Wayne Rooney - how good or bad, bias aside?

[sam221985]

World class, no doubt in my mind.

His form has been poor for the last few months but that's probably injury/tiredness.

He's one of only 2 or 3 English players who could be considered world class.

I don't agree with you that Rooney is World Class but that is all around opinions. What I am interested in, is finding out who do you think the other two England World Class players are???

Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole for me if I have to name two.

You could argue that Gerrard is finished/on the decline but given the massive difference in his last performance for Ingerlund (albeit in a poxy friendly) and for 'Pool so far I'll wait until the end of the season before saying that.<br /><br />-- Fri Sep 03, 2010 4:25 pm --<br /><br />

Form is temporary, class is permanent.

And what he has is bouts of good form. He's not a consistent player and never has been.

You can have all the class in the world 'on your day' but if your lapses in form are frequent enough, then you're not a great player. Same reason Quaresma isn't better than Messi.

Your statement is over-simplistic and slightly stupid, hence being favoured by football pundits.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Having removed my blue tints, and folded the home, away and third shirt in their drawer, put the cashmere sky blue and white scarf back in it's box, weighing the rough with the smooth and giving the lad the benefit of a suspect upbringing in Scouseland, I can honestly say - HE'S CRAP!

 

[banbury_blue]

By being a City fan its hard to ever come up with an objective view on a player so important to the rags such as Rooney...

I think he is geniuinely a good player, but I have always doubted the widely held belief in the rag loving media that he is a 'world class' player, On his day he is very very good, almost unplayable, but this can be said about a lot of players. To be world class you have to do this week in, week out, and even when not in form still have a impact on the game. World Class players have that spark that ignites a game and Rooney doesn't have that, when he's poor he is dreadful, too self obessed with being angry at himself and other around him.

Look at the recent world cup, Talksport, Sky, and every written piece of media had him as the 3rd best player in the world, and ready to pass Messi and Xavi et al to be best in the world. Now, we all know Rooney was absolutely dreadful, Messi also 'flopped' as he didn't score, however even off form he was still a guiding light for Argentina in many of the games, creating goals for others and hitting the woodwork numerous times. That shows to me the difference in the players

An off form Messi still effects a game.. Rooney just goes missing

 

[Deleted member 14625]

It's hard for me to have a view of him which isn't biased by disliking him and wanting him to fail. What do you personally think, is he genuinely a 'top 5 in the world striker' - or just a 'solid premier league player', someone not too far removed in terms of ability from a Darren Bent or Jermain Defoe, who has been hyped up to be world class simply because he's both English and plays for the team with the biggest 'fanbase' (and therefore biggest media-consuming group) in the country?

It's easy to look at Rooneys bad England form for a while and during the World Cup especially, easy to look at his current United form and it's easy to point out any bad game or run of games for United. But when Rooneys on form - this is being realsitic - he's right up there with the most effective, damaging, influential players in the world. To go with that, when he's playing well, his desire and work rate is arguably better than anyones - he'll link up with, say Evra, on he edge of the box, and lets say Evra loses the ball and the opposition attack down the wing that Evra has left open; Rooney will be the one to fly back and win the ball back on the edge of his box. That's priceless.

The thing is he doesn't play like that all the time. He'll have spells of 10 games every other year where he's useless. One because he isn't scoring and playing well with the ball, and two because his enthusiasm goes completely when he isn't being damaging with the ball.

But he shouldn't just be judged on that, nor the fact he's fat, ugly, scouse, a total fuckin tosser, and worst of all a Rag - because when he plays well he's as effective as anyone.

-- Fri Sep 03, 2010 4:53 pm --

To be world class you have to do this week in, week out, and even when not in form still have a impact on the game. World Class players have that spark that ignites a game and Rooney doesn't have that, when he's poor he is dreadful, too self obessed with being angry at himself and other around him.

An off form Messi still effects a game.. Rooney just goes missing

That's very true though, especially the bit in blue! That's where the inconsistency let's him down because he doesn't effect a game when he's of form. He's to bothered about what the world thinks of him.

 

[sam221985]

It's hard for me to have a view of him which isn't biased by disliking him and wanting him to fail. What do you personally think, is he genuinely a 'top 5 in the world striker' - or just a 'solid premier league player', someone not too far removed in terms of ability from a Darren Bent or Jermain Defoe, who has been hyped up to be world class simply because he's both English and plays for the team with the biggest 'fanbase' (and therefore biggest media-consuming group) in the country?

It's easy to look at Rooneys bad England form for a while and during the World Cup especially, easy to look at his current United form and it's easy to point out any bad game or run of games for United. But when Rooneys on form - this is being realsitic - he's right up there with the most effective, damaging, influential players in the world. To go with that, when he's playing well, his desire and work rate is arguably better than anyones - he'll link up with, say Evra, on he edge of the box, and lets say Evra loses the ball and the opposition attack down the wing that Evra has left open; Rooney will be the one to fly back and win the ball back on the edge of his box. That's priceless.

The thing is he doesn't play like that all the time. He'll have spells of 10 games every other year where he's useless. One because he isn't scoring and playing well with the ball, and two because his enthusiasm goes completely when he isn't being damaging with the ball.

