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Post by stewart on Jan 21, 2017 23:54:04 GMT
Congratulations to him for becoming the leading goalscorer for England and now Manchester United. However, it should be remembered that he has spent the majority of his career playing at centre forward, whereas Bobby Charlton, apart from his pre-Munich years, played mostly on the left wing and then in midfield for both teams. Charlton still the main man for me, the greatest player in the history of English football.
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Post by stewart on Jan 23, 2017 0:20:28 GMT
And Rooney has done it 212 games faster than Charlton, the equivalent of the 5 extra 42-game seasons that Charlton enjoyed. If you look at the more relevant goals-to-games ratio, Charlton doesn't even make the top 6 of United goalscorers. I'm not denigrating Rooney's achievements at all, in fact he has been the best goal poacher for England since Jimmy Greaves and for Manchester United since Denis Law. What I'm saying is that he has played all of his career as a "striker", whereas Charlton has not by some margin. It's no wonder that he is quite low on the goals-to-games ratio. I have worked out that for Manchester United he played 83 games as a "striker" and 675 games either as a left winger or in midfield, and 14 games and 92 respectively for England in those roles. In any case, it doesn't matter about the quality of the opposition or the defensive tactics of the day. Many of the goals which Charlton scored, either inside or outside the penalty area, and in many cases under severe pressure, Rooney would not have scored, due either to a lack of positional sense or of technique. You should watch an archive recording of one of his goals against Tottenham Hotspur to be sure of that, the one where Dunne, Law and Kidd worked the ball down the left wing and then Charlton unleashed a left foot shot on the run from 20 yards. I repeat, I am not criticising Wayne Rooney at all for what he has achieved for both Manchester United and England, simply asking you to put into perspective the fact that he and Bobby Charlton fulfilled completely different roles in different eras, and in that light Charlton's achievements stand out more. |
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