There was a time when even the name ‘Wayne Rooney’ on the team sheet put the fear of God into Premier League defences.
Ever since Rooney hit that stunning goal as a young 16-year-old at Everton, he’s been the scourge of teams up and down the country.
His strength, his tenacity and mercurial talent were just too much to deal with and he put plenty of teams to the sword up top for Manchester United. He was a game changer.
But Rooney’s hot streak has gone cold. The England star is struggling to find form and the goals have dried up.
With his huge weekly wages and his talismanic status at Old Trafford, the harshest criticisms for United’s laboured performances of late have fallen at his feet.
But it is comments from Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew after his sides 0-0 draw United which are emblematic of the funk Rooney now finds himself in.
Pardew claims Palace were more scared of the threat from 19-year-old forward Anthony Martial than England’s all-time top goalscorer Rooney – and built their gameplan around stopping the young France star.
“We didn’t give Martial an inch today,” said Pardew. “It was a big target for us to stop him, because we felt if we could stop him we could cut out their creative angle.”
When asked if Martial was now United’s main man, Pardew said: “I have to say he is an impressive young player. He handled himself well because he must have felt our presence around him. We looked to stop him today, makes no bones about that.”
“In Wayne’s defence, he didn’t get a lot of possession or many chances to create anything. In the first half he did not get a lot of crosses, and we bossed the second half so he didn’t see a lot of the ball, and that makes it very difficult to have an influence on the game,” he added.