But he shouldn't just be judged on that, nor the fact he's fat, ugly, scouse, a total fuckin tosser, and worst of all a Rag - because when he plays well he's as effective as anyone.

I'd argue it's closer to ten games a year than ten games every other year, and that's a lot.

Adebayor on his day is also unplayable but we wouldn't call him, in all honesty, world class because 'his day' just doesn't happen consistently enough and for it to happen everything has to be 'just so' or at very least he has to already be in a run of performing well and scoring for confidence.

While this isn't true of Rooney to the same extent, it's certainly true of him.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

It's easy to look at Rooneys bad England form for a while and during the World Cup especially, easy to look at his current United form and it's easy to point out any bad game or run of games for United. But when Rooneys on form - this is being realsitic - he's right up there with the most effective, damaging, influential players in the world. To go with that, when he's playing well, his desire and work rate is arguably better than anyones - he'll link up with, say Evra, on he edge of the box, and lets say Evra loses the ball and the opposition attack down the wing that Evra has left open; Rooney will be the one to fly back and win the ball back on the edge of his box. That's priceless.

The thing is he doesn't play like that all the time. He'll have spells of 10 games every other year where he's useless. One because he isn't scoring and playing well with the ball, and two because his enthusiasm goes completely when he isn't being damaging with the ball.

But he shouldn't just be judged on that, nor the fact he's fat, ugly, scouse, a total fuckin tosser, and worst of all a Rag - because when he plays well he's as effective as anyone.

I'd argue it's closer to ten games a year than ten games every other year, and that's a lot.

Adebayor on his day is also unplayable but we wouldn't call him, in all honesty, world class because 'his day' just doesn't happen consistently enough and for it to happen everything has to be 'just so' or at very least he has to already be in a run of performing well and scoring for confidence.

While this isn't true of Rooney to the same extent, it's certainly true of him.

I'd agree with that. I don't think Adebayor is world class, but he can be unplayable. Maybe not as often as Rooney but still...

On a side note I think "world class" is such a loose term! It's hard to label anyone with it as its meaning differs from person to person

 

[KentBlue]

he was instrumental in ending Arsenal's unbeaten run

Threw himself to the ground and won the rags a highly contentious penalty - as usual.

 

[Mastes1]

Well people who know me on here know i realy like him as a player, fast, skillfull, brilliant passer, great vision and movement and super powerful....when on form that is, he still doesn't seem to have fully recovered from that injury. He offers a lot more to a team than just goals and anyone who doesn't see that simply never watches Manu play.
As for England, he has scored some very important goals including being top scorer worldwide in the world cup qualifying, i never understand why people say he's never done it for England, Euro 2004 anyone?. He was also obviously unfit and had not recovered from his injury in the world cup and its very biased to not admit that.
Also guys imagine if he was a City player, would you still be saying he's shite and overrated?.

Edit. I almost forgot to say that one minute people on here are saying he's shite then in the same sentence the same people will be saying he carried Manu last season!, well which is it?.

-- Fri Sep 03, 2010 6:23 pm --

Excellent Premier League player (said through gritted teeth and with toxic bile rising in my stomach).
But found wanting at every major international tournament he has played at, so it is a simple fact that can't be considered World Class. The repeated excuses don't wash.
The new Norman Whiteside

Euro 2004.

 

[Unknown_Genius]

Well people who know me on here know i realy like him as a player, fast, skillfull, brilliant passer, great vision and movement and super powerful....when on form that is, he still doesn't seem to have fully recovered from that injury. He offers a lot more to a team than just goals and anyone who doesn't see that simply never watches Manu play.
As for England, he has scored some very important goals including being top scorer worldwide in the world cup qualifying, i never understand why people say he's never done it for England, Euro 2004 anyone?. He was also obviously unfit and had not recovered from his injury in the world cup and its very biased to not admit that.
Also guys imagine if he was a City player, would you still be saying he's shite and overrated?.

Edit. I almost forogt to say that one minut people on here are saying he's shite then in the same sentence the same people will be saying he carried Manu last season!, well which is it?.

-- Fri Sep 03, 2010 6:23 pm --

Excellent Premier League player (said through gritted teeth and with toxic bile rising in my stomach).
But found wanting at every major international tournament he has played at, so it is a simple fact that can't be considered World Class. The repeated excuses don't wash.
The new Norman Whiteside

Euro 2004.

He wasn't top scorer in 2010 WC qualifying, Gekas, the Greek striker was.

 

[didactic]

If Wanye Rooney was "Random Foriegner from Random Nation" he would be considered a good player but never world class. He is not even in the top 10
of strikers. For England Crouch has a better shot/goal ratio.

Drogba.
Balotelli.
Robinho.
Torres.
Ibra.
Messi.
Ronaldo.
Pato.
Nilmar.
Ronaldihno.
Tevez.
Adebayor.
Adriano.
Raul.
Van Nistrooy.
Villa.
Snieder.
Robben.
Eto`o.
Henry.

Off the top of my head (and im on my third pint already) are all better then Rooney. Even Owen in his prime. Take any of the players I mentioned imagine they were born here and played for our national team and the scum with the same players around them. They would score 50 a season. Great players dont have HUGE dips in form. They always score look at Ronaldos stats the Brazilian, Rooney misses too many sitters to ever be called a "great" player.