Should England Drop Wayne Rooney?

Should England drop Wayne Rooney?

Predictably, as the final whistle blew on England' s defeat to Italy, Twitter exploded with abuse for Wayne Rooney.

In typical British fashion, the same press that has spent a decade building Rooney into England's talisman couldn't wait to join in and lay the blame for the whole sorry result at his feet. 

Club allegiances surfaced and idiots on Social Media everywhere insisted Wayne didn't bring anything to the game and should be dropped.

We don't deal in knee-jerk reactions though so let's take a closer look at see if the criticism is worthwhile.

So, should England drop Wayne Rooney?

The arguments seem to revolve around the following issues:

Sterling deserves the Number Ten Role.

After such a fantastic season for Liverpool, Raheem Sterling deserves his place in the England squad. However, is he a better Number Ten than Rooney?

Well, there is no point comparing International careers so lets look at this years Premier League. A year when Liverpool were lauded as a potent attacking force and United had their worst Premier League season ever.

Sterling played 4 more games than Rooney but Wayne scored twice as many goals and created twice as many assists. Wayne also provided a third more crosses than Raheem did. Both players can and were played out wide for their teams but Wayne was obviously the most effective.

Raheem Sterling is not England's best Number Ten. Wayne Rooney is.


Sturridge is a better Number Nine.

Daniel Sturridge has had a wonderful season for Liverpool and Hodgson is correct to play the man in form. However, Sturridge does not stand head and shoulders above Rooney. 

Both have played 29 games this season and Sturridge pips Wayne for scoring by only 4 goals. Four!

I thought Sturridge had been excellent in an exciting, pulsating team and Rooney had been awful in the worst United team for 25 years?

Wayne also provided more assists and more crosses. 

You also need to remember that Wayne has a track record that made Chelsea offer £30 million for him yet Chelsea also offloaded Sturridge even when they were desperate for a striker.

Does one excellent season make Daniel a better Number Nine then Rooney?



These two points lead to the real issue England faced against Italy. 

Wayne Rooney is his own worst enemy. He has committed to England like no other player for the last ten years. For club and country he will play anywhere he is asked regardless of how it makes him look. He will do the job required of him despite knowing he could do a better job elsewhere.

No one seems to have spotted the obvious problem that plagued England against Italy. Everyone kept asking should it be Rooney or Sturridge or Rooney or Sterling or even Rooney or Welbeck. 

That in itself was the problem!

England played with two Centre Forwards and two Number Tens!

The only person at fault for this was Roy Hodgson.

England Average Position vs Italy

Just take a quick look at the above FIFA Average Position map and you will see just how ridiculous the formation was. All four Attacking options crowded a small area of the pitch.  No doubt stifling each other. This lack of thinking was the main reason England failed. 

Today I've listened to the likes of Henry Winter and Stan Collymore taking pride in how England attacked with pace and creativity but they both feel that this was down to Sturridge, Welbeck, Sterling and Barkley when he came on as substitute. Neither of them are happy to praise the contribution Rooney made. This is so unfair and grossly inaccurate.

No one covered more ground than Rooney at 11223 meters ran and only Sterling had more shots. Let's face it, despite being supposedly played out of position ( not true as you can see from the average formation ) Rooney played the one ball that was of sufficient quality to be converted. He also completed as many passes as any of the attacking four.

Rooney deserves to be played through the middle. Ideally as the number Nine. Let him have his go and see what happens. The coaching staff should be able to judge in training and games who merits the position. If Rooney doesn't deserve it then great. Just don't go trying to shoe horn him in somewhere else. Don't try fitting four attackers into two spaces. It won't work. Think of the team not the individuals.

Football changes and evolves constantly but take a look at history. Would we have played Shearer or Lineker or even Sheringham out on the left wing? No, your goalscorer goes up top through the middle.

Wayne Rooney should not be dropped. He should be played where he can effect the game.

So in the end, it wasn't the personnel but the strategy that led to England's downfall. Indeed, there were some positives to take from the game but the whole team made mistakes. Poor defensive cover, poor finishing, poor use of the attacking third, poor awareness to be sold a dummy on the edge of the box, oh and did anyone notice that neither of our defensive midfielders actually made a single tackle?

In football, it's usually the team that makes less mistakes that wins and when you lose, you lose as a team. It's time that we stopped singling out individuals and looked at the bigger picture.

When it comes to football you need to take a closer look.

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