Wayne Rooney's 'free role' in midfield is now England's greatest concern
“Wayne played wherever he wanted,” said Sam Allardyce on Wayne Rooney after England beat 10-man Slovakia with a last-gasp winner in their World Cup qualifier. “It’s not for me to say where he’s going to play.”
One must remember that this is the England manager who was quoted stating that it wasn’t his job to decide where an England player should play. It seemed a bizarre response from a manager who seemed to have underscored his hard-hitting attitude only days earlier.
Allardyce had shown that he would be a hard man to please before the international break when he announced his first England squad and dropped the likes of Ross Barkley, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere. They needed to perform and earn their place in the Three Lions setup and it was a welcome change from the norm of selecting players with bags of potential from the big clubs in the Premier League.
But this statement only reaffirmed that the proverbial elephant in the room was only being ignored. Yet again. No manager seems to want to pull the plug on the Rooney experiment that has been holding England back for far too long.
England may have won the game but it was the fruitless attacks and Rooney’s role that has been questioned. And rightly so.
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Rooney’s midfield role is not clearly defined
If one expected Rooney to play in the no.10 role, those thoughts were quickly forgotten when England were deployed in a 4-3-3, effectively asking Rooney to the dirty work instead of having Eric Dier and Jordan Henderson behind him to do it for him.
The formation had a knock-on effect as the supply line to Harry Kane was sparingly used as a result. Rooney is not exactly a playmaker; playing the ball in between the lines is not his strong suit and neither is his vision and forward passing when playing against a bank of defenders. His focus relied mainly on finding his full-backs and spreading the play to either flank.
In his so-called “free role”, Rooney was supposed to be the midfield cog that held the whole system together. Instead, it was the square peg in a round hole that frustrated the fans and players alike.
The only time Rooney actually played in a no.10 role was in the early stages of the second half before Martin Skrtel’s second yellow card meant Slovakia were down to 10 men. Enter Kane’s trusted Spurs teammate Dele Alli for Henderson and suddenly England’s attacks looked promising.
Rooney had dropped deep to play alongside Dier to accommodate the 20-year-old and it was clear to all that the youngster was doing a better job in the role even though Slovakia’s defence was resolute.
Luckily for Allardyce, Slovakia goalkeeper Matus Kozacik made a mistake in the dying seconds allowing Adam Lallana to score the winner. Allardyce may have pumped the air when the ball found the back of the net but deep down he must have been thinking about what he should do with Rooney.
Or was he?
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Flashes of brilliance and captaincy see managers persist with Rooney
“I think he holds a lot more experience at international football than I do as an international manager,” Allardyce explained after the game.
“So, when he is using his experience and playing as a team member, it’s not for me to say where he’s going to play.”
Allardyce has only painted a target on his own back with such comments. When his performances are questioned, it is not the player who is put to the sword but the manager. Rooney in midfield was a failed experiment at the Euros and his struggles with Manchester United also underline the point.
His killer instincts have been missing for a while. He is no longer a player who has raw pace to burn and he does not have an eye for goal like he used to in his prime under Sir Alex Ferguson. The Scottish boss saw that and jumped at the opportunity when Robin van Persie requested a transfer from Arsenal.
The withdrawn striker's role worked well for Rooney but once the formations started to change (as did the ‘philosophy’), the free role became less potent and he started to hold United back. Counter-attacks became laboured and forward passes became a rarity.
It is only a matter of time before Rooney is withdrawn by Mourinho if his performances continue to decline. It is well-known that the Portuguese boss is not averse to dropping big players. Club legends such as Iker Casillas and Frank Lampard will attest to that.
But how do you drop the captain?
This seems to be the only reason why Rooney still has a role in the England side. There are no real takers for the captain’s armband in the Three Lions squad, none with such vast experience as Rooney. The same could be said of United if captaincy in the long-term is to be discussed.
Rooney may be the most capped outfield player in England history. At 30, he is one of the most senior players in the squad and he has admitted that the 2018 World Cup would be his last tournament with England. If he is to be an instrumental part of that squad in Russia (provided England qualify), he needs to do more than just play in a free role; he needs to excel at it.
“Too much is getting made about it,” Rooney said, defending his role against Slovakia. “Listen, I'm playing on the pitch for England. I'm captain of the team and I feel I can do a very good job in the role I played tonight.
“I played in that role and helped us win the game. I've done it my whole career and suddenly it's big news.”
That right there is the problem. He has not done it his whole career and he surely isn’t helping England win many games. They played the same opponents in Euro 2016 and the lack of thrust and vision from midfield was one of the reasons why it ended in a stalemate.
Players such as David Beckham may have jumped to Rooney’s defence following warranted criticism. But he, too, has failed to look at the bigger picture – much like his very own sub-par “Golden Generation” that celebrated individual talent but failed to gel as a unit.
Experience and game intelligence count for nothing when they are not put to good use. If Rooney does not realize that soon enough, Allardyce must.