Carroll and Welbeck both played very well tonight. England have a better record without Rooney. We look more of a team with much more team spirit without him in my opinion. Would you start him or leave him on the bench? I personally wouldn't play him. I'd play Walcott and Chamberlain on the wings with Welbeck and Carroll up top.
Rooney is Englands best player by a country mile, we have seen in the first two games how much we have missed him, lets not be fooled by the win tonight for long periods before Walcott came one we were awful. Long punts upfield are not going to win you anything at this level and though Carroll`s goal was well taken apart from fouling people he was largely anonymous. However at least he made a contibution unlike Young , who was terrible, and Milner, who has the pace of a snail. Rooney for Carroll, Walcott for Milner, Ox for Young, pass the ball to feet use there pace and we might progress to the latter stages, hopefully Roy has learnt a few lessons tonight.
I don't see why a player who idiotically got himself sent off and suffered a two match ban should just waltz back into the side. With the injuries, we knew this would be tough, and despite a famous win against Sweden there's room for improvement. But personally, I have'nt missed the downside of Rooney (the petulance, whining etc) at all and to be honest, I'd rather see the Wallcot's, Wellbecks etc given their run. Rooney has'nt played yet thanks to jis own stupidity, and he's old enough now to know better. Besides, the worry last night was the marking at set pieces, and where does Rooney fit in. The man is a genius in his own way, but flawed.
Definitely play him, Carroll isn't good enough for the international stage. Play Rooney and Welbeck I think It was only Sweden that we narrowly beat remember
He's our best player - has to start with Welbeck - bring on Carroll for Plan B Hodgson's man management skills will mean that Carroll will understand why he's not starting, and that his performance against Sweden has done his long-term future alot of good
England dont have a single player aside from Rooney that the big boys will genuinely fear playing against. The whole team/spirit/atmosphere were rubbish in south africa and every team performance was gash so its unfair to say that Rooney didnt have an impact (nobody did!) I agree with the earlier poster - Rooney for Carroll, Walcott for MIlner and Chamberlain for Young. Play into feet, link between Rooney, Gerrard and Walcott and give whoever they may have in the quarters (assuming they get there) something to think about.
Hart Johnson Cole Jagielka Lescott Gerrard Parker Ox Walcott Rooney Carroll I think Carroll will be very good for Rooney and create a lot of space for him. But I'd be equally happy with Welbeck. I'd have to look at the Ukraines centre halfs and see whether they struggle for pace. If they did I'd maybe edge towards Welbeck. Terry is an accident waiting to happen. We need to defend better in general. Rooney was the big culprit in SA. His mind was elsewhere and because we'd spent 2 years building our team around him, we fell to bits when didn't turn up. The flipside is he owes us now and will be chomping at the bit to put it right. He's a man for the big occasion.
Have to play Rooney he is by far our best attacking player. Having taken him despite knowing he was suspended indicates that he will definitely play. Drop Carroll for him, he may of scored against a very average Sweden team but he is a very average player who better teams will have no problem playing against. He does not have much pace, his movement is poor, gives away lots of fouls and is not as good as people make out when it comes to bringing others into play. Welbeck and Rooney did form a reasonable partnership at Man U so will hopefully replicate that for England. I'd imagine Welbeck will start up top with Rooney playing just behind him.
What is the betting that Rooney starts and England lose?! I am sure he will start just behind Welbeck probably in a 4-4-1-1 formation.
We need him. Not playing your best player because you scraped past a mediocre Sweden team is idiotic in the extreme.
He is a liability and the fa should not have appealed for the 3 match ban, because they did it should have been increased as frivilous that is what the FA wolud have done if the same sort of incident had happened in one of their own competitions. England should stick with a winning team (they won't though the folly of taking so few strikers will come back to haunt England. European champions doubt it Germany look the best so far with Spain, France, Croatia, Russia, Italy & Portugal all better than England. England have relied on the old guard (failures) instead of rebuliding.
Start him from the bench and bring him on if we're not dealing with them. The players and crowd will really try to get to him so he loses it and reacts, and I've yet to see any evidence he's capable of learning not to. Best player, maybe, but it's no good having your best player reduce your team to 10 men,
I think he needs to play, just because Carroll scored a goal doesnt mean he is good enough. Any decent team will easily deal with him
I feel sorry for Carroll or Welbeck if one of them are dropped at the expense of Rooney, but I'm pretty sure he has to come in.
Totally agree - Tuesday night is going to be a massive mental test and we may be playing against 12 men.
It might seem unfair to some other players but Rooney is still our best player and it would be lunacy if Roy didn't play him.
