Rooney - Photo Austin Osuide Wikimedia Commons
The Daily Star have been celebrating with Wayne Rooney that he has scored two goals in the first two games of the season, and are clearly most impressed by the idea that he has hit the ground running this season after slow starts in years gone by.
The Manchester United ace has started the season on fire by following up his goal in the Community Shield with the only goal in the opening day Premier League victory over Birmingham.
By contrast, Rooney had to wait until October for his first Premier League strike two seasons ago and the end of September last year to break his duck.
The Daily Star is right, he may well have had to wait for quite a long time to break said ducks, but they are missing some rather important information here nonetheless.
In the 2007/8 campaign it was always going to be tough to score until October because he broke a metatarsal bone in his foot on the first day of the season against Reading, and, subbed off at half-time, he was at that point ruled out for a couple of months, which takes us right up to… you’ve guessed it…
And in 2008/9, while it sounds like the end of September represents quite a long time to go without scoring you first league goal of the season, Rooney’s strike against Bolton came in United’s fifth Premier League game of the campaign. Disaster! A 12 goal return from 30 league appearances last year from a man not deployed as an out and out forward - that’s something to worry about.
It’s not unreasonable to expect Rooney to score more goals this year - given his regular berth up front and the extra responsibility he will carry without Ronaldo in the side, and from an English perspective it’s encouraging news at the start of a World Cup year, but wilfully distorting the facts adds nothing…
