When England turned out against Montenegro in their final Euro 2012 qualifier, the sending off of Wayne Rooney was a cause for concern as he faced missing the first two games of their Euro 2012 campaign.
The next 8 months saw much deliberation from the media about who could do the job in the first two games of the European championships up front for England. Friendly matches saw lots of experimentation, and the final decision was a vote of confidence for Andy Carroll and Danny Welbeck. Both of whom have played a key role in England’s respectable start in Ukraine.
With a goal each in the game against Sweden, and a decent run of form domestically and internationally for both, one of them is now likely to face being omitted from the England squad as Wayne Rooney has served his suspension. It seems likely that Andy Carroll will give way despite an impressive performance and an important goal against the Swedes.
The whole country eagerly awaits Rooney’s return against the co-hosts. Much is expected of his return and manager Roy Hodgson even compared the 26 year old to Pele in terms of the influence he can have on the rest of the squad.
So why shouldn’t Rooney have to earn his way back into the team in the same vein his colleagues have had to in the past? He hasn’t scored a goal for his country at a major tournament since Euro 2004, and has himself confessed that his form for his country has failed to match up to the form he has impressively demonstrated for Manchester United over the years.
Whilst there is obviously no doubt he is a fantastic player, his ability to walk into the England team when others have earned their way into the team on merit must be disheartening for them. Andy Carroll scored a crucial goal with a fantastic header against Sweden, and ran 11km during the game, working incredibly hard. Obviously Rooney provides a different dimension and head to head statistically, the United player is undisputedly better. But something as simple as remaining loyal to in form players can separate the losers from the winners at international tournaments.
As Wayne Rooney is on paper the best player in the squad and many would consider it an outrage for him to be left out now he’s eligible, more contributing factors should be taken into account. The form and work rate of Andy Carroll for example, as he has already shown he’s no disgrace to his country. Also haven’t Holland already proved at Euro 2012 that having big names in the squad doesn’t guarantee success?
What happened to the good old English mentality of ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’? That said, I await Wayne Rooney to prove me wrong as England take on Ukraine in their group D decider tonight.