Rooney gets an assist…from ‘experts’

Sarah Winterburn

“Rooney just used all his experience…he didn’t go into the bodies, he just pulled out, great little move, the ball’s fired in…and he’s got an assist.”

And that – ladies and gentlemen – is how Robbie Savage described Wayne Rooney’s scuffed shot that was headed over the line by Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Manchester United’s first shot on target in the 69th minute of a Europa League clash with Zorya Luhansk.

If anybody was in any doubt, this is why the mainstream coverage of Wayne Rooney’s form is so exasperating. Having endured Paul Scholes telling us that “when them big games could round – Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City – I think we’ll see Wayne back to his best”, we then heard Robbie Savage questioned about the praise given to Juan Mata this week by Jose Mourinho.

Savage’s answer contained no insight at all about Mata but instead we heard that he astonishingly agreed with ‘Scholesey’ that Manchester United would have still beaten Leicester by the same margin had Rooney been on the pitch. Those who watched United play quick, incisive, penetrative football without their captain against the champions – and thought it no coincidence – must have been mistaken.

That they failed to play quick, incisive, penetrative football against Zorya Luhansk can be at least partly attributed to the absence of Ander Herrera and Daley Blind; the economist who claimed “soccer is a weakest link sport” presumably had the Belgian tree in mind. It was slow, it was ponderous, it was Louis van Gaal; undoubtedly he will get the blame for this leaden display.

Gary Neville’s short, sharp answer on last week’s hottest topic saw him cite Feyenoord as an example of a Rooney-less game that had gone badly, and he may well feel smug as United were once again rotten in the Europa League with their captain a spectator. The statistics will say that the game changed with the introduction of Rooney, but he was merely the recipient of some generous defending and some quite phenomenal luck. His ridiculously over-hit pass to destroy a counter-attack a few minutes later was regression to the norm.

What is astonishing is that Jose Mourinho said on Wednesday that he would not risk starting a slightly injured Rooney because “the situation that you create to him I think he really can’t afford to have a performance that is not really good and I am here to protect him and have to analyse the best thing for him”. He actually believes – or at least wants us to believe – that Rooney has been harshly treated by the media.

The simple answer is that no, Jose, you are not here to protect him, but to win football matches for Manchester United. Right now, regardless of his remarkable instinct “not to go into bodies”, the best United side still does not include its captain.

Sarah Winterburn