[Archived] How Good Is Rooney?

[northernrover]

Rooney's an out-and-out natural, whereas Shearer is more of a coached player.

He's only 18, but he's a real joy to watch. Long may that remain so!

######!!!!

Don't mean to sound rude but thats rubbish.

I think that Rooney may be a more naturally skillful player but Shearer is one of the most natural goalscoresrs this country has ever seen.

Lineker, Shearer and Fowler spring to mind as natural goalscorers in their prime.

Rooney's not anywhere near their class yet.

Like someone else posted - wait til he's banging in 30+ goals a season, season after season!

Bryan - please don't take the 1st part the wrong way

[broadsword]

Why is it that when people start a sentence: "I don't mean to be ..." what they actually mean is: "I'm going to be ... "?!

Shearer's ability is a product of a lot of hard work on the training ground.

What I meant was that Rooney has natural ability with the ball at his feet. Which is different from being "a natural goalscorer".

[M-K]

I can't understand the Shearer comparison though - Rooney is clearly in a different class to Big Al. Hat-trick on your Champions League debut... Jeez.

At 18, he's proved he's different class to Shearer?! The other one's got bells on it mate.

Shearer, top club player as he is, didn't really do it at the highest level. Scored the odd goal for England, but you'd never look at an England side with Shearer in it and think "That's the man who's going to win us the game."

During the latter half of his England career, Shearer's reputation-based selection tended to draw groans of disappointment.

Anyway, I'm not here to disrespect the best player Blackburn ever had. Just wanted to say Shearer = reliable goalscorer in the Vieri mould. Rooney, however, looks like a Zidane-style once-in-a-generation super talent, something English football has probably never produced in the past.

Edited September 29, 2004 by M-K

[den]

I can't understand the Shearer comparison though - Rooney is clearly in a different class to Big Al. Hat-trick on your Champions League debut... Jeez.

At 18, he's proved he's different class to Shearer?! The other one's got bells on it mate.

Shearer, top club player as he is, didn't really do it at the highest level. Scored the odd goal for England, but you'd never look at an England side with Shearer in it and think "That's the man who's going to win us the game."

During the latter half of his England career, Shearer's reputation-based selection tended to draw groans of disappointment.

Anyway, I'm not here to disrespect the best player Blackburn ever had. Just wanted to say Shearer = reliable goalscorer in the Vieri mould. Rooney, however, looks like a Zidane-style once-in-a-generation super talent, something English football has probably never produced in the past.

I think you might get a reply or two, to that post.

Odd goal or two?

[M-K]

Perhaps I'm alone in recalling the people who wanted him out of the England side because he was too slow, rarely scored and was holding the rest of the team back...

[den]

How many goals do you think he scored for England?

[AlanK]

Let me inform our uneducated friend that Shearer scored on average, in every other game he played at international level.

The odd goal

[1864roverite]

There is NO doubt about it the lad is going to be a class act in the future and one that even the mighty manure cannot hold onto.

Yes his goals were taken superbly, Yes he is a different player to Shearer, yes he scores great goals and Yes we now know that SHREK fathered a son

Rooney will no doubt continue to produce the goods when he is in the team.

How can you permutate

VND Rooney Saha Scholes Smith Giggs Cloonaldo and Scholes ??

At some point 4 out of this lot are going to be seriously miffed about a lack of action and keeping them all happy is going to be one hell of a job.

Another point is that continually chopping and changing may have dire consequences due to lack of continuity within the team, add the lack of harmony and it spells disaster (hopefully).

If Rooney continues to score like last night then he is guaranteed a place alongside the horseman. If he continues then the really massive clubs will not be too far away. Not even manure can hold onto him once the likes of Barca or Real, AC, Juventus or Inter come knocking on the door.

I just hope that come next Saturday he gives the taffs a good kicking and claims all 6 points available from the internationals. I do hope of course that he is injured for the Rovers game at the end of the season !!

[philipl]

30 goals in 63 appearances.

I never heard any groans when Shearer was available for England but plenty when he was unavailable through injury.

I think M-K is on his own here.

[bob fleming]

How can you permutate

VND Rooney Saha Scholes Smith Giggs Cloonaldo and Scholes ??

I'd go with Scholes up front and then Scholes playing off Scholes in the "hole".

How good is Rooney? Very good I'd suggest.

To say that he's better than Alan Shearer though is ridiculous. Surely we can only judge that sort of thing at the middle/end of his career? If he scores as many goals as Shearer has done in the EPL and for England then he'll get all the plaudits he deserves. Scoring a hat trick against a poor European team does not make him one of the best ever strikers this country has produced.

As things stand I'm with Al. I reckon Rooney is a fat bloke stuck in a 18 year olds body. By the time he's 24 he'll resemble Franny Lee. This is not a good thing.

Edited September 29, 2004 by bob fleming

[philipl]

1864, interesting point about the Mancs.

Looking at your list of players, Giggs, Christina Ronaldo, Scholes, RVN and Rooney will be the automatic picks with the likes of Kleberson, Djemba Djemba, et al fighting it out for the fourth midfield slot.

Smith will be the big looser although with the Mancs playing so many matches he will get plenty of rum outs and sub appearances but not enough to help his international career.

The interesting aspect is that had Beckham stayed at OT, on current form he would not be starting for them.

