Rooney must keep the passion for England but lose the profanity

June 10, 2010 01:29 am | Updated November 28, 2021 09:10 pm IST

Nobody would dare separate Wayne Rooney from his anger. The connection to the forward's verve would be cut in the process and England would no longer have even one elite forward in the squad. Perhaps that sweetly-taken goal against Platinum Stars on Monday would never have existed if he had not been in such productive turmoil after his yellow card.

With the match effectively at an end, few others could have been so engaged in the action. Something seethed in Rooney once he was booked, although the real question is why referees in England seem to have capitulated where bad language is concerned.

No manager, all the same, would wish for a wholly-compliant Rooney. His stubborn unruliness leads to the legitimate havoc on the field that makes him so rare a presence. It looks, indeed, as if no one has attempted to tame him fully. There is satisfaction enough in recognising that he usually contrives to stay on the pitch.

Rationing the rage

Since the red card against Portugal in the quarterfinals of the World Cup four years ago, he has been sent off only once, at Fulham in March 2009, where Phil Dowd showed him a couple of yellows. Somehow, Rooney appears to have learned how to ration the rage, even if he still gives ample offence. The bookings proliferate, and his tally hit 14 in the 2007-08 programme.

That indiscipline is a worry, since it would be simple for him to miss a key game at the World Cup because of cautions. Fabio Capello, the England manager, may be reassured by the unblemished disciplinary record in the qualifiers, but Rooney would have been a little more at ease in fixtures that often turned into frolics. The tone will be very different in the finals, where the opener against the USA could be trying.

Aggravating factor

With luck, it will turn out that the insignificance of the game with Platinum Stars was the really aggravating factor. Rooney came on for the second half and, with England ahead already, he did not have a true challenge to sustain his focus. Concentration also ebbed in the men around him.

England look like a squad that have gone through the slog of altitude training and must now rediscover their sharpness on a football pitch.

As the quality of the play improves, so too will Rooney's frame of mind. His self-control has not been all that bad at Manchester United, considering the duties he has there.

He has come to be a lone forward, exactly the post that steeped him in the frustration expressed by the stamp on Ricardo Carvalho's groin in 2006. Rooney must have developed greater forbearance since then.

In the recent campaign, the total of 33 goals for United was easily the best of his career.

Perfect fit

Still, it might not have been precisely the contribution that Sir Alex Ferguson had in mind. When 30m was spent on Dimitar Berbatov in 2008, the manager must have been excited by the apparently complementary nature of the partnership with Rooney. The cool and classic style of the Bulgarian ought to have been a perfect fit with that explosive inspiration of the Englishman. In practice, there has been a malfunction, and the players had to become alternatives more than allies.

In the most recent campaign, they were together at kick-off for just one of the six league games against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

That occasion ended in defeat at Anfield. Berbatov can consider himself demoted, but it has to be emphasised that it was not Ferguson's original desire to make Rooney a one-man attack.

Capello, for his part, is normally averse to isolating him, but the insight that Emile Heskey would somehow liberate Rooney is one of the great imaginative feats of modern football.

New status

Understandably, the Italian did not arrive at that combination immediately. Rooney was briefly a lone attacker before being picked in tandem with Jermain Defoe. Capello was in his seventh England game before Rooney and Heskey were together at kick-off.

The occasion was the 4-1 rout in Zagreb of the Croatia side that had been the tormentors of Steve McClaren. It was the night of Theo Walcott's hat-trick, but the third goal of the match was Rooney's. England had a new status.

Capello somehow understood that Heskey was the ideal catalyst for Rooney and the Aston Villa attacker may well be asked to serve the same purpose at the World Cup. The broader point is that the England manager dislikes tying down the single extraordinary talent at his disposal.

As Rooney roams, he becomes unpredictable, difficult to mark and free to display his imagination. When he is on the loose, England begin to believe that they can break free of the generations of disappointment.

— © Guardian News and Media 2010

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