Wayne Rooney: Still world-class?

Manchester United‘s recent defeat to Manchester City at Old Trafford clearly exposed the one glaring truth in front of us, one that has been pretty evident for a while but hard to accept nonetheless. The loss wasn’t a devastating one by any means, neither an embarrassing one. United’s insistence to play through Wayne Rooney over the years has largely benefited the team and the man himself, although recent displays indicate that Wayne Rooney may not be our “go to” man in desperate times. The same player that forced someone as nonchalant as Sir Alex Ferguson to give him the contract he desired, doesn’t seem to be fulfilling the wage bill that is splashed out to keep the England hitman at Old Trafford.

For someone who boasts of a wage bill that ranks him the third highest player in the world, Wayne Rooney these days fails to look the part. The blistering pace has almost completely disappeared, his touch getting worse as the season progresses, his ability to breeze past players a thing of the past, his fantastic vision and distribution abilities showing signs of decay. All this as his hair transplant ensures he has a good patch of hair to boast of.

Robin Van Persie’s arrival at the club gifted the prospect of one of the most devastating strike partnerships in the world, as both Rooney and RVP finished the previous season with goal tallies above the 30 mark. What an anti-climax its blossomed to be, with Wayne Rooney completely undermined by Robin Van Persie’s flamboyance; the Dutchman proving to the world that his fantastic season with Arsenal was not a one-time show.

Rooney’s fall from from grace is so evident that even a statistical analysis isn’t required for a lay-man to understand that Wayne Rooney is a shadow of his former self. The once agile, electrically quick Rooney is now framed by a fat exterior and is not aesthetically pleasing to look at, as he struts his stuff across the pitch. His reactions are slower, he fails to get out of tight situations with his once immaculate control and looks dodgy to say the least.

Dropped for United’s biggest game of the season against Real Madrid, many argue that it was for tactical reasons. The underlying truth remains that he was dismal against Madrid in the Bernabeu and was replaced by Danny Welbeck at Old Trafford for his superior speed, stamina and tracking ability which contained Xabi Alonso effectively until the Nani sending off.

The performance against Man City simply reiterated his lost ability to dictate games like he once did. Injuries didn’t help his season either but even players affected by injury show glimpses of the class and ability that make them special. Wayne Rooney on the other hand looks like he’s lost a chunk of his ability.

His displays in the 2010-2011 season that culminated in the Champions League final in Wembley echo the power of his raw talent. The goal scoring touch may have been hideously hampered by the various off-field activities that plagued him, but Rooney scored when it mattered. He dominated games against Marseille, Chelsea and Schalke effortlessly and even scored against Barcelona in the final. If it was Dimitar Berbatov and Nani that pulled United out of potential misery at the start of that season, Rooney and Chicharito finished the season off with panache, with a little help of Paul Scholes’ midfield mastery of course.

It is hard to picture that Wayne Rooney not featuring against Real Madrid, just as it is impossible to see Wayne Rooney being replaced by anyone for that matter at the peak of his powers. Newspaper reports that revel in potential sensational news like this got it wrong when they blew it out of proportion, speculating that his time at Old Trafford was at an end. What they got right was the seriousness of the situation at hand: Wayne Rooney being dropped against Real Madrid was not something to be brushed under a reason as unfitting as “tactical reasons” for the stature of a name that received such adulation from the likes of Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez of Barcelona.

With Sir Alex Ferguson assuring United fans that Rooney will stay at Old Trafford next season, one can only hope that Wayne Rooney returns a fitter and renewed player with the touch of genius that propelled him to such greatness and fame.

United would wish to see that bald Wayne Rooney of a few years ago who boasted the hairline of an aged man, but played with the heart of a champion, rather than the Rooney that barely seems to try anymore even with all the hair stitched onto his scalp.