Regular readers will know that there are few footballers in the world which soccersweep favours over Wayne Rooney. While some are more talented or fleet of feet it’s the sheer range of qualities that the Manchester United forward has which makes him such a favourite of ours.
His importance to Manchester United over the past ten years simply cannot be overstated. And one of his greatest attributes is consistency. This lad will seldom give less than an 8 out of 10 performance and is typically the best player on the park.
So what happened yesterday? There has been talk of Rooney’s failings against Liverpool all week. He doesn’t always show his class against Manchester United’s biggest rivals.
But on Sunday he looked like a different player – one from the lower leagues.
Everyone is allowed a bad day at the office and Manchester United won the game so Rooney’s performance will have little consequence. But it was so bad that one could one could for once be forgiven for wondering whether he had been out on the raz on Saturday night.
His every touch was awful. Usually he’s like velcro with his ball control but everything bounced off him on Sunday. He seemingly made more errors than he has all season and the missed penalty capped a really poor performance from Manchester United’s captain.
Another of Wayne’s virtues is his professionalism. His desire to succeed. He, more than anyone, would be aware of his shortcomings during that game. He is usually so good that, when he plays badly, he sticks out like a sore thumb.
Manchester United fans will be jubilant today but they won’t want to see another performance like this form their main man who, for once, seemed to freeze on the big occasion.
