Does The Captaincy Give Wayne Rooney An Undeserved Starting Place?

Before the Leicester City game, Louis Van Gaal disheartened Juan Mata admirers like myself when he said that he 'wasn't so satisfied with Rooney as a striker and Mata as a midfielder' in reference to the QPR game. This instantaneously made me think of two things, firstly that Van Gaal doesn't see Wayne Rooney's Man United future as a striker and secondly Van Gaal didn't or perhaps doesn't rate Juan Mata as Number 10. This exemplifies that LVG envisages Rooney's best position as a midfielder in that creative number 10 role meaning our Spanish sensation's favoured position will be occupied by a player who's place in the starting XI is definitive. Yes that means Juan Mata would become second choice centre-attacking midfielder warming the bench or that he has to play an unfamiliar role in another position. Not good news for Juan Mata enthusiasts.  The question is, even though it seems an inevitability that Rooney will steal Mata's starting berth, does Rooney deserve to play in that position ahead of Mata?

Firstly I'd like to point out that Wayne Rooney is a surprisingly shrewd man. From a player that tweeted "mine tackle was bad" and utters the words "Yeh, of course" with annoying repetitiveness during TV interviews, you wouldn't guess Wayne Rooney was a smart man. Yet he is deceivingly cunning as he has showed he knows how to manipulate Manchester United to suit his best interests.  

Back in 2010 Rooney asked the club to leave and was seemingly headed for a move to the noisy neighbours for financial incentives and the allure of a big money project but due to Sir Alex's unquenchable determination to win Premier League, he was given increased wages and persuaded to stay. On the back of a 27 goal season in 2011/12, Sir Alex wanted to make a major statement in the transfer window as well as give Wayne Rooney serious competition and did so in the shape of Robin Van Persie. In that 2012/13 season, Rooney only played 22 league games, and only scored 12 goals as he was pushed into a number 10 role that he didn't want to play in. The end of that season in 2013 when asked whether he was becoming a midfielder Rooney categorically said "In the years to come, that might be somewhere I could play, but, right now, I'm definitely a centre-forward" and described it with a role he is "very comfortable with" hence didn't like being pushed deep with the arrival of Van Persie. After flirting with a move away to the likes of Chelsea and PSG, Wayne Rooney was given a £300,000 a week contract and played last season as a conventional striker, as he wished. In fairness to him in a poor season for the club, he did have an impressive season with 17 goals and 10 assists in 27 games playing where he wanted. Nevertheless after wanting to leave the club twice, somewhat paradoxically he has earned himself substantial pay rises making him Manchester United's highest earner.

Fast forward a year, a week ago, he said in an interview quite honestly "I'm happy to play out wide; I can do a job there and I can do a job up front. I'm not the player I was...I feel like I've progressed my game." and "I'm a a cleverer player now and know when to run into the box and when not to." Now he clearly doesn't see himself as an out-an-out striker and hence we can infer that he sees himself as more of a midfield man now. It maybe a pessimistic view, but it appears as soon as Radamel Falcao signed, he's decided he doesn't have the attributes anymore to be a striker and has converted to more of a midfielder. I can't help but feel that having seen his competition for striking positions are Radamel Falcao and Robin Van Persie, two of the best centre-forwards in world football, he has decided that Mata is the easiest player to displace in order to keep his own place in the team.

 It is absolutely astonishing how Wayne Rooney has manipulated the club to his benefit, when he's asked to leave he has seemed to get the pay rises he's craved for and when he's inquired to play in a certain position he gets his demand. I've been a big fan of Rooney over the years, he has been a great servant to the club in terms of the goals and assists he has supplied in his career, but perhaps unfairly he has been treated like aloof royalty. It seems as if this trend is going to continue. Van Gaal has given him the Captain's armband as he has proven to be the hardest worker in training and fits the bill in terms a player who has longevity at the club. Before the Leicester game, Van Gaal has said the only two certainties in his team are the captain and the keeper meaning Wayne Rooney is one undebatable name on the team sheet. However this armband may be a hindrance more than a help to the team's cause because Rooney's guaranteed starting berth will be detrimental to the career of Juan Mata.

People say that Juan Mata is the superior number 10 but stats don't make it that clear cut. In fact the two are very closely matched. In 2011/12, it is unfair to compare Rooney (27 goals and 5 assists) to Mata as one played as a striker and the other as a number 10, but in terms of playmakers, only David Silva got more goals and assists combined (6 goals +17 assists) than Juan Mata in the Premier League (6 goals + 13 assists).

The best season to compare them is 2012/13, this is the season where both the Spaniard and United skipper played in that central attacking midfield role for their respective teams. In that season for Chelsea, Juan Mata scored 12 goals and notched up 12 assists and Wayne Rooney knocked in 12 goals whilst supplying 10 assists. That season, Mata created more clear cut chances (14 to 9) and made more key passes (2.7 to 1.8) but Rooney had a better shot accuracy (40.7% to 34.3%) and a better clear cut chance conversion rate (50% to 33.3%). Rooney has strengths in terms of shooting and finishing that Mata doesn't possess whilst Mata has some creative capabilities that his United counterpart lacks. They balance each other out. 

Their current form makes them equally inseparable. 

In their last 10 Premier League games: 

- Wayne Rooney has scored 8 goals and got 2 assists playing both up front and behind the striker. 
- Juan Mata has scored 8 goals and got 1 assist playing solely in the number 10 position.

If you're being pernickety you could say that Mata's stats read better as he played only as a midfielder whilst Rooney has been played further forward more consistently but I think both sets of stats make for impressive reading. Both players are excellent in the number 10 role so whoever plays there fans should be happy, some people wrongly label Rooney unworthy of playing there after playing poor in his last few games (even though stats suggest otherwise). These players bring almost identical amounts of goals and assists so it's only their style of play which differentiates them. Rooney plays more with power and tries to ping the cross-field passes whilst Mata plays with finesse and caresses the ball with delicate through balls. 


 In an ideal world, Juan Mata and Wayne Rooney would be rotated on form and performance which I feel would be the only fair way to distinguish who deserves to play the following game. Or perhaps even Van Persie can be in the rotation mix and rotating him would allow Rooney to play further forward in some games allowing Mata to slot in the number 10 position on occasions. Unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world and Wayne Rooney has a privileged position as captain so rotation with him and Mata is very unrealistic. The way I see it, Wayne Rooney doesn't deserve to play consistently ahead of Juan Mata... but Juan Mata doesn't deserve to play consistently over Wayne Rooney either. It is a contradictory dilemma that cannot be resolved without some fans being left disappointed either way.

 One thing that is sure is that Wayne Rooney has been given an upper hand in the number 10 position with the captain's armband however I don't think it doesn't gives him an undeserved place in the team because he has proven time and time again, he offers a lot in that centre attacking midfield role. It is only unfair that the captaincy seemingly excludes him from being rotated regardless of whether he performs badly in a game. I just hope Juan Mata doesn't become a castaway like Shinji Kagawa eventually became and plays a pivotal role this season with Van Gaal miraculously finding a solution to this head-scratching predicament.

By Hesham Bilal-Hafiz (@hesham786)