Another season, another time for critics to bring down boy wonder Wayne Rooney. Right now the criticism is that Rooney should be benched in favor of Heskey (this assumes that Owen is untouchable) or Crouch, because 'we don't want to change a winning team'.
There are also claims that England played like a team after a very long time and bring back players like Becks, Lampard and Rooney would change that.
While I can understand the rationale behind not bring Becks back and perhaps even support - for some games - dropping Lampard, dropping Rooney seems idiotic considering that Rooney's biggest problem with England was that he didn't have the players around him to help him reach his potential.
With Owen back (and in form) and SWP and Richards on the right flank, the team is more balanced. We've pretty much dumped the crossing options although Ashley Cole and SWP do send them in from time to time.
Wouldn't it make sense to bring Rooney back and play him and Owen together, at a time when Owen's finally hitting form after 3 long years? The big man - little man combination is easy to comprehend and works well, but it's not the only way to go forward and a smart defense can easily contain Heskey.
They'd be hard-pressed to contain Rooney though.
bear in mind These are ManUtd fans trying to extol their ManUtd player and blame his underperformance not primarily on Rooney himself but on everyone around him.
I could use the same argument for Gerrard and Lampard and say their underperformance at the national level is because Rooney isn't the type of striker they need or can work with....
