Rooney!

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Originally Posted by Rattea

No I've not forgotten at all. I saw him play as a youngster and his hunger made up for anything he may have lacked. Now hes older his done well but not hit the potential he had on the international stage! At club level donw very well.

Fact is like Angry says I dont think hes one of our best. Hes a household from legacy not from what hes done!

Remember Toto Schillaci and what he did in 1990 ... didnt make him a great international tho did it!

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while I agree with a lot of what you've said here rat :-O

it's a little harsh. for this qualifying campaign he was our top scorer with 7 goals. that puts him 7th in the entire euro qualifying. fair point that it's not been against great teams but that's the case in most qualifying campaigns. he's scored 39 goals in 93 games for England I believe. that's not bad to be fair.

but how long can a player live on history rather the present? you get the feeling he's starting to get by on rep

Fiar point but as I raised earlier he seems to pick these goals up against lesser opposition and not the big boys. Quite a few of his goals are in friendlys.

When was the last time you can remember him in an England shirt and think wow that was a performance or put a shift in?

Now how would you say Sterling played on Saturday!

As was and as is ... he used to perform like Sterling did.

There are lots of players like him, the knack for any manager is to know the fine dividing line between the hungry young talented footballer and stardom which is the time to have them in your side, then get rid, sell him for lots of money and let some other side make him a multi-millionaire. However in their defense I doubt whether the human body can stand the onslaught it gets in the game nowadays and continually produce the goods.

All fair comments. Rat, you said he'd never done it at a tournament i merely pointed out that he did in 2004 but never attained those heights since

We actually looked quite useful going forward but could have lost 4-1 and I honestly believe if we were lining up against them Thursday we would lose again.

Rooney has never fulfilled his true potential, players don't unless they can do it in big tournaments (there is even talk that Messi needs to do it this time to be worthy of his god like status).

IMO the only England player in the past 10yrs that would have got anywhere near a World XI is Ashley Cole. Rooney would not have even come close to the squad in any one of those 10yrs.

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Originally Posted by Gaspode

He's either got to be played down the middle or left out of the side -

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Theres the problem, right there. Poor old Roy, someone told him Rooney needing to be left out, so he put him out left.

>:) >:)

Humour aside, I agree wholeheartedly about Rooney. I've never rated him as highly as the media seem to. He's good, he's actually great for Man U at times. But he's pants for England.

There was a debate on Talk Sport a few weeks back asking the question 'Can Roy drop Rooney?'.

The fact that a radio station could even think of asking such a damned stupid question shows where we are with this guy. Play him down the middle, if there's no room for him there then put him on the bench.

Wait a minute, didn't Rooney produce the only assist for England... Something someone on left is supposed to do. Yah he missed the sitter, but he undoubtedly contributed and more than any other forward apart from Sturridge.

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Originally Posted by Rattea

there are a number of other players who could have played in a number of world class crosses from the left!

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yeah but apparently bear... >:)

People/media use him as a scapegoat. He's hardly the reason we lost, if anything he's the reason we were still in it.

Over 90 internationals and spends 89 minutes as a passenger. If we had someone with a bit of spirit and wanting to go for it regardless of their position then there would have maybe been multiple world class balls. Sterling actually showed exactly what Rooney lacks.

He's not a scapegoat he's just not worth his place in the side.

Can you imagine if the Ox was got and playin down the left and sterling on the right I think it would have been far too much for Italy as they can't cope with pace.

So why had someone who played at the top level for so long and had so many caps not able to have any versitility?

its called too much money and media will not get off his case.