Is Wayne Rooney Too Important to Manchester United?

Ever since he was acquired by Manchester United from Everton in 2004 for £25.6 million, Wayne Rooney was been considered to be the next big thing in English football.

After he joined the Red Devils, Rooney continued to show glimpses of what he was capable of, but injuries and the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo prevented Rooney from showing us how good of a footballer he truly can be.

But this summer, Rooney finally was given the keys to be the person in charge of Manchester United's attack with Ronaldo leaving the Red Devils for Real Madrid for a record £80 Million.

And after Ronaldo's departure, Rooney started off the season on a great pace, and despite having several stretches during the season in which he wasn't able to score goals, Rooney has still been able to 25 goals so far this season for Man United.

But during the last month, Rooney has really became a player that has stood out more than the rest of his peers, which is evident with his four goal match against Hull City, his late winner in the Carling Cup against rival Manchester City, and his two goal performance against AC Milan at the San Siro, among others.

And with his great play, Rooney has been now considered with the likes of Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Kaka as the best footballers in today's game.

But now one must wonder if Manchester United are relying too much on their English star, despite how great he has been this year.

For starters, Rooney has played in all but seven of Manchester United's matches so far this season, and has played in every match since United's December eighth clash against Wolfsburg in the Champions League.

Along with the fact that Rooney has not missed a match in over two months, he also has played 26 complete matches already and fatigue could become a major issue for Rooney as the season comes to an end.

For Manchester United, Rooney has been far and away their greatest goal scorer this year with his 25 goals, but the second highest source of goals for Manchester United have been own goals with ten and Dimitar Berbatov is the highest scoring player for United with nine goals.

This shows that despite getting into great opportunities to get goals, Manchester United do not have another goal scorer that can find the net often enough for the Red Devils.

And for Berbatov, he has been inconsistent this season, but when he is given the proper opportunity to succeed, he can get the job done.

Today's match for United against Everton was a perfect example of what I am trying to convey in this article, as Rooney did not have one of his better days, despite nearly scoring on a free kick, and Everton beat Man United 3-1.

Now, United can find themselves four points behind Chelsea if Chelsea win at Wolverhampton and the quest for Manchester United to win their fourth straight Premier League has also taken a hit.

And this shows that Manchester United rely too much on Rooney for each performance.

Whose to say that Rooney will not have another streak such as the one he had from the match against against Manchester City on September 20 to the match at Portsmouth on Nov. 28, in which Rooney only scored one goal (which was against Blackburn on Oct. 31).

Finally, if Manchester United are to have any success this year in winning the Premier League or making a deep run in the Champions League, they are going to need another player besides Wayne Rooney to be the Red Devils' Superman and score goals.