Mid season was rife with talk about Wayne Rooney’s goal scoring form. With statistics rolling off the tongue of every commentator and pundit, most notable of course being his lack of goals from open play since the 2-1 victory against Liverpool in March last year, it appeared that the United talisman was beginning to lose his touch. Coming off the back of an understatedly unremarkable World Cup performance in South Africa, Rooney’s familiar automatic slot amongst the national set-up was also subject to speculation.
Although it has to be considered that the weight of expectation had to play a part, the 2009-10 Premier League season saw him score a more than prolific tally of 26 goals. Since the controversial departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid for £80 million, that sort of form was indeed a massive asset to the team’s attempt to come a little closer to eclipsing Liverpool’s record of 18 league titles and at the time, it appeared to be an understandable risk Sir Alex took against Bayern Munich in the second leg of the Quarter-Finals of the Champion’s League with Rooney nursing an uncomfortable ankle.
Turbulent times were to come at United during October, the forward’s declaration of the lack of ambition at the club and stumbles in contract talks added substantial fuel to the fire that he would be leaving the club during the January transfer window.
7 months on, United have indeed, in reference to Sir Alex’s famous quote back in 2002, knocked Liverpool of their “perch”, securing a record breaking 19th league title with a 1-1 draw away to relegation threatened Blackburn through Rooney’s powerfully converted spot kick from 12 yards. The goal seemingly appeared to capture his rediscovery of form from a season ago as well as comfortably burying the bad publicity from the incident back in October.
Yet it is the business end of the season that has seen Wayne excel in a different position, slightly deeper off the Mexican striker Javier Hernandez, arguably the buy of the summer proudly attaching 13 goals to his name on his debut season in the Premier League. With Tevez and Ronaldo having moved on from the red side of Manchester, the path has been paved for Rooney to move back into the central role he so favours and away from the left sided forward position he occupied with a quiet reluctance during the presence of the Argentine and the Portuguese.
It cannot be denied that Rooney is a superbly gifted footballer, yet his style of football has dramatically changed from the youngster who first put on a United shirt and fired a hat trick past Fenerbache in a Champion’s League group game in 2004. The role he has played for Manchester United this latter half of the season appears to be one he is most comfortable in and Sir Alex has used Rooney’s tendency to drop deep, due to frustration when he is not getting the ball enough, to the team’s advantage, flowing effortlessly from 4-4-2 in attack to a 4-5-1 off the ball with him bridging the midfield and linking the offensive moves.