but he needs to improve on his finishing and become a little more selfish.
 
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I think he's a world class player, he's still fairly young and got many years left in the top flight. I think he'll only get better.
 
Gilly said:
He's a forward. He's not a play-on-the-shoulder-of-the-last-man player. He's a deeper player. He can't do the Nistelrooy play, it's not what he's about.
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I still class him as a striker because not all strikers do exactly the same thing. What you've just described is what people refer to as a "out and out striker".
 
I was going to reply but Gilly answered the question perfectly well

He's not a striker and he's not an attacking midfielder, he's a forward

Drunkenfool should stick to masturbating over Eboue
 
Rooney is the best player at united by quite some margin.
He makes the attack tick, without him, they look toothless.

Is he world class? without doubt, I wouldnt swap him for ANY other player in the world.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Look at it this way, when Adebayor gets a hatrick against a woeful defence then for 5 games trys to be Henry, dropping deep to get the ball and going out on the wing I cringe, why? because he leaves no one for Fabregas to pass to and simply gets in his way.
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That's funny, because I seem to remember Fabregas managing pretty well when he used to play with Henry.
 
I view him more as a world class player rather than an out and out striker, sometimes he's frustrating but more often than not he's superb, with the occasional bit of magic, nearly always picking the best options (his footballing brain is supreme). I wouldn't swap him for any other player in the world.

At that bloke who said he's trying too hard to live up to the hype whereas Walcott isn't in over his head - he's clearly more competitive and gets annoyed at himself when he does something wrong. If you don't want someone like that in your team what type of player do you want? One that ignores mistakes and doesn't try and make up for them?
 
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Imo he's gone backwards, the Rooney we see today isn't the same player who was almost unplayable at times back in his first/second seasons at United. Maybe it's his injuries or maybe it's the pressure he's had put on him but he's definately lost a spark he had when he was tearing teams apart during Euro 2004. Perhaps if he had stayed at Everton for another couple of seasons before moving to a huge club he might have progressed better as a player where the spotlight wasn't on him so much.

Another thing is I think he plays better behind a front man than in any other position, which is hasn't had the chance to do for a long time being stuck on the wing or playing alongside/interchanging with Tevez. I don't think the way United have been playing the last 18 months entirely suit Rooney's game.

I think he's got to a point now where he won't ever reach the level a lot of people thought he would but nevertheless he's still a top class forward.
 
I do wish he'd run at defenders more like he used to. And I also wish he'd put his foot through the ball like he used to 2/3 years ago.

Apart from that I still think he's probably our most important player.
 
Gilly said:
He's a forward. He's not a play-on-the-shoulder-of-the-last-man player. He's a deeper player. He can't do the Nistelrooy play, it's not what he's about.
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Im with Gilly on this one. Rooney is definitely not a striker he's a forward.

The impossible to live upto hype shows how poor coaching has been in England up until recently and it's blinded us as fans. We are all too quick to label a player as a "Striker" or a "Right Winger" or a "Central Midfielder". So when they don't put in 20 goals a season or beat a full back twenty times in a game or complete 20 crosses then they must be failing as the said "Striker", "Right Winger" or "Central Midfielder"

Give me a Wayne Rooney who will score you 15-20 goals a season, beat his man 10 times in a game and put in 10 decent crosses above your traditional position based players any day of the week because I guarantee he will bring more to the team.

Other world class national teams have "Players who play in "Midfield" or as one of the "Forwards". As a kid Ronaldo played purely as a forward occupying anywhere along the forward line with his other forwards interchanging positions. Over here we are all awe struck that a Right winger can hit 20 goals never mind 40 odd. My Portugese mate are like pfft it was bound to happen.

So if England had more players like Rooney who can occupy a number of positions we would be a lot better off. Granted he hasn't reached they hype but lets face it, if he did what would the papers have to write about then ;)
 
Great players, should have had time to mature at Everton, still acts like a 18 year old for England and Manchester United, if he could turn that anger into skill he would be even better, typical of that is the volley against Newcastle.

Just hope he doesn't burn out before his peak.
 
atpbx said:
Rooney is the best player at united by quite some margin.
He makes the attack tick, without him, they look toothless.

Is he world class? without doubt, I wouldnt swap him for ANY other player in the world.
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He's a good player, but I wouldn't say he's the best player at United and certainly not by some margin. At least not until he picks up some element of consistency.

I would say our most important and consistent player is Rio Ferdinand who was literally faultless last season (and should be our Captain), then Ronaldo because we've seen our team without him at the start of this season and it's not good, then Carrick who is the General of our midfield (massive miss), then Rooney and Tevez who can both do the same job.
 
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