Wayne Rooney: England Will Be Fine Without Star Striker for Euro 2012

With England's star striker Wayne Rooney being suspended two games for an incident involving Miodrag Dzudovic back in October of last year, some soccer fans may now be wondering just how well England will do at Euro 2012.

Rest assured, England will be fine without Wayne Rooney.

Statistically (according to the Sun), England has done better without the top striker. They have won 75 percent of their matches when Rooney wasn't playing, compared to winning 66 percent of their matches when he was. They won 31 of 47 games played with Rooney, but of the 12 he missed, England won nine and drew two.

These stats don't necessarily add up, since the amount of games played is much different, but it is clear that England has the full potential to win games without Wayne Rooney.

Rooney himself is confident that England can pull off wins without him, stating (via the Daily Mail):

"

I've seen enough to believe we will be fine without me for those games, I think four or five points will get us through the group and we're capable of beating France and Sweden.

"

Of course it won't be easy.

While England did qualify for the Euro Cup relatively easy, six points ahead of second place, and while France just managed to slip by Bosnia near the end of the qualifying stages, it doesn't mean that France is a team to be taken lightly.

Especially when they enter the Euro Cup with only two losses in their last 20 games.

Still, this clash of rivals will undoubtedly be an important game. Not only will it give the victorious team a better position advancing into the tournament, but what if England does win without Rooney and these two teams face off again later on in the tournament? What if England seriously struggles against France, will Rooney be enough to save them later on in the tournament?

Other players will have to step up for England with Rooney being out. Andy Carroll is one of them.

Carroll needs to be the attacker England is hoping for. While Carroll has struggled to put up goals in recent games—only three in the last seven games—his performance against Norway a couple of weeks ago gave England optimism that Carroll can step up and replace Rooney going into the Euro Cup.

Along with Carroll, Steven Gerrard is also going to have to bring his A game going into the Euro Cup. Gerrard will have to do his best to keep the ball moving and manage where it goes. He will also need to step up and be more of a finisher and find the back of the net since Rooney is out of the picture.

Roy Hodgson's men have the best record out of any of the 16 countries involved in the Euro Cup when it comes to scoring within the first 15 minutes of a match. That would be roughly 35 percent of England's goals. If England can keep up that statistic, it might help them defeat France.

England clearly has the talent and the experience to be able to successfully handle and beat both France and Sweden during the opening Euro 2012 games. While Wayne Rooney is a key to England's success, there is no reason why England cannot handle themselves without the star striker.