Hodgson: Rooney didn't perform
pictured
England put Wayne Rooney (pictured) under a lot of pressure at Euro 2012 according to Roy Hodgson
Roy Hodgson admits Wayne Rooney failed to live up to expectations as England crashed out of Euro 2012 but insists the fitness of the striker was not an issue.
Head coach Hodgson was aware of the pressure on Rooney to perform at his best after returning from a two-match ban for his sending off against Montenegro in a qualifying game last October. But, after scoring the winner against Ukraine, Rooney was below par in the quarter-final defeat by Italy when England were beaten 4-2 on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes.
Hodgson said: "I think we put a lot of expectations on Wayne. Wayne certainly tried very hard, but he didn't have his best game. I think he would admit that."
He added: "When he missed the first two games, we were all believing that what we needed to do was to get to the third game and Wayne Rooney will win us the championships.
"That maybe was too much to ask of him."
But Hodgson conceded it was natural for the onus to be on the top players to perform on the biggest stages.
He said: "Do we put too much expectation on Rooney? Well we do, but so do other teams with their players, don't they? I think had (Andrea) Pirlo played poorly, it might have affected the Italians' performance.
"I think in all top international teams, you're looking at one, two, possibly three individuals that everyone recognises as being exceptional world-class talents.
"When you get to the big stage, you're hoping those players perform and show they're world-class talents, like the Maradonas that win Argentina a World Cup with his performance."
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Rooney has been dining off his heroics in 2004, literally by the look of him. He simply isn't good enough at international level. What I find disgraceful is that he is supposed to be a professional athlete, yet every summer he piles on weight before crash dieting in the pre-season. Shocking.
It seems to me that everyone, except MUFC fans and the usual media pundits, knew Rooney would fail to deliver. As I posted before the Ukraine game, he should only be used as an impact sub . . . hopefully, Hodgson will now select unproven talent instead of proven failure.
Truth is Wayne did not look fit. He seemed to be carrying more weight, was at least a half a yard down on his usual pace and was clearly, mentally, not match fit. Taking all this together and then playing him for the full two hours was an error of judgement.
I can only assume that Roy had accepted the likely inevitability of the penalties and rightly saw Rooney as a more reliable taker than some of the others.
But "World Class". Not on this showing, he isn't.
It never ceases to amaze me why we get worked up about Rooney. Whilst he was out for the first two games everybody was saying wait while Rooney comes into the team then we'll progress. WHY? Let's get one thing straight. Rooney is a GOOD player but never in a million years is he WORLD CLASS. Time after time on the world stage he just doesn't turn up. Be honest in the Italy match Andy Carol was more threatening in the short time he was on the pitch than Rooney was in the whole of the match.
It won't happen but if I was the manager I wouldn't make him an automatic choice. I'd drop him and let him earn his place.
Furthermore, the crop of good English players is limited, because nearly all of the Premier league teams spend huge amount of money on engaging foreign players, thus limiting the opportunity for home bred players to progress and achieve international status. I am a strong believer in putting into place a strict limit on the number of foreign players that any one club can employ. Some of the top teams in the premier league consists of 75% foreign players with a peppering of the odd English player.
