Rooney was a different player, I’d say that. He lacked that clinical edge to be a world class goal scorer year after year and he lacked that top level genius, of a Cantona for example, as a playmaker but was very good at both aspects. For sure he could play long diagonals, Valencia will testify to that. Ronaldo was better in the air and a far better goal scorer. Ronaldo’s first touch and technique were on another level to Rooneys which meant his weight of pass, short and through the lines was better than Rooneys. You surely can’t tell me Rooney was a better athlete than Ronaldo? As for pressing and defending I always felt Rooney was a better player when he stopped charging around the pitch letting his emotions take over. Once SAF got a grip on that he became more effective. He gets praised to the hilt for letting emotion take over, but he was far better once that had left his game. But the long and short of it is that he was nothing like Messi or Neymar. They are better players than he was, whether you want to argue he was more rounded or not he wasn’t as good at football as that level of player.