As for "bigger" clubs coming in for Rooney, I tend to think that none of those listed are now bigger than Man U any more. Man U's turnover is significantly larger than any of them can muster and whilst they have backers with deep pockets, there is only one club in the world which could find the likely £100m needed to take Rooney away from OT whilst he is still in his prime...

Chelsea.

[1864roverite]

I have just received a fax telling me that Rooney is being referred to as

FGM

thats......

Fat Ginger @#/?

[M-K]

30 goals in 63 appearances.

I never heard any groans when Shearer was available for England but plenty when he was unavailable through injury.

I think M-K is on his own here.

Well, I remember the Shearer Out campaign even if nobody else does. It rumbled quietly for years, in the same way the Owen/Beckham things have recently.

From Soccernet, after a two-second Google:

"And as the France 98 approached there were calls for Shearer to be dropped from the England side, but by this time Glenn Hoddle had made him skipper."

Anyway, like I said, I'm not trying to denigrate Shearer. I'm very happy that the one and only prize he won in his entire illustrious career happened to be with us.

[Tango]

To be fair to M-K, I do remember having to defend Shearer's England selection to a number of people.

Can't we just leave it that they're both fantastic players in their own rights, but with different attributes? Shearer, in my opinion, is the most natural goalscorer I've ever seen play - completely instinctive - while Rooney is an exciting, developing prospect more in the Henry mould.

Edited September 29, 2004 by Tango

[blue phil]

Shearer's ability is a product of a lot of hard work on the training ground.

Good grief , jim's right - people DO have short memories . Maybe Shearer will be beaten by Jansen in our greatest ever team poll !

Shearer ability was God given (and naturally aided by hard work) . Not only an incomparably natural goalscorer he made our wingers look amateurish when he strayed out wide ; in fact he could have quite easily took the place of any of our outfield players - front , middle or back !

Rooney has massive potential ; Shearer has more than fulfilled his .

[booth]

Put it this way, I wish Shearer was available for England selection now

Rooney hasn't proven himself yet - Shearer has. How can you make a comparison yet?

And 'the odd goal', nearly fell off my seat laughing

Perhaps we can say that Shearer was better in the loyalty department than Rooney though - though I'm sure some people would debate that

Edited September 29, 2004 by booth

[philipl]

Good point about Shearer's crossing blue phil. He was a phenomenal crosser when he drifted out wide and I would think a high proportion of Wilcox's goals came from Shearer crosses= Liverpool at home and Forest away immediately come to mind.

I remember standing in the Home Enclosure at Boundary Park (tickets in the away end had sold out more than a week before the game) without revealing my allegiance. Three Oldham supporters had been barracking Shearer from the start when Al broke from an inside right position to the wing directly in front of us. He destroyed the full back for pace and put a pinpoint cross onto Newell's head between the central defenders bringing a brilliant save from the keeper. One of the barrackers turned to me and said; "I don't like to admit it but you have just got to admire him haven't you". He even cheered when Shearer blistered through the middle to score Rovers' winner in the second half!

[AlanK]

From Soccernet, after a two-second Google:

"And as the France 98 approached there were calls for Shearer to be dropped from the England side, but by this time Glenn Hoddle had made him skipper."

I also remember the " Shearer out " campaign before Euro96.

He had gone 13 games without scoring.

He ended up the tournaments top scorer.

The odd goal, unbelievable!

[Kennys Magic Hat]

If you watch Rooneys debut for Manure and Shearer's for Rovers you'll know that Shearer's two goals were a class apart. In his second game against Arsenal, Shearer scored a beauty, if only for the fact that the Blackburn End went mental.

However, Shearer was about 2 or 3 years older than Rooney is at that point. Seem to remember big Al scoring a hat-trick for Southampton on his debut though didnt he?

Shearer was the complete striker in his prime. He had pace, power, finesse great in the air, superb team player, great crosser, great leader. Rooney doesn't have all of these yet but im sure he will given time.

What you've got to admire about Rooney though is that he just doesn't seem to care about anything else apart from scoring goals. For a start he ripped he United shirt before the game and after took it straight off, swapped it for a Turk shirt which he put on backwards and inside out. That shows he has no desire to look good, he just wants to play football. The look on his face after he had just scored his hat-trick was unbelieveable, it was like he'd just scored a scrappy goal for the reserve team, anyone else would have not been able to contain their delight at completing a Champions League hat-trick with a sublime free kick into the Stretford End!

I dont think there will be much to compare Roon and Al when they are both retired but for now at least Shearer just edges it as he is still scoring European hat-tricks in his 30's!

[benhben]

Rooney and Shearer are different players! Rooney drops off and creates more, whilst shearer is a target man. I dont think rooney will ever score as many as shearer (although he will score alot!), but i think he will create more for his team mates! He did this brilliantely at Euro 2004 aswell as score, just Owen was too @#/? to take any of the chances!

[broadsword]

mad mad mad mad! :-)

[Tris]

How can there be any doubts? Apart from his Auld Slapper incident, the guy hasn't put a foot wrong

don't think that was his foot ...

Edited October 1, 2004 by Tris

[broadsword]

"foot wrong" or "foot long"?

Whatever, if you make a bird dream of a Pot Noodle whilst you're on the job you must be doing something right.

[M-K]

The two posts above have got me imagining an Ann Summers version of Mr Potato Head.

Brrrr....

[BRFC4EVA]

Who the hell is Rooney?