Wayne Rooney is the best, no question

When I sent my Sunderland team out against Manchester United last season, I picked out Wayne Rooney to my players.

‘He’s a winner, he’ll want it more than you,’ I told them. ‘You need to want to win the game at least as much as him, but that’s almost impossible. That’s why he’s the captain of Manchester United.’

I told them that he can see things quickly AND has the ability to execute the actions. ‘You need to be ready for your best game. You need to be ready for his fighting, awkwardness, you need to concentrate. If not he’ll take advantage’.

We drew 1-1 at home and lost 2-0 away. The season before, we knocked United out of the League Cup in the semi-finals. Rooney didn’t play. We also won 1-0 at Old Trafford. Rooney didn’t play.

I’m admirer of Rooney; I like to watch the best English footballer of his generation because you know he can change a game. I was pleased for him this week when he surpassed Sir Bobby Charlton’s international goalscoring record, but I don’t like the way it was reported, with selective use of numbers.

I didn’t like the way Rooney was criticised for not scoring enough goals in European Championships and World Cups. It wasn’t as if Bobby Charlton scored all of his goals against Brazil or didn’t score in friendlies.

Had Rooney played in a better England team then he would’ve scored more goals in final tournaments, but no striker can carry a team by himself and dribble past four defenders. Rooney would have scored more goals playing for England in Charlton’s era when they were world champions.

But the media need stats. They’ll say, ‘your team has only won one in the last 7’ which looks like a terrible statistic. But it wouldn’t take into account that three of the games might have been against top teams or that you might have won the three games before the last seven. Numbers are selective and usually used to force a negative, even when something should be celebrated like Rooney scoring 50 goals for his country.

Rooney’s career deserves more celebration than it receives in England. He’s been at the absolute top since 16, when he was already a man ready to play in the Premier League. That alone is incredible, given how physical the Premier League is.

He made a strong decision to leave Everton when he was really young. Players are criticised for leaving for bigger clubs by people who would make exactly the same decision in their working life if they were offered a far better job. But Rooney made the right decision.

He’s been at United over a decade and has been very consistent, never playing less than 30 games for his club, never scoring less than 14 goals.

What separates Rooney is his mental toughness. He does what he despite all the continued pressure and scrutiny around him. He’s human and I’m sure he suffers and worries like everybody, but mental toughness has become the most important part of being a top footballer. Not everyone can deal with it.

I worked with a very good player whose game was based on aggression. If he received a yellow card then he became 50% of the player because he knew what was to follow if he carried on playing aggressively. He’d get a red; he’d get killed by the media. He held back, it was a mental thing.

I worked with another who was a very good striker but his confidence would be hit if he didn’t score. He’d read the numbers, that he hadn’t scored in six and it would effect him. Then he’d pick up a little injury to take himself out of the firing line. He’d be back three weeks later and come back, in his mind, with the counter set to zero. Then he’d start scoring. Again, it was a mental thing.

Rooney is very tough mentally, but also tough physically. I love players with a bit of nastiness and Rooney has that. He’s the right captain for Man United. He’s struggling for goals this season but they will come. Don’t just look at him, look at the system which is in transition and not playing as well as people hope behind him. How can he score 34 goals like that? He can’t.

When Darren Bent scored 24 league goals, he was playing in a Sunderland team which finished 13th. He wouldn’t have scored 24 goals for a team that finished 19th.

Rooney will score goals in a team playing well. He tried the midfield idea last season, but he’s a forward. That’s where he’s best and he’s also a player you want on your side. He’s passionate, he contests decisions, he gets frustrated. Good. You want that in your best player. He goes ballistic when he scores. Good. I don’t want robots on a football field, I want people who love football so much they go crazy when they score with the fans.

I once played under a manager who told us that we wasted too much energy when we celebrated after scoring. Rubbish! It’s the most important part of football. And it’s a part of football which Wayne Rooney has done very well for club and country season after season.