Wayne Rooney has received major boost from his England manager Roy Hodgson who squashed all the news about Rooney playing in midfield for his national side. Hodgson is unfazed by Louis Van Gaal’s move of deploying Rooney in a rather withdrawn role for Manchester United.
Speaking ahead of his much awaited England team’s announcement to face Lithuania and Italy in March, Roy Hodgson told the reporters:
“Well, he’s a goalscorer, isn’t he?” “So one always likes to see one’s goalscorers in positions where they can get into the box, and around the box.
“If you’ve got several other goalscorers and you can afford to use one of your goalscorers a bit further back, that’s fine. But he’s our top goalscorer in the qualifiers, he’s just a few goals away now from being England’s leading goalscorer, so I hope he will continue to score goals for us.”
To everyone’s surprise, the England and Manchester United captain is playing square or backward passes in United’s midfield while non scorers Radamel Falcao and Robin Van Persie are leading the line for Van Gaal’s team.
Rooney has scored over 200 goals for his club and country and these days he is seen fighting for balls in the mid field and trying to find Daley Blind or Michael Carrick instead of linking up with Robin Van Persie or Radamel Falcao.
Wayne Rooney, being the ultimate team-man he is, has never expressed his dissatisfaction of being used from a deeper role where he has not been effective at all. In a rather alarming stat, Rooney has not had a single shot at goal in the entire 2015 for Manchester United. This stat in itself says a lot about how United are wasting one of the greatest goal scorers of his generation by playing him from midfield.
Roy Hodgson understands Rooney’s value to his side playing as a striker and will play him at his more potent position, i.e Center Forward. The England manager was also quizzed about the possibility including Harry Kane to his side. Hodgson’s answer must come as a major boost for Kane, who is seeking his first international cap.
Hodgson praised Kane’s development at Tottenham and expects the prolific striker to play a major part in England’s upcoming Euro 2016 qualification game against Lituania and subsiquently the all important friendly against Italy.
Quotes Credits: Goal