Readers of soccersweep will know that we have always championed the abilities of Wayne Rooney.
Why? Because he simply has so much to his game.
Rooney has to be one of the most complete players in the modern era.
He’s as good a finisher as Alan Shearer, has the engine of Arturo Vidal and a level of adaptability which is hard to find anywhere in the game.
But, unlike so many English footballers, he also has the sort of technical ability which would get him into any team in Europe.
This skill level lead the peerless Lionel Messi to suggest earlier this summer that:
‘If you look at the technical ability of a player like Wayne Rooney, he is as good as any player in Europe,’
We always felt that Van Gaal would only truly know good a player he had on his hands when he had had a chance to work with him at close quarters.
And, apart from anything else, the Manchester United manager clearly thinks that he has a great leader in the ranks. He said:
“I think he is a great captain, better than I had expected and he is fully respected by the players and that is also very important because I can choose, but the players decide. That’s my philosophy, the players have to accept the captain – the first captain is Wayne Rooney, the second captain is Michael Carrick and last year the third captain was Chris Smalling,”
Rooney will hopefully be given the number 9 role this season after taken one for the team in the last campaign, because he has every chance to break the scoring record for club and country if he has an exceptional 10 months.
And that’s quite some achievement for a player who hasn’t even reached is 30th birthday.
Manchester United fans: Can Rooney lead United to the title or does the club need to sign another number 9?
