I write this a week and a half after Swansea City handed Manchester United their posteriors. I was rather baffled by certain things I saw, but shall try to keep this rational.
Wayne Rooney as the number 9
Before the season started, I was this close to doing a statistical analysis pointing towards why Wazza is the centre-forward Manchester United need right now. Play him there, get him out of that midfield. In came Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin, and I saw it happening. Last two times Rooney played as a striker for a full season, and he’s played just two, he scored 34 goals each. No reason to fret. Or so you’d think.
If I have to draw two extremes of first touch in football, I’ll put Denis Bergkamp and Emile Heskey on either side. Rooney right now is within an earshot of the ex-Liverpool man. The way he gave away the ball for the first goal, and his refusal to track back post it, is not something a club captain should do. Well, certainly not on a regular basis. Barring 30 minutes against Brugge midweek, he has been World Cup 2010 level pathetic.
