Red Devils Need Striker Back At His Best - Why Wayne Rooney Still Needs To Prove His Worth For Manchester United

Wayne Rooney has been at Manchester United since 2004 when he signed from Everton as a ‘wonder kid’. He has since played in three World Cups, scoring one goal in the process. Has he lived up to the hype of 10 years ago and is he still good enough to play for a club like Manchester United and the England national side?

There was a time when Rooney was scoring 20 or 30-odd goals a season but for the past two seasons he has not reached the 20 goal mark. Significantly, it is in this period that he signed a contract in which he reportedly gets £300,000 a week. It may be harsh on him to slate his lack of goals last season because it was a poor season for the club and, in actual fact, Rooney was one of United’s best players, performance-wise at least.

For England he has 40 goals but he does not seem to be the player that we all saw 10 years ago at Euro 2004, when he put in incredible performances and announced himself on the world stage. Since then, however, he has been up and down in terms of performances and he hasn’t really hit that kind of top form again since he was playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.

There is no doubt that Wayne Rooney is a class player and he has been used as an attacking midfielder quite a bit in recent years, which tends to suit his style of play as he likes to drop deep and collect the ball. It does limit his goals, though, and goals are what people used to associate Wayne Rooney with. As mentioned, I do think he is a good player and I would play him as an attacking centre midfielder, but is he worth £300,000 a week? I would say not at all.