btajim wrote:Beefymcfc wrote:I disagree mate, and I rate a couple of our players above him. Yes, he is good for a a team who have a great (and I mean that) club manager, but he is not in the same league as the rest of the top players; fuck potentially, he is not that player. And what really winds me up is that he has no allegiance to our country, failing to sing the National Anthem, regardless of choice.
Honestly mate, if we are relying on him to take us anywhere then I'll give up now, just like Lennon, they have no pride whatsoever. They are a law unto themselves and won't help us prove our worth, which has been shown (sad face there mate).
Could you name the English Players you rate above Rooney to play in that position?
I wouldn't be starting with Heskey btw.
And Capello was once one of the very finest Managers in the World. I've no doubt about it. The professionalism he installed in England from day one was evident - but it's fallen apart as soon as the World Cup arrived. Look at how easy qualification was.
I'm still optimistic that things will click in time for the Slovenia Match but I'll be leading the riots if England finish 3rd in the Group. Well, I won't be rioting but you know what I mean.
Cheers for the reply Jim, only just spotted it. And the answer to your question (without looking down my nose at you) is that I actually rate a few higher than Rooney in that position because I just don't see him as an out-and-out striker. For me he is a second striker, someone who sits off the front man, picks up the bits and pieces and allows the front man to do his business. In my opinion, that's the problem with our current set-up, we're using Heskey in the second striker role which should be where Rooney is and if you are playing a 2nd striker to feed a 2nd striker then there's going to be problems, if you know what I mean.
For me, I'd put Bent, Defoe and even Peter Crouch above him in the front man role as I actually see the likes of Defoe and Bent as out-and-out strikers, with Crouch somewhere inbetween. The problem is that no manager has the balls to drop him from the 1st team or seemingly now, not even able to play him off a front man. Don't get me wrong, Rooney is a quality player but I just wonder if he'd be that 1st name on the team sheet if he wasn't at United but still at Everton? At United, Taggart has renewed his faith in him due to the sale of Tranny but if you look past this season, is Rooney really the star performer that we are led to believe he is? Yes, he runs around a lot, yes he scores some goals, but if you consider that last season he scored less Premier goals than our very own Robinho, and only the same amount as Bent, who had limited appearances and finished 7 places lower than the Champions, then it does get you thinking. The season before that he scored about the same as Defoe and the season before that only scored 1 more goal than Bent, who was playing for fucking Charlton.
I was checking up on some stats prior to the WC starting and was amazed to find that Rooney's success rate was 1 goal in nearly 2 games (about 170 minutes), whereas Crouch who has not been a regular starter had a success rate of a goal a game (about 95 mins), even Defoe was a goal in 125 minutes. I checked on Bent but there wasn't much as you'd well guess, but when you look at his record for Sunderland this year, a team that finished 13th in the league, 24 goals is no mean feat by any standards.
So Jim, hopefully I've give you a valid answer, without starting with
Heskey! Rooney may be your cup of tea for leading the attack, but for me he should play off the front man, as Heskey does with him.
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