The load on
Wayne Rooney's shoulders can be judged by a comment from Carlos Tevez just before the Carling Cup final. The Argentinian described the combination of himself,
Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney as "the best forward line in the world". Suddenly, a few months on, there is just the boy from Croxteth left.
Since their season ended in the bitter anticlimax of the European Cup final
Manchester United have lost two footballers worth more than £100m who last season provided 41 goals. The challenge of filling the void looms before Rooney but it is not one he was ever likely to shirk.
In United's first game since the departures of Ronaldo and Tevez, played in heat and humidity that
Sir Alex Ferguson half-jokingly suggested required medical attention just to watch, Rooney drove into the fray, scoring the first goal in a 3-2 win over Malaysia and setting up Nani for United's second. When with England, Rooney has confessed to disliking friendlies, missing the intensity of a fixture where goals translate into points. However, with 85,000 in the Bukit Jalil stadium which erupted even when he clipped the ball into an unguarded net in the warm-up, Rooney could not be accused of failing to give value for money.
Afterwards he accepted that the season ahead, which may just end in a World Cup final in Johannesburg on 11 July, would be a draining one. "With Cristiano gone, it leaves a huge hole when it comes to goals," he said. "We all need to score more, especially me and Dimitar Berbatov, than we did last year.
"We don't feel let down by Cristiano. I have spoken to him since he left. He was a great player for Manchester United but it was his wish to go and I think the club have respected that. We always knew he was going to go sometime. For the club and for himself it was a good deal and the six years we got out of him were brilliant."
Despite the part Ronaldo may have played in Rooney's dismissal in the World Cup, the two were close, bound by an unfettered love of the game. Before kick-off at Old Trafford they would invariably be juggling a football in the dressing-room. He got on well with Tevez, who remarked that playing alongside Rooney was "an absolute joy" and delighted in teaching him Spanish swear-words. Rooney is more reticent about Tevez's departure: "He was a great lad and it was a shame that it [his contract] never got sorted out. I am sure a lot of people will have a lot to say about him joining Manchester City but I don't want to say too much."
Last summer, as the club toured South Africa, Ferguson confessed to having misused Rooney. The United manager admitted he had fallen victim to the temptation of allowing Rooney to play all over the pitch, sometimes because he always craves the ball, sometimes to do a specific job for Manchester United.
Ferguson promised Rooney he would play as an-out-and-out centre-forward, which did not always happen. Even in the European Cup final he was isolated on the left flank, with Ronaldo operating as a centre-forward. This time he will almost demand to go through the middle.
"We haven't spoken about it but I am sure that is where I will play," Rooney said. "Everyone knows it is my best position and, hopefully, that is where I will be. It is less work, you get more chances and, as a forward, that is what you want." Certainly Rooney has developed his close-range work – the goal he scored against Malaysia was a tap-in, an aspect he scarcely bothered with at Everton. Michael Owen's winner, which ensured the match ended with images of United's most unexpected summer signing on the Bukit Jalil's giant screens, was similar.
Owen remarked before kick-off that, if Rooney could improve his game by "five per cent" and if he could cast off the chains of despair that dragged him down at Newcastle, the gap left by Ronaldo and Tevez could be filled. Certainly Owen seems a more natural partner for Rooney than Tevez and until Owen broke his foot in December 2005 they were England's first-choice strike force. "We are delighted to get him," said Rooney. "He is a great goal-scorer, a good finisher and we are all sure he will bring us some goals. I think the move will give him a new lease of life. Over the last couple of years he has had some criticism but, to be honest, it would have been difficult for anyone to have scored in that Newcastle side."
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