England’s Euro 2012 odds of a positive result in their decisive Group D game against Ukraine tonight have been boosted by the return of Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney, with a nation’s hopes and dreams firmly planted on the talented forward’s shoulders. With the Three Lions only needing a draw to progress, the Red Devils talisman should give the side an added thrust in attack, and is most likely to start up front with club team-mate Danny Welbeck. Can Rooney lead Roy Hodgson’s men to the latter stages of the tournament in Ukraine and Poland? And is too much expected of the returning forward?
There is a case in question to say that Rooney is England’s only real world-class player, and as such the national team have started to rely on their star. As with any team, national or club, over-dependence on a single player can be a risky business. A key example if former United hero Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal; the Iberian nation seem to click when he is on form, with other players not playing to their potential when the Real Madrid man has an off day.
There has been a feeling emanating from the England camp that the squad has been holding on slightly until Rooney could play once more, with many of the players and fans alike just eager to still be in the qualifying reckoning when their best player returned; Hodgson himself has called Rooney England’s Pele. Although Rooney’s inclusion will aid England due to his ability, Hodgson and his team must remember that they have ascertained positive results against France and Sweden without the forward, and as such should not change their style of play or approach too drastically now that Rooney is back in the line-up.
Football fans expect miracles, but the Three Lions faithful must remember that Rooney has not played a competitive fixture in over a month. That said, if England can create chances and gilt-edge opportunities for the returning hero, there is no better man to convert and fire the side through to the quarter-finals.
If England do overcome Ukraine and make the knockout rounds expectancy over the nation’s chances will start to increase, despite a dose of realism surrounding the squad before the tournament kicked off. Rooney’s return is only going to add to this, but England must continue to operate as a team rather than solely depend on the forward for inspiration or to provide a piece of magic.
With some of the world’s best teams and players competing in eastern Europe this summer it is fitting that Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney join them. He can be the difference between success and failure and his inclusion should be a morale boost for the rest of the players. That said, the team need to continue to play as they have been to overcome Ukraine and from there England can start to dream of Rooney helping them to European glory.
Man Utd News 24/7
Or to become their main scapegoat.
@Costas – Slight correction mate
And to become their main scapegoat
Sheva to shine again!
here’s to Rooney having a right old stinker – culminating in getting ingurland knocked out looooooool
To be fair, I hope he’s brought on as a sub…
Funny when you consider the 25 million that has been “slapped” on that rodriguez fella. Why not just use that to upgrade nani’s pay? Plus, nani knows the club inside out as opposed to someone who’ll need time to bed in. And who’s to say we won’t get back here with him? Cos after a while, he may decide that it has been his dream all along to play for madrid or what have you
KLAM
Keep Luis At Manutd!!!
Lol
Watching Meg Ryan on telly, dear God does she rock my world
@Zino: Some of that tabloid language drives me fucking nuts. “Rates being slapped”, “players snubbing clubs” (almost invariably United), “25 million rated” (who did the rating? S&P?), “issues come-get-me plea” and so on and so forth till ad fucking infinitum. Who are these journos? Are they real? Or does someone sit in front of a computer, enters variables like “name of player”, “name of club”, “rumored transfer fee”, press a few buttons and lo and behold there you have The Daily Mail exclusive?!!! It’s worse than some of the corpo jargon shit that one keeps hearing at work. Fucking morons – can’t think beyond a cliche.
…ohh I forgot to list “put on high alert” – I thought the cuban misile crisis was behind us, or did I just miss my friendly neighbourhood tsunami early warning siren? GRRR
Jeet
How about ‘Dubbed the new so and so’ ?? Fucking irritates the shit out of me
Still drooling on Meg Ryan
Yeah…that one makes me feel like I am about to watch a dubbed Hungarian arthouse movie or something like that….
i think we already have a fab team with kagawa in there. vidic fletcher will be back to there best hopefully.we already have six midfielders in anderson cleverley scholes giggs carrick and fletcher so unless we are planning to sell ando i am not sure thereis a spot available .
So Nani is in the news again……….All seems a bit dodgy to me
@ Jeet – How about “swoop”?
As in “Fergie prepares 12m swoop for Strootman”
people are comparing strootman to roy keane .strootman cant even get ahead of van bomell and de jong.waiting to see mvilla in action later tonight .
Yes, but Strootman has a funny name.
And Carrick can’t get into the England team ahead of Parker, Barry and Jordan Henderson. Proves nothing!
I agree with Cyril, Strootman is a cool name………. I mean seriously, how many Strooman’s have you met in your life??
