Jamie Carragher has some words of warning for Manchester United fans.
Wayne Rooney scored his first goal since October against Swansea City at Old Trafford at the weekend, but his former England teammate feels United fans shouldn’t get too excited just yet.
Carragher said on Sky Sports yesterday that although Rooney is only 30 years old, his long Premier League career, and the physical toll that has exerted, means that he may as well be 35 years old.
“I just think he’s been playing so long now that maybe it’s 30 on his birth certificate but in terms of games played he’s a 35-year-old player.
“People talk about age, it’s miles on the clock and it’s games played. He must have played nearly 600 games as a centre forward, which is maybe not the same as playing in the position I did.
“I just think that battering from centre-backs and the pressure that is on him, mentally as well, to play from that age of 16, I think we are looking at a player who is getting to the stage of his career where I don’t think he will be playing at the top level at 34-35.”
Rooney scored the decisive goal in United’s 2-1 victory over Swansea, their first win in eight games, but Carragher is heeding caution, believing fans shouldn’t get too carried away with the idea that the United captain has returned to form.
“If you are going to write Wayne Rooney off or say he is back, you can’t say he is back because of one moment in a game and you cannot write him off because of maybe two or three bad games.”
“I think for Rooney to answer his critics or show he is still the man to play centre forward for Manchester United he maybe needs a run of 10 games – scoring maybe seven or eight goals.”
