Manchester United Must Cherish the Versatile Attributes of Wayne Rooney

“There’ll be times,” Wayne Rooney said in an interview with Jonathan Northcroft in the Sunday Times (£) last week, “I’ll be needed to play deeper or wider, which I’ve no problem doing.”

This has always been a feature of Rooney’s career. He has played as a striker, he has played as a second striker, and he has played both on the left and the right.

In each of Manchester United’s last two games, against Leicester City and West Ham United, he has played at the tip of a midfield diamond. Versatility has been his hallmark.

It has been both a blessing and a curse; Rooney himself hasn’t always seemed as happy to take on other roles.

At a press conference before England’s World Cup qualifier against Montenegro last October, for instance, he made it clear he wanted to play as a centre-forward and had been frustrated the previous season when Sir Alex Ferguson had asked him to play deeper.

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“I actually felt that when I played midfield I did okay but I didn’t want to play there,” he said, as Daniel Taylor of The Guardian recorded.

It’s hard not to wonder whether his change of tune is political. That Rooney’s relationship with Ferguson hadn’t been good toward the end is well known, and he perhaps felt he had the leverage to make David Moyes play him where he wanted to play.

With Louis van Gaal, though, players know they do as they’re told; his authority in that regard is unquestioned.

And versatility is probably Rooney’s key quality. Five years ago, especially in the Champions League, Rooney spent much of his time attacking from the flank as Cristiano Ronaldo, who couldn’t be trusted to track an overlapping full-back, operated through the middle.

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The quarter-final against Porto was a classic case: Ronaldo played on the right in the home leg and United drew 2-2 as Aly Cissokho ran that flank from left-back. Rooney neutered him in the second game and United won 1-0 with a Ronaldo goal. He could attack, but he could also defend, which is a rare quality.

But the following season, Rooney began playing as the out-and-out central striker. His heading improved markedly, and he scored 26 league goals. He seemed to start believing centre-forward, playing as an old-fashioned No. 9, was his natural position.

If Ferguson hadn’t bought Robin van Persie in 2012, maybe that would now be seen as Rooney’s obvious natural position, although there were always doubts about whether he really was better served spending most of his time with his back to goal.

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In the aforementioned Sunday Times interview, Rooney spoke of Alan Shearer and how he maintained his effectiveness by adapting his game as his pace left him. But Rooney has never really been a Shearer, even if some of his goals—particularly the thumping volleys—evoke the former Newcastle striker.

Rooney burst through not as a No. 9 but as a muscular No. 10. It may be that his touch is not quite as perfect as it needs to be in order to be a creative great in that role, and it may be that the pace which made him such a threat bursting from deep has gone.

Back in 2009, Ferguson spoke of the value of forwards who attacked on the diagonal, using the angle to create space between the lines and working the full-back on his weaker foot. You wonder whether that might not have been Rooney’s best role, blocking in the opposing full-back and looking to cut infield.

His power might have made him a threat arriving at the back post. But then, perhaps, that was a waste of his gifts, and having tasted the acclaim of a 20-plus goal centre-forward, it was a while before his ego would let him slink away from the box.

That, perhaps, is the problem of Rooney. He can score, but he is not a striker. He can track and chase, but he is not a full-back. He can create, but he is not a playmaker.

He is an unusual bundle of attributes, and it feels as though no coach has ever quite worked out what to do with him. His greatness, ultimately, may lie in his ability to do many things well, if none of them quite to a level that would be great in themselves.

Versatility, sometimes, is a virtue in its own right.