Last year Rooney’s overall play was great. He could make incisive killer passes, make long range pin point accurate balls, and his first touch was like a magnet to a needle, it was all great.

One thing which he was criticized for however, was not scoring enough, it seemed, many (inclduing myself at the time) weren’t happy with his total tally of goals, and despite his good play, this was holding him back from being in the elite.

Well, Ronaldo left, and everyone eagerly anticipated Rooney’s new role up front, “He’ll bang in loads for sure” people thought, sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

That may sound odd considering he’s topping our scoring chart at the moment, but he went through a purple patch of goals, which then seemed to dry up (until Blackburn) so how do we know these patches aren’t simply the typical Rooney patches of goalscoring? Has he really fulfilled his new role? Personally (and speaking from an honest point of view), I think we’re losing out.

In my opinion, he’s only going to get a few more goals this year, and that’s predominately down to spending more time up front, sadly (and annoyingly, not many will admit this), we’ve lost out so much on his overall play this season. His excellent first touch is apparently gone, he rarely makes any of those long range passes during games, and his sudden inability to retain possession well enough, means we’re losing out.

So many times this year, he’s played shockingly bad, and yet masked his performance with a goal. People can be blissfully ignorant, and claim it doesn’t matter, but it’s frustrating to see him get praised for poor performances, where other squad players would get slated. And it’s hardly like he’s been consistently netting either, because as I previously mentioned, he’s had sporadic patches of goalscoring, which he seemed to get last season too.

He’s being wasted up front, when he’s far better at being involved coming deep and linking up play. I know what you’re thinking, and yes, Berbatov is better at that, and should rightly do that however, due to our relatively poor winger options, why not play Rooney on the wing?

I know he doesn’t enjoy it as much, and some morons will complain about his goal tally once more, but it would be far more beneficial to the team.

This would also mean we could bring in a new striker in January, and still keep Owen, Berbatov and the new boy happy, not to mention the saving we’d make on not buying another winger.

Lastly, and it’s a fairly important point, Rooney’s shockingly poor form did arrive in the build up to the birth of his son, so perhaps, he was mentally stressed, and therefore not playing to his best? Maybe this is where it went wrong?

All I can say, is that the team would benefit if he played on the wing, however, if he is to remain up front, I hope the birth of his son will mean the end of his poor form, because we all know the talent is still there!

Written by hdcantona