The support Sir Alex Ferguson showed Alex McLeish this week, claiming Randy (yes it’s his real name) Lerner should stick with the dour Ex-Birmingham failure, looked seriously misplaced as a lacklustre United beat a woeful Aston Villa 4-0.
Accomplished though Jonny Evans, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick were, and as effervescent as Rafael and Antonio Valencia were, the man who stood out was Wayne Rooney.
This season I’ve lambasted his performances yet his goals have been held against me, as the argument why his is still world class. Yet again I have to say his performance was terrible, equally as bad as his night in Wigan Athletic where the man who ate the pies was withdrawn. A rare demonstration that Sir Alex agrees with me.
The two goals against Villa were a penalty and a deflection that would have been down Given’s throat if it weren’t for a ping into the bottom left hand corner.
Between these goals his passes were continually astray, his shots at goal were a joke, and his effort was continually lacking.
The man is slow, laboured and without the verve of old. He doesn’t fly into tackles, he can’t beat a man and he is yards off the pace on crosses. This is not a top class player.
Wayne Rooney is now of an age where we should be seeing his best, but he seems to have eaten one sausage too many, and is taking it easy on the park, proving his skills depend on his raging style, and not his touch.
The days of old are gone, this isn’t the player we bought, he has forsaken his left foot, is now a slow predictable player who only dips to the right ,and his goals cover up his faults.
On current form he is not worth his place, but as we don’t have anyone to link with Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez, due to the lack of a creative attacking midfield force, then we will play him thru the season.
Just as Berbatov became a lazy but statistically significant player, only to find his time at he top to be over as soon as Welbeck and Hernandez found fitness and form, so will Rooney.
Next year I do think Rooney has to be picked on form, and not reputation. This season has shown he isn’t the first name on our team sheet, he isn’t our best player and he isn’t reliable in the box. He needs too many chances to score, and we see too little outside the box.
Rooney was a prodigy, a player who was old before his time, who rose at 16 but fell a decade later.
It’s time to recognize the fact that the team is moving on and unless Rooney can find he tenacity of old then it’s time to dust off the pipe and slippers and move back to Everton, where he can be the star of the team and shine a while longer.
If you don’t agree with me then watch the highlights of this game, I am sure you’ll find them revealing, far messier than Lionel Messi, more Madonna than Diego Maradona and closer to Eva Peron than Juan Sebastian Veron. All show, no dough.
We want more beef in your burger Wayne, come on, show us why you stayed and prove it wasn’t just for the money.
By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve
