Do Manchester United need Wayne Rooney?

The biggest transfer saga of the summer looks set to involve Manchester United’s striker Wayne Rooney. The question is how necessary is a fit and firing Wayne Rooney to Manchester United’s title hopes. There is no doubt that when Wayne Rooney is motivated and firing to the best of his ability he is a fantastic player and is an asset to most teams in the world. His record of 141 premier league goals for Man United in 278 games proves this. Even last season, when the striker was believed by many to have had a bad season he still scored 12 goals in 26 games in the Premier League.

However, this is not the first time the striker has looked to move and he was not a first choice for Sir Alex Ferguson for portions of last season. Add to this his previously frosty relationship with David Moyes and it might be the right time to move the England international to a new club. Furthermore, many viable alternatives exist in the Manchester United squad, firstly, Javier Hernandez statistically the most prolific striker in premier league history would be more than capable of starting more games. Young prodigy Danny Welbeck was used sparingly last season and Rooney’s departure would give him the increased first team opportunities that he needs and whilst Welbeck splits opinion amongst the Man United faithful, there is no doubt the England striker has talent. Thirdly, the club could look to take a different approach and deploy Shinji Kagawa in behind Robin Van Persie. Kagawa was not used often last season by Ferguson partly due to injuries but his scoring record at Dortmund was impressive scoring 21 goals in 49 league appearances. In most situations therefore, I believe that Manchester United could function well even without Wayne Rooney.

In a big game situation it could be a different situation however, if Robin Van Persie missed an important match, say a champions league game at the Nou Camp who out of Man United’s current crop of strikers would be looked at to shoulder the burden? It would be Rooney, Welbeck would be seen to lack ruthlessness should a chance come, Hernandez would be seen as someone too likely to be anonymous during the game and Kagawa would be unlikely to be played upfront on his own. However, it is argued that this is not when Rooney flourishes, Rooney in his career has been a much more threatening striker when he has been playing as the deeper of two strikers. This evidence would indicate that Manchester United should look to move Rooney on and replace him with someone capable of playing as a lone-striker or part of a two to offer competition to the other strikers which Manchester United currently have. My belief is that Manchester United would be better off with a striker more in the Didier Drogba mold than the Wayne Rooney mold.