Analysis about Rooney Vs Robin V. Persie Partnership by Ewan Roberts What has become increasingly clear is that Rooney and Van Persie are two separate entities, loosely compatible strikers that merely play for the same club and inhabit the same attacking unit, so often passing by like strangers on a train – or, as was the case against West Brom, tumbling into one another in a pratfall that might have been amusing were it not so tragic. The breakdown in Rooney and Van Persies dynamic, if it ever truly existed, has been most obvious in recent weeks – and may or may not have coincided with the formers new bumper deal which made him the clubs highest earner, and main man, once more. The signs began against Stoke at the start of February, as Van Persie made just three passes to his strike partner, all of which were from kick-off. More recently, in yet another low point of Uniteds season against Olympiakos, the Netherlands international found Rooney with just one solitary pass – which, inevitably, was from kick-off. Since losing at the Britannia, 28.2 per cent of all passes between Van Persie and Rooney have been from the restart, and they have laid on just two chances for each other. At the Hawthorns, the champions, and Rooney, looked at their best after Van Persie had been withdrawn and replaced by the leggy Danny Welbeck. The 23-year-old ran the channels, stretched play and created space for his England colleague. In turn, Rooney played four times as many passes to Welbeck as he had in 68 minutes to Van Persie, created two scoring opportunities – one of which resulted in a goal – and netted himself, thanks partly to a distracting near-post run made by the substitute. In fact, five of Rooneys 11 Premier League strikes have come while Welbeck has been on the field, despite sharing relatively little pitch time.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 09:15:54 +0000