Walrus
Oppressed White Male
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2008
- Messages
- 11,176
I realise this isnt the first thread on Rooney, but in the anti-megathread spirit I wanted to fire up a discussion and see what the cafs thoughts on our Captain/nearly-all-time-top-scorer are.
Plenty has been said on our problems/deficiencies last season, but for me a big point - and one that I have argued in other threads - was our lack of a true "star player" in the final third. We had good performances from Young, and both Mata and Rooney had their moments, as did Di Maria, but nobody that consistently stood out.
Look at successful teams recently and there is always a star performer - Messi, Ronaldo, Hazard, Aguero, Suarez (for Liverpool). Players that have single handedly elevated their teams and won points. Rooney is arguably supposed to be our talisman and our star, not to mention our captain, but he simply doesnt compare to the aforementioned players, and frankly has never reached the sort of level that we have seen from those players.
For me, Rooney is the elephant in the room when we are discussing our attack - for as long as he is here, he is likely to play (even out of position), all the more so if he remains captain. This is a problem I feel.
The options we appear to have are;
1) Keep Rooney - meaning he will be first choice or thereabouts.
2) Buy a striker to compete with him for first choice - nice in principle but could mean Rooney then being shifted into midfield or out wide in order to accommodate him.
3) Sell him - Pretty unlikely to happen, for better or worse.
Plenty has been said on our problems/deficiencies last season, but for me a big point - and one that I have argued in other threads - was our lack of a true "star player" in the final third. We had good performances from Young, and both Mata and Rooney had their moments, as did Di Maria, but nobody that consistently stood out.
Look at successful teams recently and there is always a star performer - Messi, Ronaldo, Hazard, Aguero, Suarez (for Liverpool). Players that have single handedly elevated their teams and won points. Rooney is arguably supposed to be our talisman and our star, not to mention our captain, but he simply doesnt compare to the aforementioned players, and frankly has never reached the sort of level that we have seen from those players.
For me, Rooney is the elephant in the room when we are discussing our attack - for as long as he is here, he is likely to play (even out of position), all the more so if he remains captain. This is a problem I feel.
The options we appear to have are;
1) Keep Rooney - meaning he will be first choice or thereabouts.
2) Buy a striker to compete with him for first choice - nice in principle but could mean Rooney then being shifted into midfield or out wide in order to accommodate him.
3) Sell him - Pretty unlikely to happen, for better or worse.