Rafa Benitez dead and taxidermed with his round cat’s face, fat paws armed with predatory talons circling over some useless no-mark wanker who’s had a 50 mil pound tag slapped on him AND has been dubbed The New Aquilani, preparing for an unprecedented swoop
PS: hard as you may find to believe it, I absolutely do not wish Rafa dead (quite the opposite in fact)and taxidermed, though I see absolutely no reason for animal lovers and vegetarians to take offence at Orvillecopter
Do Saab still make cars? Used to love their convertible
Jeet
Ha ha ha..That was funny shit
Watching the movie Deep Impact……….Right, 2 things….
Meg Ryan >>>>> Tea Leoni
Deep Impact is definitely something I would love to do with Meg
A better analogy than the one I offered earlier: Strooters is only 22. Criticising him for not having displaced Van Bommel in the Dutch team is akin to saying Cleverley must be crap because he doesn’t get picked ahead of Lampard and Gerrard for England. In other words it’s bullshit.
Jeet
Lmao! It drives me friggin nuts but you cracked the hell outta me. Some really funny stuff in there
It’s so frustrating cos we don’t get reasonable transfer gossips anymore.
Give me transfer rumour with a solid foundation for the sake of fuck!!
Cheers, Zino…drives me nuts sometimes!
Forget “solid foundation”, it’s all hearsay, but at least have some common sense…this season I have heard things like United to “swoop” for some washed up goalkeeper, “unprecedented triple swoop” for Humels, Lewandowski and Kagawa (how fucking obliging of the newly crowned German double winners), as well as Drogba and Torres in Red, all of course enabled by Fergie’s “100 million pound warchest”
Drogba in his day would have been a dream signing, he may fall over like a tooth pick at times but the guy is class
Thanks for that Cedars.
No doubt, Cedars – a beast of a player, but he would never turn out for us
Thanks for the thanks Willie……Appreciate it
Jeet
But we do not know that for sure eh? Anyway its old news now, fucker is about to retire and we are stuck with Rooney and Nani!!! ha ha ha ha
So is Strootman this summers flavour of the month? How do folk know how good he is when he has managed the HUGE amount of about 30 games for PSV who are never televised as far as I am aware? Last year Pastore. This year Strootman. To compare him to Keano is a fucking piss take.
King Eric
You know fuck all mate, Strooty is the new Robbo!!
Blame Cyril Strootman for that, or is it Papii Strootman?
There’s rumours afoot, they could be the same person…… 
Cedars – Wash your mouth out my friend!!!
King Eric
Will do mate, got Martinis at the ready
Maybe it’s Glazernomics or maybe it’s planning for the future but it’s pretty obvious that United’s current transfer policy is all about identifying and bringing in young players with potential before their transfer value peaks. Hence the interest in Hazard, Kagawa, Powell and whatever others.
Putting aside the moronic “new Roy Keane” stuff from the Daily Mirror, Strooty is one of the most interesting midfielders emerging from Holland at the moment. Surely a call-up from the Dutch national team is endorsement enough that the lad has some skill? In any case, there are plenty of articles that all say the same thing: he has potential. Nobody claims he is a finished product that will instantly transform any team. He’s just a young player that will have a good future in the game.
The difference between him and all the others is that he is more a defensive-minded player who still has some creativity. He’s not the step-over merchant everyone seems to lust for. Whether he’s good enough to play for United is up to Fergie and the staff, but there’s no reason we can’t have some fun with all the transfer gossip, right?
Dont hate on the Stroot!
Not sure we’re even in for Strootman……
Just some transfer fun but you never know…
Tiote>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Strootman
Some RedNut fun.
Tiote is going to the dippers for 12million, I read it on Liverpoolarestillrelevant.honestguv.blah
Tiote wouldn’t go to dipperville. His forehead is too big.
Banega!
I bet Tiote’s forehead isn’t as big as Gervinho’s.
We don’t want Banega, he’s too stupid. He got run over by his own car:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2103405/Ever-Banega-hit-car.html
Anyway, I’m not talking to you until you sign up for the Agent of Fergie Twitter feed. Don’t deny you’re on there, it keeps telling me you are
Shush Cyril….
It’s not me on there…….my evil twin!
You’re not fooling me, I know it’s you
@zino, let’s face it, would u rather live in sunny Spain and play for the worlds biggest club in real Madrid , or rainy Manchester playing with utd, let’s face it, it’s a no brainer…
only no brainer here is you, brendan
U telling me utd r bigger than real??If so wake up.
Not surprised the boys lost. These lads tells us why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvxoBYs2EwY