My doubts over Rooney

[flypitcher]

Not his temperament but his ability to score against GOOD team.
eg Brazil, Italy,Spain, Germany, France.

Has he ever scored against a top side. No.

I can't remember him scoring against a good side in a competitive match or even a friendly. it is okay to score against Iceland ,Kazakstan etc. but he has to do it against a big side. The problem is that he does not have good players around him who can read the game like he does.

IF Heskey was Torres now that would be different.

The best bet tonight is the the draw at 7/2.

[lloydi]

I get the feeling we will see more goals from our midfield than our strikers at this world cup, lamps, Gerald, lennon, Cole etc

[russbeer]

I agree with Lloydi, but wish he'd have put Crouch in with Rooney for tonight. Crouch scores england goals for fun and tonights game is the toughest of the group games for us. USA aren't a pushover team, aren't they the only team thats beaten spain in the last two years?

[Lighty]

love it if he gets a hatrick tonight now.....

[Thrush]

fucking hope so.

Got money riding on a england win (all be it virtual fake money)

[flypitcher]

Like I said it all came true.

[russbeer]

it was one game. You can't expect him to score in every one.

[ekkl]

Did Rooney play last night then..........

[lloydi]

a goal from midfield, 1-0 to me

[Nikki]

He did not really get a look in against the USA. He was dis-possessed so many times when had the ball. if i was capello for last ten mins i would put rooney out right with heskey and crouch up front. you know rooney can put a decent ball into the box

[BBK]

Rooney can put a decent ball into the box, but would be utterly pointless with Heskey or Crouch on the end, neither of those can head the ball for love nor money.

[jacko1]

Rooney can put a decent ball into the box, but would be utterly pointless with Heskey or Crouch on the end, neither of those can head the ball for love nor money.

The fact is Heskey had a better game than Rooney last night, It's all well and good saying Rooney would have scored the chance Heskey had the point is Rooney didn't get in the position all night to have a chance like that, Imo Rooney was awful in fact i thought he went missing most of the night.

[BBK]

Im not disagreeing with you. But who would you rather have in the middle. A player who scored 30+ goals last season, or a player who hasn't scored AT ALL since February?

Heskey played well. Did he? Seriously now, did he? He ran around a lot, he flicked the ball on, he was offside a lot. He played a delightful pass through to Gerrard, but then what? His flicks etc, where did they go? Then the one opportunity when he should have buried it, or passed it, he literally aims at Howard and shoots.

Fact is, as I see it, we have one world class forward. We have to play to his strengths. It may or may not work. Sticking with Heskey and Crouch is an absolute guarantee that we will not win the cup. Better to have a chance than no chance. Stick Rooney out on the left and we may as well pack up and go home now. Anyone who watched United over the last two seasons will tell you which Rooney was better, the left wing version or the central forward version.

[CBo]

I got to admit I didn't think much of Rooney that Saturday night. Whether scoring all these 30 goals has killed him energy wise or every defence in the world has it noted to cut him out of everything there was feeling you could of subtited him and not really noticed much difference. He did have chances but didn't really do much with them. Needs to make a far better impression next time.

[flypitcher]

Rooney was terrible against Slovena. What a miss and worse than that was his failure to pass to Milner twice when Milner was in a better positon to score.
Also did you notice the difference from Defoe when he got subbed , he applauded the fans but Rooney spat his dummy out and sulked off.
Rooney is becoming like Beckham the worst superstar player ever to play for England . Time to get rid of the emperors clothes. Look he has not scored in six matches at the World Cup Final group stage.
He is not in Villa's class or Lionel's.
There is only one English player who is World Class : Ashley Cole.
Drop Rooney and England will beat Germany.

[russbeer]

Rooney is becoming like Beckham the worst superstar player ever to play for England

I was with you up til that. Beckham has been a great servant for England and continues to do so.

[flypitcher]

Look at any major tournament that Beckham has played in, he has been woeful. Jumping out of tackles letting teams score, I can go on but better to educate yourself. JUdge him on his performances in major tournaments, not qualifiers but the real deal.

[BBK]

Did you watch the match or just chatting utter shite based on speculation?

If you watched the match you would have noticed what happened on 72 minutes. England started playing utter shite and became completely toothless. Any clue as to why? 7 games without a goal is irrelevant IF you play like Rooney played yesterday, really causing havoc in the defence. I remember Shearer once going a good few games - I think it was 16 - without scoring for England, and he had less to his overall game than Rooney. He came good, and on his display yesterday, Rooney is starting to come good again too.

Still, I guess you'd rather see Heskey (no goals since February) or Crouch (13 goals all season) start would you, rather than the one forward who can genuinely make something happen out there.

[chesser]

hang on!

So the Penalty against Argentina and the free kick against Colombia count for nothing?

Portugal 2000 which we lost I know he setup the two we scored have a look here mate...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Beckham

scroll down to International career

Beckham is still one of the best when it comes to delivering in a dead ball situation and personally one of the only players in recent times that is proud to wear the England shirt and play with passion...

[chesser]

Rooney will get there, much better yesterday with Defoe and Gerrard playing with players that have pace really helps I think and it showed yesterday, he was unlucky when the keeper tipped his shot onto the post...it will come, to be fair he looks only 90% to me, I believe he is still not fully fit after he end of season injury but would be in my starting 11 everytime without question...