EURO 2012 Qualification: Rooney shines in a “new” role for England
In the past six months of football, Wayne Rooney has probably been the most talked about character as far as tabloids and media are concerned. Whether in England or Spain or Germany, newspapers have not shied away from openly criticizing the Manchester United striker for his horrid 2010 World Cup display.
In all honestly, yes Wayne Rooney was perhaps the biggest disappointment of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The English international striker failed to even score a single goal not only that he was completely devoid of any passion and there was an apparent lack of effort in his performances, something that one seldom associates with Wayne Rooney.
Rooney is famous for his squash buckling style of play. He is thought by many as being the first player to reach the heights of talent that England’s very own Paul Gascoigne displayed during his peak with Tottenham and with England in the early 1990s.
However, luckily for the English national team, Rooney does not possess Gazza’s drinking problems or behavioural issues. If all things are looked at from an objective point of view a lot things went wrong for Rooney just before the club football season ended. Yes, for most of the season Rooney was Manchester United’s most outstanding player and was head and shoulders above other strikers in World football.
But the ankle injury that he sustained against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg for Manchester United, completely put Rooney off his track.
He was used by his club manager, Sir Alex Ferguson in the second leg of the quarterfinal at Old Trafford but it was understood that he was risking the young striker’s fitness as Rooney wasn’t totally fit to participate in the match due to the inflammation on his ankle. United won that much but exited the tournament on away goals whereas Rooney was withdrawn from the field after just 45 minutes of the match.
From there on in Rooney’s goal drought began and continued all throughout the World Cup. However, recently England began their qualification campaign for the European Championships of 2012. Rooney also kicked off the English Premier League season with Manchester United on 16th of August 2010 but only participated in two of the first three games of the season due to a stomach bug problem.
He scored in one of the matches and also managed to provide two assists to his team mates in the process. Against Bulgaria in England’s first qualification match for EURO 2012, Fabio Capello started Rooney in a different role for his national team side and this immediately paid dividends. Despite the fact that Rooney failed to get a goal for himself, he was credited with three assists throughout the match and was instrumental in creating chances for his team mates throughout the match.
In the end, England won the match by 4 goals to 1 with Rooney establishing himself as the creative influence in absence of Frank Lampard. After the match, Capello took credit for awakening Rooney’s English national team career by playing him in a different role.
The ex-A.C Milan manager said that, he played Wayne in a different role than usual and the striker did very well. According to the Italian, he spoke with Rooney before the match started. Fabio further added that, Rooney was told to stay in front of the two central midfielders but behind Jermaine Defoe in attack.
England’s manager stated that Rooney’s quality was very high and his position demanded that he should be given a free role when going forward with the team. Rooney’s new position in the English team’s formation has come as a welcome sight for the English national team’s fans who were starting to doubt their team’s ability to perform at the highest level of football.
Regardless, pundits and fans alike should be careful before drawing conclusions after England’s first qualification encounter as previously in the qualification rounds for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, England impressed massively but then failed to live up to the expectations when the real tournament came about.
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