ROONEY BACK ON GOAL TRAIL
Striker’s drought ends
VIEW this game in its entirety and you will see that Wayne Rooney remains locked in a spell of unusually mundane and uncertain form.
Not wanting for effort, the footballer who will lead England into the European Championships in France next summer was nevertheless short of a sure touch and rather low on inspiration.
Rooney, though, still managed to come up with exactly what his manager wanted at Goodison Park yesterday, namely a goal.
As such, the 29-year-old is now level with Andy Cole as the Premier League’s second highest goalscorer — the two players have scored 187 each behind Alan Shearer (260).
Rooney also eased past Denis Law into third place in terms of League goals for Manchester United, behind Sir Bobby Charlton (199) and Jack Rowley (182). Rooney’s figure now stands at 172.
Before this game, Louis van Gaal had suggested it was time Rooney found some goals.
Heading to his old club, the forward had only scored one in the League all season and hadn’t scored away in the competition for 11 months.
The numbers didn’t look good. Now, though, in a season that has already seen Rooney take the England goals record from Charlton, the Old Trafford captain can perhaps concentrate on adding the all-round sharpness his club will need from him if they are to make good on their early progress.
This is the thing about Rooney. For all United do, and for all they spend, they still rely on him. They still need him.
Yesterday, with Memphis Depay left out and Anthony Martial ineffectual out on the left side, it was left to Rooney to make the decisive contribution with half an hour to play.
United were already two goals up, Morgan Schneiderlin and Ander Herrera having scored within four minutes of each other midway through the first half.
Nevertheless, they were under pressure from an improving Everton and goalkeeper David de Gea had just made two saves — one brilliant and one very good — to keep Roberto Martinez’s team at bay.
A goal for the home team at that stage and the whole complexion of the game could have changed. As it was, Rooney was able to speed towards goal on the break after Schneiderlin and Herrera had picked up the pieces of a dreadful Phil Jagielka clearance to send him clear.
It was classic Rooney territory, green grass ahead of him and defenders in his wake. Confidence matters in these situations, though, and breath was held in the away section as Rooney sought a relief from pressure, both individual and collective.
Maybe we shouldn’t really have questioned him. The finish, when it came, was delivered crisply with Rooney’s right foot and Tim Howard in the Everton goal was left helpless.
‘You always doubt him,’ was Van Gaal’s response to media questions after the game. ‘You always say he can’t score.
‘I am very happy for him, though, and maybe he can start to score many, many goals now. He needed this goal, I think.’
If Rooney’s contribution was rather in and out, the same cannot be said for Herrera, United’s most dangerous attacking player, or, indeed, central defender Chris Smalling and goalkeeper De Gea.
Smalling was excellent in the first half handling the cumbersome but dangerous Romelu Lukaku. The defender is having the best season of a United career that looked to be going nowhere only a couple of years ago and his first-half performance, in particular, helped to lay the platform for victory.
Everton were poor in the opening half but could have taken the lead when Lukaku tried to poke the ball through De Gea’s legs early in the game. United, however, were clinical and the goals they scored in the 19th and 23rd minutes were indicative of that.
Schneiderlin finished expertly following some penalty area pinball, then Herrera headed a beauty down into the ground and up into the corner as he powered on to a lovely deep cross from left-back Marcos Rojo. Everton appealed for a foul in the build-up to the first goal — Rooney on Steven Naismith — and had a point. They only had themselves to blame on the whole, though. ‘We were reactive and slow in the first half,’ said Martinez, and he was right.
The second half did see improvement from the men in blue. Lukaku started to enjoy himself and Everton pinned United back for 15 minutes when De Gea’s saves from the Belgian and then a Ross Barkley free-kick could be added to his imperious back catalogue.
De Gea’s sense of timing was, as always, impeccable. As was Rooney’s. Perhaps we should not have been surprised at either.