Will Van Gaal have the courage to drop Rooney?

kayode OGUNDARE

@kaybaba99

I’m not asking this question because of another listless performance last Saturday against Newcastle United at Old Trafford. Well, okay, maybe that latest outing finally boiled my angst and is prompting my asking when Louis Van Gaal will have the courage to do what everyone around the world thinks he should have done a long time ago.

For the records, Wayne Rooney is my second favourite man United player behind Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez whom my son is named after so those who want to accuse me of ‘hating’ on Wazza can kindly sheathe their swords. Thank you.

As I was saying, Rooney as captain is the best placed to lead United’s charge to regain lost glory and, as the manager labours to fashion out a team resembling the great sides built by former manager, the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson. Apart from being captain, Rooney is also the best paid player so he has double responsibility to the club and his teammates. When and where any other player is tired or lagging, he should be the catalyst to spark the team into life and back to winning ways.

Sadly, four games into the season, Rooney is not looking like someone ready to lead the team to glory. He has not scored in his last 10 games and, judging by his body language that does not appear to change anytime soon.

Last week, against Villa, he was mostly ineffectual and on Saturday at Old Trafford, the situation was much worse, except for his disallowed goal.

According to opta stats, that game (vs Newcastle) was only the second time in 2015 that Rooney would have more than ONE shot on target. Are you kidding me???

For someone who’s been one of the league’s best performers in the last decade, this is worrying. He’s played 483 competitive games for United over the last decade and the fear that he could be burning out cannot be ruled out. I know you’ll argue that he shouldn’t suffer a burn out with just only two games played so far but this fatigue is not the result of just 270 minutes of league football. It is a cumulative of all the knocks, wear and tear of his career.

Yes, he’s just 30 years old but he’s been in the top-flight in the last 14 years having played a cumulative 665 career games so you expect him to be on the downward slope. I hear it is called the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Of course there will be some people who would think I’m pressing the panic button too early, after just four games in a 42-game season (United actually have a minimum of 44 games to play this season) but a careful analysis of his records show that Rooney is usually quick off the marks at the beginning of the season.

In his previous 11 seasons at Man United, Rooney has scored in his first game in six of those seasons, including the memorable hat-trick on his debut against Fenerbahce, brace against Fulham in the opening game of 2006-07 and solid a run at the start of the 2011-12 campaign when he had 10 goals in six games for club and country by September 10.

 In two of the other five seasons, his slow start was injury-enforced and in 2007-08 he had to wait until his sixth game before scoring even though he had missed a month to injury. However, in none of those six games was he has sluggish and listless has he has appeared in recent times.

Apart from burning out, the Rooney conundrum can also be traced to the position he’s been asked to play. He makes no bones about his preference to play in a deep midfield role but his most effective is as a second striker, playing just inside the hole.

However, LvG has played him upfront, sometimes as a lone striker and this has resulted in a situation where he looks lost and out of sort. In that position against Aston Villa, he touched the ball only once in 90 minutes and cut a pathetic sight on the pitch.

Rooney’s problem is not about desire. He has that in abundance. Neither is it about talent. I make bold to say he’s one of England’s best players of the last 50 years and his energy and work-rate is perpetually on over-drive.

Rooney is on 230 career goals for United, just 19 away from equaling the all-time record held by Sir Bobby Charlton and it is my sincere hope that he gets to that milestone as soon as possible, possibly this season.

He needs 20 goals to become the all-time topscorer for the club but he’s only done that twice in his entire career so he would need the support of everyone of his teammates and manager to achieve the milestone and thus help the club to also succeed.

Like I said, he will need the help of his manager. And the first thing van Gaal needs to do is to give Rooney a long break away from football to recharge his batteries and become again the tiger we know him to be.

On the surface, it is hard to imagine Rooney on the bench. He’s captain of the team, for Pete’s sake. How do you sit your captain on the bench when he’s not injured or incapacitated in any way? But that is what LvG MUST do to help Rooney and thereby help himself.

Secondly, Rooney is the highest paid player in the club and the owners, from a purely business point of view, would object to paying about £300k a week in wages to a player who’s not playing. However, in the long run, the club will be the better for it.

Rooney was candid enough when he said: ‘I’m an honest guy. I know when I don’t play well and against Aston Villa I was below my standards,’ Rooney said after United’s 3-1 win over Club Bruges. ‘It’s not a game which I want to look back on but obviously that happens in football. You’ll have nights like that and you have to move on. It’s early on in the season. We are just three games in. I’ve experienced this (criticism) before and the goals will come, I know that. I understand I have to be the one who’s going to lead that line for us and try and find the goals for us.’

The truth, which Rooney is not ready to countenance, is that this was not just about the Aston Villa game. In the game against Tottenham, Rooney dithered with the ball at his feet and the goal at his mercy until Kyle Walker fortuitously put the ball in his own net.

The old Rooney would have scored that goal and reeled away in celebration long before the Spurs backline knew what had hit them. And against Newcastle, he was little more than a passenger on the pitch.

Do not get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Rooney physically. He is an elite athlete with fitness levels that would probably shock you. But my guess is that he’s suffering mental torture and this is where a player’s decline usually starts.

There comes a time when the motivation, mental sharpness and hunger to keep improving starts to diminish, and losing a few per cent points mentally here and there has a knock-on effect. I’m sure Rooney is nearing that epoch and the only way to avert a total and irreparable breakdown is to give him a break.

United have scored just two goals in three Premier League games and one of those was an unfortunate own-goal. After three games last season, they had the same two goals although they had lost one and drawn two of the opening three.

The year before, they had scored four goals under David Moyes with a win and draw from three games and in Fergie’s last season in charge, they won two and lost one of the first three games, scoring six goals. Even though unbeaten in three games, this is the season they have the leanest attack and you can bet your last dollar that there is no way Van Gaal would go through the season with just Rooney, Hernandez and James Wilson. Except if he doesn’t want to win anything.

Nobody seems to understand the mind of van Gaal but Memphis Depay appears to be the man for the centre forward role with Rooney playing in an advanced role behind him. Depay’s performance against Club Brugge is indication of what he can do upfront and with Rooney in his favoured second-striker role, they can become a deadly duo although, admittedly, they’ll need time to work at the partnership.

It is not far-fetched to say United’s midfield have not offered the kind of service and support with which Rooney can thrive in front of goal but we cannot also deny the fact that Rooney has dropped a pace or two and no longer the bustling all-action player he once was.

The manager found it easier to bring in Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger to bolster up the midfield but has not been able to find quality replacement for the departed Robin van Persie which would have taken some of the goalscoring burden off Rooney. This is a must, even as we enter the last week of the transfer window.

I’ve been asked severally which striker is available to buy who will have the quality lacking in the current United attack and I don’t hesitate to point at Zlatan Ibrahimovic who, going by media reports, is now on his way out of PSG and could therefore be available.

True, he’ll be 34 in October so you cannot do any long-term planning with him but he can guarantee 20-goals in one season. Top quality, Zlatan has won titles in all the major European leagues and may not be averse to life in the Premier League. His temperament is another matter entirely but if there’s a manager who can handle the Swede, LvG is the man.

Whether Zlatan or any other player comes in is not even as important as having Rooney firing on all cylinder but the best way to do that appears to be the hardest which is to drop him from the team, send him on vacation and have him return brand new after a month.

But, pray, will van Gaal have the courage or guts to do this?