Rooney a true team player

The deployment of Wayne Rooney on the right wing for Manchester United’ 0-0 Champions League Semi Final draw in the Camp Nou last night raised many eyebrows, none more so than on the excellent (Irish) RTE television panel. John Giles, Eamon Dunphy and Liam Brady each made a point of singling out Rooney for his professional, unselfish display in an unaccustomed role away from his usual strikers’ position.

It is testament to the professionalism of Rooney that he carried out his duties of closing down the likes Abidal, Xavi, Deco etc. using every last ounce of his seemingly boundless energy without so much as a complaint or shrug to the sideline. It must have been horrible for an out and out striker with his undoubted talents to go a full 90 minutes without so much as a shot on the goal but he still put in the maximum effort for the good of the team.

Now Rooney is no angel and can infuriate ABU’s everywhere with his (regular) petulant outbursts to referees, but he showed his true worth to Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United last night with another committed display where he sacrificed his own personal ambitions on behalf of his team mates.

It must be incredibly frustrating for the talismanic striker to be asked to play such a withdrawn role but Rooney responded and while we may not have witnessed the usual lung-bursting runs and individual flicks of brilliance, honed on the backstreets of Merseyside, his contribution was nonetheless every bit as important.

Contrast the Rooney performance with that of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Firstly, no blame should be apportioned to the Portuguese winger for missing that penalty so early on in the tie but the remainder of his ‘performance’ left a lot to be desired. For a player who is fouled so often there is no reason for all the theatrical diving and gesticulating that infuriates opposition players and fans. Win your free kick and just get on with it. Worse still, his continual reluctance to track back and help out his team again went unnoticed last night thanks to the Herculean efforts of Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick.

There is no doubting Ronaldo’s individual talent as anyone who can score the amount of goals that he has done in one season deserves respect. That is not the issue; it Ronaldo’s lack of professionalism in not carrying out the so-called donkey work and tracking back (a la Rooney) for the sake of his team mates that annoys the most.
Man United fans should not regard these comments as an attack on Ronaldo the player, more a comment on his attitude and professionalism to the rest of his team mates.

If Rooney can put in a 90 minute performance without throwing his arms in the air every time he is tackled, track back when he loses possession and sacrifice his attacking talents on behalf of his team then so should Ronaldo.