Wayne Rooney.
It seemed inevitable that he would eventually make the switch back from Manchester back to his boyhood club, the idea had often been flirted with by the media before it came to fruition in the summer of 2017. A lot of fans were happy to see the Manchester United and England skipper make the switch, but there was whispers of uncertainty amongst fans who were concerned of his ability to still perform at the top level and also whether he was the right man we needed to take Everton forward.
Rooney struggled in the last few years at United and found himself being accommodated because of his technical ability and for me this stemmed back to Sir Alex Ferguson.
Now I’m not one for criticising arguably the greatest manager of all time, but Ferguson would of done absolutely anything to win and rightly so, if that meant playing Rooney on the wing or behind the striker or even as a holding midfielder to win the match he would do exactly that. For me that is one of the biggest reasons now Rooney’s game has massively suffered in recent years.
In my opinion Wayne does not know how to play as a centre forward or as a “number 10” because he has been swapped and changed so many times in between, that he has not been able to master either. When he was a young, raw, quick, strong, aggressive centre forward he was unplayable, and I’ve heard stories from former team mates of them seeing him at 14 playing with senior professionals and bullying them.
That was the Wayne Rooney we all instantly fell in love with, but as he got his latter 20’s the raw edge and speed had gone and that is natural and happens to the best of us, but if you look at players in a similar build and skill level to Wayne e.g Alan Shearer, Robert Lewandowski, Andriy Shevchenko, Raul (I say these players because they are players who aren’t naturally blessed with skill) they all were able to carry on playing at a stop level into their 30’s (barring Lewandowski, but hes going to, the kid can finish) because they all have played as a striker all of their lives and perfected their roles.
The half a yard or maybe even a full yard that Rooney has lost, all of these players lost too, but their reading of the game kept them one step ahead of the centre halfs they play against.
I compare it to Jamie Carragher or John Terry; the two were never blessed with speed but again their reading of the game prolonged their careers and let John Terry play well into his 30’s.
Now this makes me sound like I’m trying to diminish Rooney’s career, but this is far from the case. His goal scoring record is brilliant and probably has a trophy cabinet the size of my house but, watching him break onto the scene at Everton and having the pleasure to be there and witness this special player emerge from a council estate in Croxteth, I wanted more.
His name should have been up there with Ronaldo and Messi for me, and again for me, it’s a shame that in the entirety of his time in the Premier league, in 10 years time, will he be held in the same breath as Henry, Shearer or Cantona, and Aguero doesn’t seem to be slowing down either.
Unfortunately for Wayne the game has changed and the “number 10” role now is a role were you need to be quick, sharp and have a good turn of pace, aswell as having the brain to slip cute clever balls through small gaps and it saddens me to say I really don’t think he still has that.
That’s not for me to say he still can’t be useful to Everton because I still think he can, but he cannot be the first name on the sheet like he seems to have been so far this season. For me I think Rooney would benefit either really perfecting his role as a forward and think about coming of the bench as a presence for us. He's definitely capable in the air and holding up play, but for me he needs to focus on stop dropping deep, because at times he gets in other players way and really stifles us.
The other option for me would be for him to drop deeper, his long range passing is excellent and I think he could be good in that quarterback role, picking passes from deep and dictating the game, but he is gonna find it very difficult because of the amount of midfielders we have at the club. For me this definitely needs addressing and another headache that Ronald Koeman has brought on himself.
