Wayne Rooney approaches this weekend’s FA Cup final at something of a crossroads in his career.
Rooney, the Manchester United and England captain, will play against Crystal Palace at Wembley and he is also likely to start for the Three Lions when they kick off their Euro 2016 campaign against Russia. One question, though, persists: Where will he be deployed?
There has long been debate surrounding Rooney’s best position. He burst onto the scene as a youthful, exuberant striker capable of scoring goals from near and far. He was a complete modern-day centre forward, a pitbull of a player whose energy levels never seemed to drain.
Years of service at the top of English football have since sapped his stamina and he has been dropped back into midfield in recent seasons. Sir Alex Ferguson did it initially, perhaps due to his mistrust of Rooney – who publicly spoke of his desire to remain as a striker at the time – as a central figure. Rooney has, after all, only scored over 20 goals in a Premier League season twice, in the 2011-12 and 2009-10 campaigns, when he hit 27 and 26 respectively.
Rooney, as such, has had to drop deep to keep himself relevant. The emergence of the vibrant Marcus Rashford and the electric Anthony Martial at Old Trafford this season has seen Rooney continue that process. Having fought tooth and nail to keep his striking position under Ferguson, he knows he will not win such an argument with Louis van Gaal.
Where Rashford and Martial are pacey, unpredictable players, Rooney seems slow, methodical and almost plodding by comparison. He knows this.
"Sometimes you have to make choices in your career and at the moment it's better for me to play deeper," he said on Tuesday. "It could be a bit different for England where I could still be the striker but probably next season that's where I see myself playing."
At United, playing in midfield is not a problem for Rooney, where the death knell on his days as a striker has already been heard. He has scored only eight Premier League goals this season in 28 games and is instead laying on chances to his team-mates, creating 43 opportunities with a passing accuracy of 81 per cent in the opposition half.
When Rooney has the ball, he is unlikely to lose it. He has also retained his combative streak, winning 86% of his tackles.
For England, the question is a more complicated one. Kane won the Premier League Golden Boot after scoring 25 goals in 2015-16, while Jamie Vardy scored 24. Even Daniel Sturridge, now back to full fitness, is a better finisher than Rooney and, in a season disrupted by injury, has managed to score the same amount of Premier League goals in half the number of games.
Yet if Rooney plays in midfield, who would be dropped?
Dele Alli has enjoyed a stunning debut season for Tottenham and will be fresh for the tournament after missing the last three games of the season due to suspension. It is no coincidence that Tottenham’s form fell off a cliff in his absence. Eric Dier is England's only natural defensive-midfield option, while Jack Wilshere remains Roy Hodgson’s golden boy and is likely to play if fit.
There simply isn’t room for Rooney. His international record is inflated by goals against the likes of San Marino and he has just one goal at World Cup finals, failing to sparkle at any major tournament since Euro 2004.
As such, Rooney’s assertion that he can still play as a striker for Hodgson is wrong. There are numerous better options for the former Fulham boss and he even faces a battle to earn a spot in midfield.
The 30-year-old may have a future in a deeper position for United, but reinvention on the international stage is a different matter entirely. Rooney's time as a striker has already come to an end; soon, his international career may well conclude too.
...
- Goal