Quote:
Originally Posted by jojojo
The game's also about the other 89 minutes.
It's also about:
Zidane - 95 goals in 500 games (31 in 108 for France)
Ronaldinho - 126 in 301, 24 in his best season (32 in 80 for Brasil)
Charlton - 279 in 828 (49 in 106 for England)
Different players, different styles but every one of them a match turner.
The top scorer in the PL in 98/99 was Hasselbank but it was Yorke, Cole, OJS and Sheringham who have the memories. We've had the PL's top scorer once since its inception (RvN in 2003) For the fourth season in succession Rooney will score about 20 goals - and some of them will be crucial.
Sure I'd like to see him score more (because I'm greedy and I think he likes scoring) and maybe next season he'll do the Henry-esque leap and become a 30ish a year player instead of a 20ish. But if he doesn't it might be down to the kind of player he's "meant" to be rather than how many hours he spends practising finishing.
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You make perfectly good points. They would be wholly applicable if Rooney were playing a withdrawn role. But he is deployed as a centre forward now and as such his main priority must be sticking chances away.
We have been fortunate that Ronaldo's goal getting form has been incessant this season. Because if he wereto stop scoring from here on in, Rooney is not doing enough to make up the short fall. None of the team is really. That is why we need a proper striker, and then move Rooney to his natural position on the field IMO.