A decade on from Euro 2004 and England’s teenage messiah in Portgual has become a fully-fledged pariah. Wayne Rooney was an exciting blur of brutal, brilliant potential 10 years ago. Today he is cast as some tragic disappointment. But what if the problem is that perception rather than his performances? Rooney became one of Europes most interesting and modern forwards during the mid-to-late 00s. Though he arrived from Everton as an already versatile and prodigious young striker, the needs of his new team led to him to progress into being an even more complete and multi-functional player. When Ruud van Nistelrooy departed for Real Madrid in 2006, he apparently took the role of a traditional, central focal point in attack with him. United decided against replacing him with a like-for-like player, and instead Rooney found himself playing as a key player without a fixed position in a loose and fluid forward line alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. This new striker-less scheme played into the free-roaming instincts of Uniteds star trio, but it required a great amount of tactical intelligence and energetic movement in order to turn the theory into practise on the field. Its a testament to every player involved that it became such an effective system, but arguably it was Rooney that made it all possible. His industrious runs and defensive work out on the left enabled Ronaldo to flourish as a goal-scoring winger, with the Portugueses almost total focus on attack balanced out by his team mate and friend. Rooney was tactically sharp, technically solid and physically strong. He had to be. The one-touch, box-to-box counter attacks they ripped teams apart with together wouldnt have been possible if the Englishman had lacked in any of those departments. When Tevez was added to the mix, he and Rooney both played like second strikers, trading turns when it came to leading the line or pulling the strings from deep. Yet, much like how van Nistelrooys move to the Bernabeu precipitated a near total transformation of the teams approach, Ronaldos departure in 2009 caused another seismic shift in Sir Alex Fergusons thinking up front. While Rooney had been the catalytic enabler that allowed United to play without a proper No. 9, his manager now required him to step into the very gap his development had threatened to render obsolete. He moved up top, became a scorer of almost every type of goal—much like how he began a player of every type of forward position—and thrived with the team built around him. Scoring goals isnt easy however, and Rooney had always been a bit of a streaky player, flitting from hot periods as a prolific finisher to colder times where he struggled for any consistency in the penalty area. To ensure his supply could meet demand, he became more selfish and gained a strikers ego. He would still drop back to shore up the midfield and try to ensure that games didnt slip, but something changed within Rooney. Fabio Capello even partly blamed his reinvention, from being one of the games great facilitators to a much more straightforward goal getter for Englands implosion at the 2010 World Cup, after an imperious qualifying campaign prior to the tournament. Without the teammates to reproduce the true fluidity of Uniteds fearsome front three, Capello took a different approach, using Emile Heskey as a more rigid reference point so that his match-winning strike partner could roam without robbing the team of its attacking shape. By the time that the summer of 2010 rolled round however, Rooney was a different player to the one that the Italian had designed his tactics around, and sometimes even looked to be playing ahead of the target man. He was a No. 9, and an extremely effective one given the 54 goals he scored for United after Ronaldos departure, but for the first time there was a sense that he was no longer the player he was meant to be. . Still, back then his stocky frame was still muscular rather than rotund, and he retained a snappy turn of pace, good acceleration and enough stamina to run opponents down for a full 90 minutes. After all, such physical attributes were a major part of what made him so deadly in an opponents area. He was physically compact, intelligent with his movement and brave when on the ball too, and would happily try and run down defenders on the dribble, bursting past them with his quick feet and impressive upper body strength. But that no longer seemed enough to keep people sweet. They remembered the rambunctious youngster who looked set to become one of the worlds most devastating players after Euro 2004 and his big money move to Old Trafford. It didnt seem enough that he had been turned into an efficient, match-winning machine in a much more familiarly context up front as the lead striker. Disappointment seemed to hinge on a sort of mourning for the player he didnt become, as if his potential had deserved an end point of greater elegance and sophistication than that of a blunt object of goal-scoring trauma. He was supposed to be some great, individual advance for the English game; a science-fiction future weapon of a footballer, rather than a messy human cannonball who crashed his way to victory. As a youngster he was a striker, and while his technical quality and talent were undeniable, he benefited greatly from his physical gifts, coming through the Everton youth system as a striker of strength as much as anything else, both in terms of his mentality and his body. He has arguably gone full circle, completing his development and fulfilling his destiny by becoming leaner (in terms of skills within his armoury rather than his fitness), meaner and more focused as an out-and-out striker. Sven-Goran Erkisson, his manager at Euro 2004, famously labelled him the White Pele, but is it not Peles goal tally that is remembered first and foremost? With Rooney baring down on Sir Bobby Charltons goalscoring records for club and country, he may soon have a similar shield by which to deflect criticism and secure his place in history. And even though he may not be as sharp and dynamic as he once was outside of the box, he remains an impressively well-rounded footballer. Of course it was an absurd comparison to make by the Swede, but at the same time, though Pele may seen by many one of the most complete forwards of all time, the idea of playing him in midfield would seem negligent. There may be logic in desiring Rooney to drop deeper with age, but as his athleticism falters, perhaps he should be moving closer to the six-yard box, not further away. Its interesting to ponder what would have happened had Jose Mourinho or Arsene Wenger managed to pry him away last summer before Moyes sealed the wounds caused by Fergusons departing criticisms, and handed him a new contract. At Chelsea especially, the England forward would have likely been encouraged to gain an even greater focus on goal-scoring and forward play, a year prior to Diego Costas arrival as the new heir to Didier Drogbas throne. Yet backed with a supporting cast featuring Aaron Ramsey and co. whos to say that finally freed from the need to constantly drop back and check up on a malnourished midfield, he wouldnt have fared even better at the Emirates? Paul Parker is right in his recent assessment of Rooney now being a selfish player. Theres a sense that hes now playing like a self-confessed superstar who has long since paid his dues, found a taste for being the leading man and enjoys the individual indulgence of being a goal poacher. However, the problem is that United and England expect and need too much from him. Theres no going back in football, and thats true for players too. Regardless of whether Rooney had more to his game prior to becoming Uniteds key goalscorer in 2009, its clear that he wasnt keen on stepping back out of the limelight once hed enjoyed the warmth of its glare. When it comes to the time to write the eulogies of his career after he has retired, dont file away his record in a box reserved for footballers whose later years prompt the question: where did it all go wrong? He may have lost a yard of pace or two, and lost interest in maintaining his first touch, but Rooney doesnt necessarily lack quality. The problem for him, though, is that the winds of change within the game are still swirling around the players who are multi-functional and selfless, and without the right circumstances at club level and for England, he now looks left behind.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:54:18 +0000
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