Where he’s going to play?
Wayne Rooney has repeatedly stated in the past few months that he now sees himself as a midfielder.
“Sometimes you have to make choices in your career and at the moment it’s better for me to play deeper,” the England and Manchester United captain said at the end of May.
“It could be a bit different for England where I could still be the striker but probably next season that’s where I see myself playing.”
Rooney played in midfield for England at Euro 2016, with mixed results at best. He was okay against Russia and Wales, where the opposition allowed him time and space to pick out a pass.
However, against Iceland in the last-16 he couldn’t even manage his series of predictable cross-field passes, and was so poor his performance stood out as being particularly awful amongst a team of under-performing players.
Wayne Rooney: Has misplaced more passes (11) than any other outfield player in England vs Iceland #ENGISL
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) June 27, 2016
Up until a few days before that game, Rooney was still talking up his credentials as a midfielder, saying:
“I have played with some of the best midfielders England has produced in Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes and I’m not so naive to play with those players and not notice what they were doing, knowing that one day I would be playing in that position.”
However, Jose Mourinho doesn’t share his view, and dismissed the notion minutes into his first press conference as Manchester United manager.
“Maybe he is not a striker, not a number nine anymore,” Mourinho said. “But with me he will never be a number six, playing 50 metres from goal.
“Yes, his passing is amazing but mine is also amazing without pressure.
“Many players have a great pass, but to put the ball in the net is the most difficult. He will be a number nine, a number 10, a number 9.5 but never a number six or a number eight.”
It appears the Rooney midfield experiment is over at United at least, but his future doesn’t exactly bode well up front either.
By stating he wants to play in midfield, Rooney has effectively conceded that he can no longer play adequately as a central striker. He appeared to make the decision around the time Marcus Rashford broke into the team at Old Trafford.
United now have Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who can play at centre-forward or in the number 10 position, and they’re on the verge of completing a deal for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, a number 10.
Rooney could be running out of road at Old Trafford.
