Who is more important for their team? Wayne Rooney or Robin van Persie?

Each team has their talisman; a player whom they look to for inspiration, leadership and in most cases, goals. Barcelona have Messi, Real Madrid have Ronaldo, and with Arsenal and Manchester United, they have van Persie and Rooney respectively. Both these players have lit up the Premier League this season with their performances and are without doubt, the central figures at their respective clubs. I was watching a preview of the Arsenal-Manchester United game which ended 1-2 to the red devils but there was an interesting pre-match debate on “who was more important for their team – Robin van Persie for Arsenal or Wayne Rooney for Man Utd?”

Talismans.

Firstly, let’s look at their stats for this season so far:

van Persie – 28 games, 23 goals, 4 assists.Rooney – 26 games. 17 goals, 3 assists.

Now let’s look at some more detailed stats comparing the two in 2011 (via @WhoScored):

van Persie – 36 games, 35 goals, 185 shots, 9 assists, 76 key passes.

Rooney – 35 games, 23 goals, 143 shots, 7 assists, 66 key passes.

While the stats prove that van Persie has been more clinical in front of goal as well as more of a creator, let’s look at one more interesting side to this debate – results when the two have not played for their respective clubs:

Without Robin van Persie this season, Arsenal have played 3 games (not including the Carling Cup) winning 2 and losing one (against Olympiakos in a pointless Champions League game.)

Without Wayne Rooney this season, Man Utd have played 4 games (not including the Carling Cup) and have failed to win any – drawing with Stoke, FC Basel and Benfica while losing to Blackburn at home.

Is Rooney more influential for United then? People will always think Man Utd have enough quality to compensate for Rooney’s absence while Arsenal don’t for van Persie, but the previous stat tells a whole different story, doesn’t it?

Of course, both players are on the same wavelength when it comes to importance to the team – van Persie is responsible for a large portion of Arsenal’s goals in the scoring department as well as the assisting department, while Rooney is responsible for getting the team going, providing the spark and confidence, as well as falling deep and even defending at times.

So is Arsenal the real one man team as the media make it look to be or is it Manchester United? Yes, Arsenal will struggle to score without van Persie however, largely due to his recurring absences in his eight years at Arsenal due to injury, he wouldn’t really be a loss – think I’m crazy? Look at last season – van Persie returned from World Cup duty and was instantly injured against Blackburn. Chamakh was called into action and I must admit, his performances made me and probably a lot of Arsenal fans forget about van Persie completely with the Moroccan scoring 10 goals in his first 17 games up until van Persie’s return.

As for Man Utd, without Rooney, they were found lacking in attack and don’t have another player of his calibre to replace him as they did in the past (with the likes of Tevez or Ronaldo, for example.) This doesn’t mean I’m saying Chamakh is someone of van Persie’s calibre, but given Arsenal’s playing style, any decent forward would be benefited by our midfield and would bang in the goals if played consistently. Hence, this is why I believe Wayne Rooney is more important to Manchester United than Robin van Persie is to Arsenal – if there was anything close to a one man team, then for me, it’s Man Utd because without Rooney, they never seem to tick whereas with Arsenal, they have coped without van Persie on numerous occasions throughout the years.

Here are a few opinions of some unnamed football fans:

van Persie being more important -

- “Even in the absence of Rooney, United have experienced players to fill in as compared to Arsenal where it is van Persie who is single handedly spearheading them into top 4 contention. Take him out of Arsenal and they seriously lacks a marquee player who can inspire the team on his own efforts on the pitch.“

- “Arsenal will look very one dimensional without van Persie. When he didn’t play in the first half against United, the Arsenal team looked like a bunch of kids. He looked much better in the 2nd half when he was involved more with the game. And yes, the sheer number of goals that guy has scored – the percentage of his goals for Arsenal this season is huge. Rooney wasn’t great against Bolton and he wasn’t all that great against Arsenal either, but we got our goals and looked threatening going forward even without him. A simple scenario : RVP’s injury will do Arsenal more harm than Rooney’s injury will do to United. So for me, RVP is a more important player for Arsenal, more than Rooney is for United.”

- “If Rooney isn’t playing or in case he is injured, United have other options like Chicharito and Berbatov – apart from it that, team is more stable than Arsenal’s. When Arsenal is concerned, RVP is the main star in the team. Without him, the team will be in trouble.“

Rooney being more important –

“Rooney is more important because he helps United connect from the defense to the attack. He may not always score, but he is needed because he provides the support to the main striker – that’s something only Rooney can do superbly.“

“Rooney is important for United – according to the facts, United have not been upto the mark in Rooney’s absence. Even if he doesn’t figure on the score sheet, his performances for United are indispensable. He’s always there either falling back and providing the much needed confidence to the midfield or even defending in the dying minutes.“