Guest writer Iain Anderson, of Why Say Anything fame, gives his take on whether Wayne Rooney should be considered one of England and Manchester United’s greatest ever strikers.
Some think he is one of Manchester United’s greatest ever players, some extend that to include England as well.
Wayne Rooney is an enigma in that he has not scored enough goals to be considered a “great” striker for either team, but he has done a good job over a number of years. He is struggling to find a goal at the moment, but that is a phase all good strikers go through.
If we take the usual comparison with Bobby Charlton, they actually have quite different records. Charlton was very rarely played as a striker for United, bearing in mind they had Denis Law, David Herd and George Best, (when he felt like playing the role). Charlton performed a similar role to Paul Scholes, usually collecting the ball in midfield and scoring, more often than not, from outside the area. He was a United player for 17 years and never once showed any disloyalty. He loves the club and is there to this day.
Rooney has played as a striker for most of his United career and because of this will break Charlton’s goal record in about two thirds of the games Charlton played. He has been at the club for twelve years but is only still there because they’ve given him massive pay rises on the two occasions he has behaved petulantly.
He caused major problems in 2010 by being linked with City, having called into question United’s transfer policy and the quality of his team mates, then fell out with Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013 and wanted to go to Chelsea. Meanwhile, he loves Everton.
If we compare Rooney with the great United and England strikers, we find he is actually some way off being THAT good.
One of United’s most prolific was Ruud van Nistelrooy. Had van Nistelrooy stayed at Old Trafford and played as many games as Rooney, his figures suggest that he would have scored in the region of 217 goals. That is 47 more than Rooney, or two seasons nowadays.
One of England’s most prolific was Jimmy Greaves, who never got anywhere near the amount of caps he should have. In the 57 matches he did play he managed 44 goals. Again, had he been given the same number of caps as Rooney, his tally would be 81 or thereabouts.
In fairness to Rooney, as I mentioned earlier, he hasn’t always been played as a striker; so it could be said that his all round ability has hampered his goals tally.
Sometimes, for England, he has been played out wide whilst United have played him in midfield. Although he will score goals from these positions, he obviously won’t score as many as from a central striking role
.Greaves and van Nistelrooy were out and out strikers who didn’t play any other positions. In fact, Greaves was often accused of not knowing there were two halves to a football pitch as he was never in his own.
Rooney has played 343 games for United scoring 170 goals and he has 105 caps for England with 48 goals. Both very good records and, given his versatility, he has generally been a good purchase for United.
It is, however, his longevity with United that has meant he is in a position to break records and this longevity has been sustained more by luck and the benevolence of Manchester United than by Rooney’s perceived loyalty.
Rooney has been a good player for United and a good player for England. But it now looks as though United would have been better off keeping van Persie for another season rather than letting him go to Fenerbahce. With Rooney struggling, there doesn’t seem to be a plan B.