Patrick Barclay: England have the perfect No9... and it's not Wayne Rooney

 
15 August 2013

No wonder David Moyes was so anxious that Wayne Rooney should play for England last night.

If the Manchester United manager’s intention had been to put Chelsea and Arsenal off the idea of taking him, it worked a treat. Both will probably switch to Rickie Lambert now.

To be serious, it would be ridiculous to judge the restless Rooney on his first full hour of football since May.

But there was food for thought in the sight of his struggling at centre-forward. As a No9, he compared unfavourably with Kenny Miller, let alone Lambert, whose unforgettable cameo must be treated with caution given the tiredness of the Scots.

But should Rooney be regarded as a No9? Given the abundance of No10s at Stamford Bridge, my hunch is that Jose Mourinho envisages him at the front, while it would be interesting to obtain Arsene Wenger’s view of the man regarded, at least until the emergence of Jack Wilshere, as football’s most potent Englishman.

I have always thought Rooney a natural No10, a dropper-off and creator who will still score goals in the manner of Lionel Messi.

Of course he can play centre-forward. But he gravitates deep and usually to the left, from where he can use his better foot, just as Messi likes to drift in from the right.

Rooney’s game has been following this pattern for a decade and is unlikely to change now. The world, however, has room for only one ‘false’ No9.

Fortunately Roy Hodgson has the option of using a real one and, while there is an argument for Andy Carroll as well as the beginnings of a case for Lambert, the ideal answer stared Wembley in the face: Rooney’s clubmate Danny Welbeck was the man of the match by a distance.

Welbeck’s goal emphasised that he has the aerial ability of a centre-forward; the mid-air volley that curled just the wrong side of a post exemplified his technical excellence (as if we needed reminding after the sublimely flicked winner against Sweden at Euro 2012); his pace and artful unselfishness were evident as ever.

I’d love to see him switch positions with Rooney. The argument that he does not score enough for his club is superficial.

United have tended to utilise his versatility, hence he has struck 11 goals in 64 matches (for England it’s a healthier six in 17). Welbeck is 22. At roughly the same age Alan Shearer left Southampton with 23 from 118 and the rest is history.

Let a new England centre-forward be established.

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