Wayne Rooney: a 'total footballer'

‘Total football’ is a style of football which was brought to the limelight by the Dutch National and Ajax teams of the 1960s-70s. It is a system where an outfield player could take up any position on the pitch and another player will fill in for him. Hence in a match, a player can alternate between being a striker, midfielder and defender. This very fluid system is highly attacking and thus places a demand on players to possess various skills like dribbling, tackling, striking etc. Johan Cruyff and Ruud Gullit were probably the best products of this system, primarily strikers who could also play in midfield defence. The ‘Total football’ philosophy is extinct in the modern game in its literal sense but has spawned different variations like the ‘tiki-taka’ of Barcelona where fluid movement of the ball rather than players is the concept. Thus most modern footballers are one-dimensional, doing what they do best from fixed positions. There are, however, a few modern players capable of playing anywhere on the pitch. Wayne Rooney is the most prominent of them.

Rooney: one of the world's deadliest strikers

Rooney possesses a plethora of skills that enable him to fit in any position on the field. Officially labelled a striker, he is one of the deadliest forwards in the world; a fact best demonstrated by his exploits last season. Rooney is fantastic with his first touches, the right man for the tap-ins, a good header of the ball and also capable of long range screamers and set pieces. This description of his abilities makes him a dream striker. Despite all these qualifications, one wonders why Rooney is not considered the best footballer in the world. The answer is that despite being billed a striker, Wayne has this tendency to roam across the pitch in search of the ball, tackle and win the ball back from the opposition and set up attacks for his team mates. This is why for the most part of his career, except last season when he played lone wolf up front, Rooney didn’t plunder tons of goals every season. He was rather a team player and this is what makes him so special.

During the ’07-08 and ’08-09 seasons which were Manchester United’s most successful in recent years, Rooney was deployed on the left side of an attacking trio with Ronaldo and Tevez forming ‘The Holy Trinity 2.0’, thus sending in crosses for Ronaldo and Tevez to poach. Due to his tendency towards the left side of the pitch, Rooney was also utilized as a defensive winger often marking attacking full backs and right midfield players like Messi.

Rooney(yellow) crosses from the left to Ronaldo(red) who finishes it

Rooney is also an able midfield enforcer capable of spraying inch-perfect passes from the half way line which reminds one of Paul Scholes. Often during attacks, he drifts inward and sets up the first point of attack with a cross to the wing as demonstrated during the match against Blackburn Rovers recently. Also, during the last UCL group match with Valencia, Rooney dropped in to form a 5 man midfield to repel Valencia’s attacks as the Spanish team were searching for the winner. With his great pace and strength, he also tracks back to the byline in his own half thus filling in as a full back.

Right wing cross sets up a Berbatov(not in picture) header

Rooney sends a long ball to Nani(blue) from the half way line thus setting up an attacking down the right

Being a striker and possessing such a plethora of skills is extraordinary. There are other players who display such versatility like Samuel Eto’o, Diego Milito, Didier Drogba and Carlos Tevez. Eto’o and Milito performed defensive duties in the midfield at Inter Milan last season thus rendering the Italian team a fortress-like impregnability. Didier Drogba and Carlos Tevez are known to harry their opponents throughout the field for the ball. However, the fact that Rooney displays this versatility almost every time he plays makes him arguably the best modern day ‘total footballer’. He can contribute remarkably to the team’s cause even when he is not at his best as a striker, as opposed to pure forwards like Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo. And this is what makes him a dream player for any team.

Rooney defends at left back filling in for Evra who had moved out of position