Does Rooney Deserve An Automatic Spot In The Euro 2016 Starting XI?

Does Rooney Deserve An Automatic Spot In The Euro 2016 Starting XI?

After watching England’s totaly impressive comeback against World Chmapions Germany in Berlin on Saturday night form a 2-0 deficit it has to make you wonder after the team played are we a better team with or without Captain Wayne Rooney. As Harry Kane started and looked a danger throughout always looking liveley and like a man who could score or stretch the defence to open up the field for others it make you wonder about Wayne Rooney and what he can offer.

Sadly Wayne will likely be coming into the Euro’s on the back of another serious injury which sadly for him and his country has happened too many times never allowing him to come into a big tournament firing on all cylinders. Harry Kane is in red-hot form as is Jamie Vardy who scored a sublime finish with his first touch against Germany and added the 1st goal vs Holland tonight before the 3 lions lost 2-1 disappointingly. This is a man at the very top of his game who can seemingly do anything right now and even though Rooney was in his season’s best form before his recent injury and had been scoring quite regularly, it is hard to see how Rooney could have offered more in the Germany game than Vardy or Kane. Of course we are forgeting that Wayne Rooney has experience like no other member in the squad and despite what you say about form, Rooney has class, bags of experience and was in his season’s best form prior to injury.

After watching the game it is hard to argue that the new generation has arrivied and while Rooney will offer something to the squad as he was in great form for England in the Euro qualifiers, his League form prior to injury and his 3 Lions record alone should make him a lock for the starting XI. Just look at some of his statistics:


  • Wayne Rooney has Caps of 107  and a leading goals number of 50 goals
  • Rooney burst onto the scene at Euro 2004, scoring four goals in the group stages as an 18-year-old before tragically getting injured in the 1/4 final. While there have been only two further goals at major tournaments, Rooney has top scored for England in consecutive World Cup qualifying campaigns and is still by far and away the top English scorer
  • Reasonably Rooney has scored the majority of his goals in competitive fixtures. He now has 30 in qualifying games, but his record in major tournaments is much less impressive, mainly due to him so often coming into tournaments recovering from nasty injuries when maybe he should not have been selected and as a reult has only delivered a pretty weak six goals only in total in the tournaments he has played.
  • Could it be that it would be better to keep Cahill as Captain and allow Rooney to work his way into the tournament while starting on the bench and allowing the hot men like Vardy and Kane and Sturridge and Welbeck to fight out the last striking spots available. This would allow the pressure to be off Rooney and when Vardy and Kane are so hot they surely deserve to start.

It seems Roy Hodgson is very loyal to his Captain but we hope that he insists on picking the best sides for the games based on form not on reputation so now Vardy and Kane deserve the starts with Rooney as an impact sub of the bench.

Roy Hodgson is hopefully a man not afraid to leave big players at home with the likes of Walcott and Sturridge looking they are borderline right now and Hodgson should be brave and take the men in form who have been doing it all year in the Premier League. For instance beyond maybe Oxlade-Chamberlin (questionable) who else really deserves a place on the plane to France from Arsenal given their recent form -you gotta go with the hot hands like Vardy and Kane and maybe Welbeck for sure but Kieran Gibbs in the case of injury makes it look doubtful for his inclusion given the other options like Danny Rose. Jack Wilshere simply cannot go into his – tournament season long miss from internationals – hardly the ideal prepararation for him to go to France and like Walcot given their form these men they should be left at home based on form and not wanting to take too many players in recovery.

The final squad will make really interesting reading and let’S HOPE Roy is a man of his conviction. It is a shame England could not beat Holland in the friendly but al least they were far from blown out and it should not hurt their morale too much as it was not a good well-contested game and still leaves England with a decent chance to win the whole EURO 2016 and we think that Rooney should definitely be on the plane.