Wayne Rooney, It's Time To Lead Manchester United To Greatness

After a terrible start by Manchester United's standards in 2010 with an FA Cup third round loss to rival Leeds United at Old Trafford, and a 1-1 draw at St. Andrews Park against Birmingham City, many people are starting to question Manchester United's effectiveness.

With United's current squad, there have many underachievers in the likes of Dimitar Berbatov, Nani, and Anderson among others, and Man United have failed to achieve the high standards that they routinely attempt to accomplish by already registering five losses in the Premier League, and getting bounced from the FA Cup by Leeds.

But regardless of what the underachievers have done, there has been one player throughout all of this that has to step up even more; his name is Wayne Rooney.

Since his arrival from Everton in 2004, Rooney has been an integral player in United's success, and has been a player who has been tabbed to become one of the greatest players in the world.

After his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo left for Real Madrid in the summer of 2009, Rooney was put into a position to become the star for Manchester United, and to lead them to greatness without Ronaldo.

And at the beginning of the season, it appeared that Rooney would be able to do that, as he was able to score goals against Chelsea (Community Shield), Birmingham City, Wigan (twice) Arsenal (penalty), Tottenham, and Manchester City to help Man United get off to a good start to start the 2009-2010 season.

But during October, Rooney's form started to take a hit as he was able to only score one goal and despite having a solid month of November (in which he had a hat trick at Portsmouth) and a four goal month in December, Man United have had a terrible month of January, losing 1-0 to Leeds in the FA Cup, and a 1-1 draw against Birmingham City.

In both of these matches in January, Rooney has played the entire match and has been successfully contained by both defenses.

So now is the time for Wayne Rooney to lead United here, as Man United don't intend to be a major buyer in this month's transfer window, and will need to have Rooney step up his play to the next level.

Even though Rooney has played very well for United this season in his first season as the primary offensive target, he will need to get even better for the sake of Manchester United.

Right now, Manchester United are in the middle of a transition period and he is their main attacker. Man United cannot live off of the 36-year-old legs of Ryan Giggs that much longer, and Rooney will have to become the best player on the pitch for Manchester United.

Without question, Rooney is one of the most talented footballers in not only the Premier League, but in the world, and he has to start to truly play up to the expectations that come with his skill, regardless of the attention and pressure that his opponents will put on him.

Finally, if Manchester United are to win the Premier League this season and are going to make a deep run in the Champions League, they will need to have Wayne Rooney start to play to his best abilities and to lead Manchester United to greatness.