Hatching a Plan for Manchester United to Get Wayne Rooney Scoring Consistently
Wayne Rooney is on the verge of breaking the all-time scoring record for his country, but he will need to improve on his recent Manchester United form to do so at club level.
Of course, as the club's Twitter account was keen to shout about, he managed a hat-trick against an injury-ravaged Club Brugge. San Marino are probably the perfect opponents for Rooney to be facing in his quest for England's top spot.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
However, in the Premier League, there has been little evidence that he will be able to carry the burden of United's goalscoring responsibilities for the rest of the season.
Quite the opposite, in fact. The most painful thing about watching Rooney's performance against Swansea City was that it did not appear the hat-trick he scored in the previous game had made a significant impact on his confidence.
There were two key moments in that game that betrayed Rooney's current woes. Both involved him waiting a moment longer than he should have done—and indeed would have done in top form—attempting to bring the ball onto his right foot rather than hitting it with his left.
Both times this allowed the defender to get to Rooney and stop the shot. For the second of these incidents, Ashley Williams had to do some very good defensive work, but the first was a pretty simple block.
It was not the first time this season Rooney has delayed before hitting a shot. Against Tottenham Hotspur on opening day, he was on the verge of fluffing a wonderful chance when Spurs' Kyle Walker charitably did the finishing for him.
However, the defender's blushes could have been spared had Rooney not frozen in mid-movement, seeking an extra touch rather than trusting his feet to do what they have done so often before.
The problem with the assignment of hatching a plan to get Rooney scoring consistently again is there are plenty of potential reasons why he is not. Confidence, the system United are playing and perhaps a physical decline may all be playing a part.
Last season, it would have been argued the primary way to get him scoring more frequently would be to play him as a striker more frequently.
After all, as has been so often discussed when contemplating Rooney and goals, the two seasons when he managed more than 20 league goals both saw him leading the line for United. Sir Alex Ferguson often played Rooney anywhere but at centre-forward, but in 2009/10 and 2011/12, he relented and Rooney repaid him with goals.
However, this season so far, the excuse of a deeper-lying role, or responsibilities other than goalscoring to attend to, is not valid.
Rooney asked for the centre-forward role, saying, per Mark Ogden in the Daily Telegraph on 20 July, "My best position, and I have always said it, is as a striker, getting into the box. And the two seasons I have really done that as a lone striker have been my two best goalscoring seasons. It is where the manager and myself see my best position."
So that part of the scoring conundrum is set in stone for now, particularly given United did not bring in a proven centre-forward in the transfer window and let Radamel Falcao, Robin van Persie and Javier Hernandez leave the club. Rooney is playing up front.
The next question becomes about whether the system is right for Rooney to score goals. Louis van Gaal's set up is obviously very different to Sir Alex Ferguson's. Looking back at the 2009/10 and 2011/12 seasons to see where Rooney's goals came from was enlightening.
In 2009/10, the top providers in the squad were Ryan Giggs (9), Antonio Valencia (7), Nani (6) and Dimitar Berbatov (5). Crosses and corners accounted for six of Giggs' assists and four of Valencia's.
In 2011/12 the top providers were Valencia (13), Nani (10), Giggs (8) and Ashley Young (7). Four of Valencia's, five of Nani's, four of Giggs' and four of Young's came from crosses or corners. All the data in the past two paragraphs refers exclusively to the Premier League and comes courtesy of WhoScored.com.
Of course, not all of those assists were for Rooney goals, but plenty of them were. It is notable that all bar one of the players providing the most assists in Rooney's best goalscoring seasons were wingers.
Giggs was not always playing on the wing by that stage of his career, but the majority of his assists in 2009/10 and half of his assists in 2011/12 still came from crosses.
It is clear that wing play was still a huge part of Sir Alex's success in his later years. Van Gaal's system currently has United enjoying vast swathes of possession in front of the opposition defence, but getting in behind that defence is proving to be a problem.
They are pretty narrow, with Memphis Depay playing on the left often looking to cut in, and Juan Mata playing on the right and very keen to come central.
Back in the halcyon days of spring 2015, United seemed to have struck pay dirt under Van Gaal. A brief run of games, playing an attacking 4-3-3, led to some very impressive football. Bringing that system back, with one holding midfielder and two more advanced, rather than the inverse, could help.
Even playing that system, though, once teams followed Jose Mourinho's lead and defended deep against United, the Red Devils' free-flowing football was halted. And even during that spell, Rooney was hardly prolific. His last league goal came in that good run—a true wonder goal against Aston Villa in early April.
So perhaps a more attacking set up in midfield would help Rooney.
Another potential help to him would be to simplify his instructions. When Rooney gave an interview to Gary Neville for Sky Sports toward the end of last season, he discussed how different working under Van Gaal was.
He said of United's good spell, which saw him playing at No. 9, "We were killing teams in midfield with [Marouane] Fellaini and Young. I was trying to stay out of it and look for runs in behind and control the centre halves."
For Rooney, trying to "stay out of it" is the polar opposite of how he has approached his role in the past, forever involved in the action, coming deep to fight for possession if the ball was not coming to him.
It is pure speculation, but perhaps allowing him a little more freedom to play his natural game would help. Perhaps his indecision in front of goal was more a function of overthinking than a lack of confidence. That analysis would be pretty generous to Rooney, though, and it is hard to fully stand behind.
There are essentially three possibilities that exist when it comes to hatching a plan to get Rooney firing again.
The first is that his recent poor form is just that: form. He has had barren spells before and generally hit a purple patch sooner or later. Perhaps if he continues to do the same thing, in the same system, the goals will come anyway.
The second possibility is that a plan exists that would get Rooney scoring goals, a change to the system, a new partner alongside him from the squad, playing Mata at No. 10, allowing Rooney to drop to No. 10 and playing someone ahead of him—the possibilities are many.
Ultimately, a football manager who has won leagues in multiple countries, taken his nation to the semi-final of a World Cup and won the Champions League is probably quite well-placed to construct such a plan.
The third possibility is that no such plan exists anymore. The third possibility is that Wayne Rooney, on the verge of becoming his nation's top scorer—within touching distance of becoming his club's—is simply a little over the hill.
A first-team regular under enormous pressure and facing constant public scrutiny since the age of 17, perhaps the years have caught up with him. That would not necessarily mean he is finished completely as a footballer, just that perhaps the idea of him being the star centre-forward for United is optimistic at this point.
In the immediate world of football coverage, this is not something that is often mentioned, but the only way to know which of the above possibilities—or which of the nuanced combination of the above possibilities—is playing out before our eyes is to give it time.
Neither writing Rooney off nor confidently decrying his inevitable return to form is backed up by the facts just yet.
What is certain, though, is that if his league-goal drought continues, something will have to be done. United's season ahead—especially after the impact of the transfer window just gone—needs plenty of goals from Rooney. Whether relying on that was wise remains to be seen.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
