The Dilemma of 'El Blanco Pele'

Goes by the name....
By EmptyRed
September 30 2006

In his latest column, messageboard favourite 'EmptyRed' looks at the form of Wayne Rooney since his recent return from suspension. The England international has been heavily criticised for a string of poor performances since completing a three-match ban for a dismissal in the Amsterdam Tournament.

So our Wayne is back from suspension and in the four games since he has played, according to many, his performances have not been great. Indeed, it could be argued that in some of those games, he has been somewhat anonymous. But before we jump to conclusions, lets look at the evidence. Since our defeat to Chelsea last season, Wayne has played little football or had a full training regime.

As a 20-year-old, he carried the overblown hype and burden of the man who would win England the World Cup. That’s a heavy burden for any player, let alone, someone who was being rushed back to play, even though he wasn’t truly ready. But the ego of the England manager and the braying of the donkeys of the media meant our stout-hearted lion was rushed into the fray, far too soon.

To add insult to injury he was sent off for violent conduct against Portugal. Wayne, throughout the tournament, was a pale shadow of the player we had seen. Then came the farce of the Amsterdam tournament and an official determined to get his name in lights. Rooney was sent off for, again, violent play. For a blow that was even more illusionary than the one that Muhammad Ali used to knock Sonny Liston out in their World Title rematch bout.

The FA conveniently forgot that that paragon of virtue, Stevie Gerrard, had also been sent off in 2003 in the same tournament and received no punishment as they gave our Wayne a 3 game ban. The injustice of it all. However, Wayne put a man of the match performance in our 5-1 rout of Fulham and then he served his suspension.

On his return we played Glasgow Celtic in the Champions League, in a game that was never going to be easy. No game against Celtic ever is. A mixture of recovering from injury and lack of match sharpness were cruelly exposed, but his running of the ball lead directly to Louis Saha’s second goal. However the last 3 games against Arsenal, Reading and Benfica perhaps sum up the problems with our “El Blanco Pele”. Against Arsenal, we played badly as a team and our distribution was poor. Wayne was guilty of poor control, but when you are living off scraps of possession, what do you expect? Against Reading he was expected to lead the line and we tried to walk the ball into the net and against Benfica, he played as a left-winger! In all 3 games, Wayne's work rate for the team was excellent, but he was not playing in the position he was most effective.

Wayne has dropped in form, and this happens to all players during their careers. He is only 20 and the last 6 months have been, in footballing terms, very disjointed for him, with injury, suspension and being rushed back into football far too soon. But what has really affected Wayne’s form has been the loss of Park Ji-Sung and more importantly Ryan Giggs. With United playing with only 1 true winger, Rooney has struggled to find the space to operate in. He needs the pace and dynamism of 2 wingers who can pull defenders out of the middle of the park. In Saha he has a forward partner, whose pace will frighten any central defender, forcing them to drop deeper and by doing so create more space for our Wayne to play in. Ryan is only a week away from full fitness, when he returns watch Wayne’s form return.

Remember - form is temporary but class is permanent.