by Hoop Blah »
17 Jun 2014 14:08
Zana Badawi Rooney's problem is that he's doing the stuff that we have an abundance of players in the squad that are capable of doing.
Take the assist, for example. Assists we can do, we have lots of players comfortable in the final third (and in wide areas in particular). Thats not Rooney's role.
Rooney's role is providing the cutting edge and he isnt doing that. He's the player that should be on the end of the assists.
See I think that's more your problem than Rooney's. Yes he's in the side to be a goal threat and he's got 39 goals in 90 odd games for England, so he's generally doing that, but he isn't really there to be this magical flair player or just a fox in the box to be on the end of things (if he was he wouldn't be played out left). The likes of Sterling and Sturridge are the flair players now and Rooney's role has, IMO, evolved from that as he's grown older and more responsible as a player.
His role is to give us a bit of a cutting edge yes but it's more to be the fulcrum of the attack and to get the others to play around him. His cutting edge is to make fewer mistakes, be more reliable in keeping the ball and creating things and that's why he's always been more of a number 10 and not a number 9.
He can offer more, and should've hit the target and probably scored with his best chance against Italy, but it's the unrealistic expectations for his performances that are the real problem.
Edit: There might be an argument that we need something different in the side, but in terms of doing what (it seems) Hodgson has been asking him to do lately I think he's been performing reasonably well. Can do better, but is nowhere near the ineffective poor performances many seem to suggest.
