Wayne Rooney had that season after Ronaldo left in which he often as not played as an out and out number nine, and he scored 34 goals in 42 games. Pretty impressive stuff, even for a CF, and we all know that had he stayed fit we'd have won the title and got the CL final, but he did get injured, ruining our season and resulting in a woeful showing at the World Cup. Then the last few months of 2010 were blighted by injury, tabloid stories, contract bollocks and a world cup hangover.
And then, on January 1st 2011, Wayne Rooney seemed to come back to life, since scoring in the first minute against West Brom he's played almost exclusively as a number ten, completely run our play, and has scored 48 goals in 65 starts. That 48 include away goals in the quarters and semis of the Champions League, five against Chelsea, four against Arsenal, three against City, and two against each of Spurs and Liverpool. Oh, and of course, in the biggest of those 65 matches he did this:
The variety and quality of these 48 goals in a season and a half is astonishing, and that alone would make him one of the best in the world, but goals aren't even the best part of his game. He is an astonishing footballer, and is well on the way to being the greatest to ever play for Manchester United.