Wayne Rooney scored his first league goal since September as Manchester United crushed Wolves 4-1 on Saturday. But with all the analysis and comments that followed an eventful week for Rooney, one quote stood out.
As well as stating that ‘Wayne was brilliant’, United defender Phil Jones went on to say, ‘but he still has an influence on the team even when he is not scoring. People sometimes don’t take that into consideration. They look at his goal tally and think he is not doing well but he has been terrific for us.’
Sorry, but haven’t we heard this before somewhere? All those years of hearing various England managers harp on about the benefits of Emile Heskey, while neglecting to mention that a striker should be scoring goals, is firmly imprinted on many football brains.
I’m not suggesting Rooney and Heskey are the same. Rooney is undoubtedly more talented and has scored more goals than Heskey. There is the antidote to my bane. But there is a certain similarity with this idea of a striker who doesn’t need to score goals. Has Rooney created a new Heskey-esque role?
Rooney’s club form has been decent, but he is hardly prolific in front of goal. He has scored over 20 league goals only once in seven seasons. But for most, it is his international from which is of real concern.
Jack Wilshere felt the need to chip in recently with the bizarre comment that Rooney’s brain is ‘miles ahead of any England player.’ Really Jack? Unless you mean that Rooney is the first to think about kicking an opposition player for no reason, I would have to disagree.
Wilshere’s insightfulness continued as he stated: ‘He (Rooney) was on fire when he first came into the England team and now he is starting to do it again.’ Yes, Rooney made an impressive start to his international career, but he is nowhere near that form right now. In the last two years he has played 16 games for England and scored 3 goals. Darren Bent has a better record than that.
Rooney has 28 goals from 73 England appearances. By any striker’s standards, let alone England’s main man, that isn’t good enough. Look at Alan Shearer (63 apps, 30 goals), Gary Lineker (80 apps, 48 goals) or even other top international strikers, like David Villa (80 apps, 50 goals). This is what Rooney should aspire to if he wants to avoid more of the dreaded ‘consider his other skills’ waffle.
Rooney’s two-game ban at Euro 2012 will give other strikers, like Bent, a proper crack at the big time and perhaps show Rooney his place in the starting line-up is not guaranteed. Then again, perhaps Heskey can be coaxed out of international retirement.
