The Devil In Me

Can Rooney take over the old Roy Keane role?

I have had several queries on this subject and I think it is time we had a look at the in’s and out’s of the proposition.

Keano has never been directly replaced. He was “the outstanding midfielder in his position of his generation” in the words of Sir Alex and to find another was always going to be tricky. His last two years at the cub saw us alter our formation to accommodate him in the team and it didn’t work well enough for us to win championships. For two years after he left the search continued. When Owen Hargreaves arrived we all thought we had a similar style of player to fill the role except, we had won the league again anyway. Why was this? Because our style of play has adapted in the short time since Keano’s retirement and a player of his ilk is no longer essential to the make-up of the team.

Much like a firearm in the Midwest it is always better to have a midfield scrapper and not need one than need a scrapper and not have one but now, actually, we have two. Hargreaves, when fit, can marshal a further forward sweeper type role in front of the defence and Anderson has all of the Scrappy Doo like qualities you would want from a combative central player. We just don’t need them every game. Our midfield is a Rubix cube of options and we can choose them to suit our opposition.

Can Rooney directly replace Keane? Yes he could. Much in the way Duncan Edwards was good enough to play in any position on the park, Rooney is also such a natural footballer that he could play in goal and be selected for England. But it still isn’t his best position. After trying to morph Alan Smith into Keane a few years ago I suspect that Ferguson has given up on trying to put the circular tube through the square hole for now. Rooney, was born to score goals.