After spending most of the season playing in the No. 10 role, Wayne Rooney went back to playing up front for Manchester United on Saturday.
He also got back into the goals scored column.
[ RELATED: United beat Sunderland ]
Rooney, 29, has now scored 183 goals in the Premier League and has 11 goals for United this season despite playing in a more reserved role.
Speaking to the media after the match, Rooney was happy to get back on the scoresheet but United’s captain was happier with the three points that cements their spot in the top four.“It’s great to score but the three points are the most important thing after last week. We deserved the three points,” Rooney said. “We knew Sunderland would be dogged. They defended well, but we were patient. It was a good performance.
“The performance was good. We had a bit more space with the 10 men but we should have been ahead before that. I think there are a lot of teams in a good run of form and there’s not much difference between the top teams. We hope that, come the end of the season, we’re in the right position.”
The English national team captain had previously gone eight PL games without a goal for the Red Devils and during his career he had never gone nine PL matches without a goal. That record remains in tact, and Rooney broke another as he became the first player to score 10 or more goals in 11-straight Premier League seasons. Truly remarkable.
So, given all of that, should Rooney start up front regularly for United? With Robin van Persie out injured and Radamel Falcao short of goals and confidence up top, Rooney should remain in his usual center forward role. Recently Louis van Gaal said that United “don’t have a striker who scores 20 goals in the season.”
Umm, Louis. Rooney has been there the whole time. Just play him up front and he will always pop up in the right place at the right time, as long as he’s playing high enough up the pitch.