Wayne Rooney - Victim of a witch hunt

The only reason he wants to be a midfielder is because he can hide without goals being a metric of his performance, as long as he keeps coming deep to get the ball and plays his safe backwards/sideways passes and diagonal passes to the wing people will compare his passes and passing success to Iniesta, Silver etc and say he's a top midfielder.

As an example one article I read said that against Malta he had something like 87% passing success rate and used it as evidence he performed well but Jordan Henderson who had a lower pass completion rate assisted the goals and was far more creative overall.
 
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Jesus christ! Rooney's the biggest exaggeration in football. He was never as good as some once said but **** me, he's not nearly as bad as some are now saying and this is getting so tiresome.

As England captain he gave a press-conference and after most press-conferences they sit down with the written press for another interview/press-conference. What do you expect him to do? Refuse to answer any questions.

This idea that he's being picked for England and Utd for marketing reasons is nothing but nonsense. Rightly or wrongly he's being picked for his footballing ability.
 
BaZ87 said:
Jesus christ! Rooney's the biggest exaggeration in football. He was never as good as some once said but **** me, he's not nearly as bad as some are now saying and this is getting so tiresome.

As England captain he gave a press-conference and after most press-conferences they sit down with the written press for another interview/press-conference. What do you expect him to do? Refuse to answer any questions.

This idea that he's being picked for England and Utd for marketing reasons is nothing but nonsense. Rightly or wrongly he's being picked for his footballing ability.
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At his peak playing at CF he was right up there with the best of them. It's the last couple of seasons where he has been pushed out of the CF position where he has been questioned. I believe he still has a few years left in the top flight, but even with saying that I can't see a place for him in the England or Man Utd team...
 
At his peak he was never close to the best CF's around, his big goal scoring years he got nearly no assists, had a pretty large number of penalties and lots and lots of very basic tap ins, which isn't bad. The actual quality of football produced and how effective it is in any period are two separate things. If Messi went through a dry spell and scored less but played the same, ie same ability to dribble around players, same creativeness, same work rate, he wouldn't be a bad player because he wasn't scoring as much. Nor did Rooney scoring well in 2 out of 12 seasons make him world class. His actual football never changed, he didn't become a dribbling master, he wasn't creating world class goals for others, he wasn't scoring phenomenal goals no one else could.

AS for the rest, no Baz, he really is as bad as people are saying. He is constantly messing up passes you would be disappointed a 17yr old on his first appearance would miss because they are so easy. In front of goal he's terrible and in the middle of the park his passing is terrible. Where someone else would pass with the first touch or take a touch forwards he will take a touch backwards, take 5 more touches to adjust his position before choosing a painfully easy pass sideways or backwards.

He doesn't have a few more years left of top flight football, he actively hurts his team by playing. He's not just less good, when Messi gets less good, he will still be an asset on the pitch, not a hindrance. When a player is playing significantly worse as to effect every aspect of the team, then he shouldn't get games, not just starts, he shouldn't be near the team till he can play in a way that helps rather than harms the team.
 
drunkenmaster said:
At his peak he was never close to the best CF's around, his big goal scoring years he got nearly no assists, had a pretty large number of penalties and lots and lots of very basic tap ins, which isn't bad. The actual quality of football produced and how effective it is in any period are two separate things. If Messi went through a dry spell and scored less but played the same, ie same ability to dribble around players, same creativeness, same work rate, he wouldn't be a bad player because he wasn't scoring as much. Nor did Rooney scoring well in 2 out of 12 seasons make him world class. His actual football never changed, he didn't become a dribbling master, he wasn't creating world class goals for others, he wasn't scoring phenomenal goals no one else could.

AS for the rest, no Baz, he really is as bad as people are saying. He is constantly messing up passes you would be disappointed a 17yr old on his first appearance would miss because they are so easy. In front of goal he's terrible and in the middle of the park his passing is terrible. Where someone else would pass with the first touch or take a touch forwards he will take a touch backwards, take 5 more touches to adjust his position before choosing a painfully easy pass sideways or backwards.

