The sports pages don’t say it.
The TV pundits don’t say it.
The radio reporters that I rarely hear probably don’t say it.
The websites and blogs don’t say it.
So it’s down to me to say : Rooney has to be coached. He has to improve his movement.He has to improve his play off the ball.
It is that simple : Wayne Rooney has to improve his play off the ball.
His whole game so far has been on the ball. That is wrong because half of the game is played off the ball.
Even Maradona, who could beat five opponents, had to be cute about where he positioned himself.
WAYNE ROONEY wants to be Superman and we think he can be Superman.
His thing is : Just give me the ball.
In his book Steven Gerrard talks about Rooney in the dressing-room before the Euro 2004 encounter with France: “He was just messing about with the ball, as if he were going out for a Sunday League match… ‘Just give me the ball,’ he told everyone. ‘Give me the ball. I will do it. I want it’.”
That was OK for 2002 because he was 18 and fit and relaxed and he was playing in a team with a bit of rhythm, and he was able to surprise the opposition, and expectations were a lot less. He played very well, scored goals, and announced himself on a world stage.
The reason he doesn’t score more for United and England is blindingly obvious : he doesn’t get the ball in the right areas because he is not smart enough. He’s not cute like Bergkamp, he’s not patient enough to wait for it like Sheringham.
He is a raging bull. His positions on the field are dictated by his temper, by his impatience, by a powerful desire to do everything : win the ball, dribble, pass, score, win it again, cross it and head in his own cross.
He drops back too far and tries to do other people’s jobs. He does a bit of everything and achieves a lot of nothing. He does that because the Man United midfield is inadequate and so is the England midfield.
But the basic problem would be there anyway : Rooney wants to do more than is possible and he wants to do it all on the ball. He has to learn that less is more. He has to learn to play off the ball as well as on it.
He has not scored for England for two years because he hasn’t improved. And he hasn’t improved because he’s still playing naturally, still playing with the instinct and natural ability that got him a contract with Everton, and then with Man United, and won him a senior cap at seventeen.
He’s been playing Under-21 football in the senior team and its been so brilliant at times that we have all just let him do his thing and assumed that he will develop. No goals in two years suggest he’s not improving. He’s had injuries and suspensions but even without those he would not have improved because he thinks he is Roy of the Rovers and he is still playing cartoon hero football.
And his managers don’t help him. They say : You can’t coach genius. They also say : You can’t drop Rooney, he’s our best player.
The media don’t help him because there is no sensible debate about his role.
I mean : What is he?
What is Wayne Rooney?
He’s not the new Alan Shearer, so what is he?
Is he the new Bobby Charlton?
Is he the new Jimmy Greaves?
Is he the new Paul Scholes?
I don’t know. But it’s a team game and he should have a specific role in a team that keeps him doing the things that matter most to the team, things that other players cannot do.
He has to stop ball-chasing like a schoolboy, stop playing like a one-man whirlwind for 28 minutes and then screaming at the ref about a foul that didnt happen.
Yes, Rooney is kicked a lot, held and blocked. Yes, he was fouled in the World Cup quarter-final before he trampled so gently on Carvalho’s bollocks.
The ref should have given him a free-kick and when he didn’t get it Rooney trampled on the defender’s balls, reaching back with his left foot, knowing exactly what he was doing because great footballers always know exactly where their feet are.
I don’t think he is off-form. I think he’s in a rut.
He’s trying too hard to repeat his Goals of the Month. He’s stuck.
Latest news from the England camp is that Scott Parker will replace Gerrard in a 3-5-2. He is a ball-chaser, like Rooney.
Parker is a busy short-ball man who helps you maintain a high tempo. Let’s hope he doesn’t get booked in the first ten minutes.
Croatia coach Slaven Bilic says he hopes England do play 3-5-2.
I’m sure his assistants, Asanovic and Prosinecki, feel the same way.They know that system inside out and finished third in France 98 using it.