Scholes: Rooney needs help to prosper
WHEN he was asked by a Russian journalist at the Khimki Arena on the eve of this game what he wants for his 30th birthday on Saturday, Wayne Rooney was momentarily lost for words.
Three points against CSKA Moscow wouldn’t be bad for starters was the eventual response, but Rooney and his team- mates couldn’t deliver it on what was a deeply frustrating night for the Manchester United captain.
It was a muted way indeed to kick off the birthday celebrations.
Time and again, he tracked back and forth across the pitch hoping in vain for something to feed off, his breath visible as he huffed and puffed in the chilly Moscow air. It rarely came.
Louis van Gaal’s team were simply too pedestrian, too predictable in their methodical build-up. These days there is previous little evidence of the cavalier cut and thrust that epitomised United under Sir Alex Ferguson.
‘Wayne’s no good if he doesn’t have pace around him,’ his former team-mate Paul Scholes observed on BT Sport.
‘I was exactly the same. Wayne’s not getting that so it makes him look not the player he should be.’
Consider this. Daley Blind came on as a substitute in the 63rd minute and still had more touches (47-40) and played more passes (36-27) than Rooney by full-time.
As he enters his fourth decade, Rooney’s desire has clearly not diminished, even on difficult nights like this one.
That much was clear from his frustration as he led the line in, at times, a lonely battle against the Russians’ defence.
‘Your 30th birthday is a big one in anyone’s life but I still feel that I have a lot of years ahead of me,’ he said before this game. ‘For me, it’s a number.’
Inevitably, age has changed Rooney. This week marked another important anniversary in his life, 13 years since he affirmed his burgeoning reputation with that stunning first Premier League goal for Everton against Arsenal, and
he is no longer the same force of nature.
He selects more carefully when to make his runs these days, sensibly preserving his energy. Last night, most of his efforts were in vain.
Only once did he come close to further narrowing the 13-goal gap on Sir Bobby Charlton’s record for United — or the two he needs to equal Ruud van Nistelrooy’s mark in Europe — with a near-post header straight at CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev from Ander Herrera’s cross just after the hour mark.
He threw his head back in obvious frustration when Bastian Schweinsteiger failed to send him clear with a misplaced pass in the first half, and again after Herrera tried to put him through one-onone against the last defender but the ball evaded him by inches. Rooney’s first proper sight of goal did not come until eight minutes before half-time, and even then he was 25 yards from Akinfeev’s net when he collected a pass from Morgan Schneiderlin and turned to shoot.
His curling effort was never going to trouble the CSKA keeper, though, drifting harmlessly wide from the moment it left his right boot.
It was left to Anthony Martial to pull United level, cancelling out Seydou Doumbia’s first-half strike.
The vital point will have gone some way to easing Rooney’s exasperation.
He knows the goals will come and those other records will fall. He will just have to wait until he’s in his thirties.