Wayne Rooney Is the Man Utd Player Who Must Produce After International Break

Wayne Rooney has not played during this international break. The Manchester United and England captain was, however, presented with an award by Sir Bobby Charlton ahead of the Three Lions' game against Estonia to mark his status as England's all-time leading goalscorer.

That award was, of course, for Rooney's achievements in the past. However, Rooney said, per the Manchester Evening News, "I don’t want to give my place up, I want to play. I come and work harder every time and I want to make it hard for the manager to leave me out over the next couple of years."

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Of course, when he says "the manager," he is referring to the manager of his country, Roy Hodgson. He has few concerns his club manager will leave him out. Louis van Gaal never leaves out Wayne Rooney.

Back in September 2014, Van Gaal said Rooney, as captain, "has more privileges" and that "there are always players we put in the line-up in a team—my captain shall always play," per the Independent.

More than a year later, nothing has changed other than that Rooney's performances appear to have further degraded.

Rooney is currently United's top scorer for the season, but three of his five goals came against an injury-ravaged Club Brugge side and one of the other two came against Championship side Ipswich Town.

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Even his most ardent defenders—of whom there are many among the United faithful—could not claim he has been able to exert much influence in the Red Devils' Premier League campaign so far.

When played as an out-and-out striker, he failed to score. When playing in the No. 10 position, he has so far failed to provide an assist.

Those are the hard numbers. Publicly available statistics do not contain the kind of forensic data needed to analyse the speed and number of his sprints, but from a subjective perspective, it simply looks as if he has not been at the races this season.

The unique combination of technical and physical ability, of power, confidence and vision that defined his career for so long is rarely on show now. There are still magical moments, and he still has the long pass out to the right-flank in him, but in general, his place in the side seems to be propped up by his captaincy.

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It is already clear that, for the moment, there is no debate about whether Rooney or Anthony Martial should play up front—in spite of the talk before the season that Rooney would be United's centre-forward this season.

More debatable, but certainly worth debating, is the notion that Ander Herrera should come into the side in Rooney's stead. Herrera's lack of involvement so far this season is unfortunate given how effective he was in the second half of the last campaign. One option would be to use him as a direct replacement for Rooney at No. 10 in Van Gaal's 4-2-3-1.

Another option would be to change shape to a more traditional 4-3-3, as was used when United were at their best last term, with one holding midfielder and two more advanced. There is no natural place for Rooney in that shape—last season he played at No. 9, but that is not currently an appealing option.

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This argument is somewhat academic, of course, since Van Gaal has shown no signs of moving on from his view that Rooney is undroppable. For United to be successful, Rooney will finally have to get his season properly underway. The team is not strong enough to carry a passenger.

Rooney consistently attracts praise from his team-mates and fellow professionals, so he must be doing something right. It is just that from the stands, it is hard to see what that is.

When the international break ends, United need their captain to produce again.