Fergie: Rooney Has Real Hunger And Drive

Sir Alex Ferguson has praised Wayne Rooney for his enthusiasm but says our striker has to concentrate on playing centrally rather than playing all over the pitch.

“The boy’s got a real hunger and drive about him,” said Ferguson. “He has so much energy that sometimes he overdoes it in the sense that he wants to use it all; he’ll drop into midfield or he’ll go outside left. But he’s young, and young players tend to sometimes be that way – they want to spend all their energy on the pitch. But if he concentrates like he did at Wigan and spends more time in the central areas rather than the wide positions then he will get goals. There’s no doubt about that.”

Gary Neville backs Rooney to beat Sir Bobby Charlton’s goals record for the club but Fergie is more hesitant.

“It’ll be very tough,” Ferguson added. “Sir Bobby’s record is 249 goals, so at this stage of Wayne’s career I’d say he’ll have to do very well to get anywhere near that.”