He doesn't have a few more years left of top flight football, he actively hurts his team by playing. He's not just less good, when Messi gets less good, he will still be an asset on the pitch, not a hindrance. When a player is playing significantly worse as to effect every aspect of the team, then he shouldn't get games, not just starts, he shouldn't be near the team till he can play in a way that helps rather than harms the team.
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He was loved by the majority (maybe not yourself) of Man Utd fans when things were going well. When I say top flight football, I should have been specific. Going by his form this (and last) season he's not good enough to be playing for Man Utd, especially this season due to the players you've brought in and Rashfords emergence. I do however believe that class is permanent, he could be an asset for a few of the lesser / mid-table clubs in the league.
 
scottb777 said:
He was loved by the majority (maybe not yourself) of Man Utd fans when things were going well. When I say top flight football, I should have been specific. Going by his form this (and last) season he's not good enough to be playing for Man Utd, especially this season due to the players you've brought in and Rashfords emergence. I do however believe that class is permanent, he could be an asset for a few of the lesser / mid-table clubs in the league.
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He was a top player once upon a time but that was a long time ago now. Class is permanent isn't really a thing either. Either what you have is based on physical attributes that decline or you are a skill based player and that remains much longer.

Rooney can no longer accelerate, pass, control or shoot at a level that is good enough for the PL. I doubt he would stand out in the championship anymore. Its quite amazing how even the skills that he possessed when he was younger are diminished.

He has never had world class control or passing but it was always good. Its now horrendous a lot of the time.
 
fez said:
He was a top player once upon a time but that was a long time ago now. Class is permanent isn't really a thing either. Either what you have is based on physical attributes that decline or you are a skill based player and that remains much longer.

Rooney can no longer accelerate, pass, control or shoot at a level that is good enough for the PL. I doubt he would stand out in the championship anymore. Its quite amazing how even the skills that he possessed when he was younger are diminished.

He has never had world class control or passing but it was always good. Its now horrendous a lot of the time.
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It baffles me, I know he peaked early in his development but he's still only 30. I just can't understand how he's declined so much. Obviously I'm a Leeds fan so I certainly don't watch Man Utd's every game, but has it really got to the stage where you feel he has to retire? Or more likely, move to America?
 
He has been a victim of a few things in my opinion.

He is not the type of player that has the skill to adapt his game as his fitness and speed declines.

His physique is not conducive to longevity and he has never been one to really take care of his body or his fitness levels.

He started at the top level very young.

His style of play was very aggressive and hard on the body.

His temperament was also a big part of his effectiveness so when he was slowly calmed down he also lost something that made him better.

He has been asked to play in positions that do not suit him which have also lead to a reduction in his goals and sharpness in front of it.

Sometimes it just happens. Torres was a monster at one point and then he seemed to go off the boil almost over night and has never come close to being that player again.

I think his best bet is to go to america because he would be good enough over there and wouldn't have to have the tarnish on his career of slowly falling through the squads of lower PL teams.
 
Everyone's speed and reactions slow down with age, it wouldn't surprise me if his are just slowing down quicker than other players because of the way he's built, he has the body of a bricky more than an athlete.
 
Given the age he started playing and the fact he's averaged well over 40 games a season for 14 years, without a single serious injury, it's really not difficult to see his career and form tail off over the last few years.

Excellent player in his day, world class at his very best, but he's already had a longer career than most players that retire after 35 will have.
 
fez said:
I think his best bet is to go to america because he would be good enough over there and wouldn't have to have the tarnish on his career of slowly falling through the squads of lower PL teams.
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Spot on really, if he can't up his game. I wonder if he'll choose to do this himself, or if he'll get forced out by the club?
 
He's a professional athlete earning tens of millions of pounds a year, and there are many better players than him in his 'old' position and in the new position he wants to fall back to.

He can get bent. No sympathy has been earned.

Three world cups, ONE GOAL.


Watching him play is like watching someone play FIFA without knowing what the buttons do.
 
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Problem with Rooney is that he has had the English hype train running his entire career, yes he was a very good player but I never once thought "that guy is world class and he'd get into any international team".

I also feel his stats are well padded with the penalties he gets (yes I know other players get penalties but nowhere near as many as Rooney), I feel if you remove his penalties then his goal scoring record would be very very poor.

I've been saying for over 3 years that his influence has not started to decline but actually dropped off a cliff, I laughed when Man U signed him to his last contract as you could see it wasn't going to keep him playing at a top level until he was 35 or so, it was far far from value for money.
 
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