England skipper, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wayne-Rooney-c36736 found it difficult to handle the pressure of meeting the titanic expectations set for him during the European Championships, and insists that the culture of pinning the blame on a single
individual for the team’s failures needs to be changed.
The Three Lions, notorious for their inability to go the distance in major tournaments, crashed out of the glamorous European event after losing out to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Italy-c2926 in the quarterfinals on a penalty shoot-out.
The Manchester United striker missed out on his country’s first two matches due to suspension. However, he made just about the perfect return to the team, netting the lone goal in his side’s 1-0 win against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032, which enabled them to emerge as Group
D winners.
With the 26-year old going into the match against the Azzurri carrying the weighing burden of the hopes of millions of fans, he failed to make any significant impact during the game. As a result, he became a victim of severe criticism for being the reason
behind the Three Lions exit.
Gerrard admitted that the striker’s return to the team came with a lot of expectations even for his team-mates, but felt that he wilted under pressure.
While talking to reporters, he said: “At this level one of the biggest things is playing without expectation or fear. It is only normal if Wayne is weighed down with that feeling of expectation because everyone expects him to do well.”
Nevertheless, the Liverpool talisman thought that unfair criticism had been meted out at Rooney for underperforming during the European Championships. He opined that the entire team and management needs to share the blame of their shortcomings during the
tournament, and the exercise of victimizing a single individual for the team’s failures should be brought to an end.
He added, “The responsibility has got to be on all 23 players. It's unfair to look at Wayne and say because he never played well, he's the reason why we don't do well at these tournaments.”
Earlier, Gerrard’s http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Brazil-c2858.
Responding to Carragher’s remarks, Gerrard mentioned despite being disparaged from different circles, they will keep on working hard and will give it their all in the competition.
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