I'm never sure whether to praise or condemn this player. His cross for the goal against Italy could not have been better, but consistently his shooting and set pieces on the international stage are of poor quality. He has never scored in a World Cup and once again looked out of international form. It could be that he is a 'world class' player of low international quality.
He's scored a bunch in friendlies and in qualifying but unlucky during tournaments. He's done his all to step up to the Level necessary to dominate at this tournament but I feel he just won't be able to get it done.
By far the most overrated player in the world. I never understood why some people (*cough* brits! *cough*) consider him "world class".
Rooney is world class. Not my favorite player but to say he has not enough quality for this stage is silly. I think he will score this WC ... England's next two games are a little easier.
Rooney is not World Class. He is a good player, who has spurts of world class form. As a Man Utd and England fan, I see him in pretty much every game. He will go through long patches (7\8\9 games) of being average...and then have a 3\4 game spurt where he is exceptional or at least contributes exceptional goals\assists...then lose form again. His stats for club and country actually look quite impressive on paper....but his overall play game to game is far from impressive. He should be given one more half for England in this WC to prove himself, if he can't, he should be benched for a more in form player.
Say England doesn't get out of this group and say he doesn't score or contribute much to the team, could his place really be threatened from the lineup for England? Cause England definitely need to try new things.
He is a good player. Its easy to judge players who are used up and injured. But his instincts are sound (goal cross) he is just not what he used to be. He should play somewhere behind the attackers
I'm a die hard united/rooney fan (as my username suggests), but after his performance this weekend, I truly believe we'd be better off starting barkley as the number 10 and sterling out wide. Rooney would be much more effective coming off the bench as a number 10 or starting up top.
Separate his stats from being played as the main striker and from being played as AM or at the wings and you'll see that he does great as a strikes but much less so in midfield. IMO they should put Barkley or Sterling in the middle and then one of Rooney and Sturridge up top.
Rooney is a victim of his own work rate its a positive he is so willing to tackle back on the edge of his own box and chase the ball in midfield but its not what he is in the team for, I would like to see Rooney picking up the ball back to goal infront of the defense and linking up with players with pace cutting in from the wing Rooney would get so many more goals his pace is decent he can get on balls played between defense