Gary Lineker: "Daniel Sturridge can be more of a threat than Wayne Rooney for England"

Daniel Sturridge of England gestures during the international friendly match between England and Peru at Wembley Stadium

Former England striker Gary Lineker has said that Roy Hodgson may have to consider dropping Wayne Rooney.

Rooney, 28, is widely considered the talisman of this England side but there have been some questions about whether he works in the set-up.

Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge has been in sensational form this season, scoring 21 goals in the Premier League and he will lead the line for England at the World Cup.

There are concerns that he and Rooney may not be able to work together in the same and Lineker thinks it might be time to consider Rooney’s place in the England team.

Speaking on Blahzil 2014, according to the Daily Mail, Lineker said, “I think Sturridge gives us different options, He gives us a threat in behind the opposition which I think is very important. That’s something that Rooney doesn’t do as often.

“He (Rooney) is very good at coming off, creating space, turning, hitting shots hard and bringing other people into the game, but in terms of a threat in behind the opposition defence, that is Sturridge’s territory.”

“You’ve got the conundrum – if Sturridge is up top in the system, where do you play Rooney? Wayne can play anywhere. He can play on the right, he can play on the left, he can even play a forward midfield role.

“But the question then is, “Have you better players in those particular positions than Wayne Rooney?” We’ve got all sorts of options. You could have [Raheem] Sterling playing on one side, the possibility of [Adam] Lallana playing on either side, [Danny] Welbeck, of course, which has been favoured by Roy in his teams and you’d expect him to play on the left-hand side because he covers a lot of ground.

“It will be interesting to see which way Roy Hodgson goes. Or whether he sets back to that old way we played two years ago against Italy, with two lines of four, Rooney and someone else up top. So all sorts of possibilities. It will be fascinating to see which way he goes.”

Lineker is England’s second highest scorer of all time with 48 international goals, one behind Sir Bobby Charlton. Rooney has scored 38 goals but with time on his side could become the man to break Charlton’s record.

This season he scored 17 league goals for Manchester United and generally did well despite the general malaise of United’s season.