(Manchester United News)
Wayne Rooney has played a captain's role this season - applying his experience and influence in a number of positions on the field. But a return to perhaps his most effective spot, up front, has produced his best football of the season and seen him shoot to the top of our goalscoring charts.
Inside United magazine asked the Reds’ no.10 for a striker masterclass, and here are six key things we discovered about Wayne and his craft in the exclusive interview, which you can read in full in the latest issue...
1. FINISHING IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD... In his formative early years at United, Wayne no doubt learnt a lot from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who spoke about tuning mind and body into scoring situations in training so, come matchday, it's simply second nature. "It’s about having that idea in your head of where you want to put the ball," says the skipper.
2. ROONEY IS A PERFECTIONIST... Training is key to Wayne's armoury of abilities; if it's not honing one-on-one skills against goalkeepers, he’s perfecting dead-ball strikes: “You might have a chance in a game, say with your left foot, and it doesn’t go in – so you then focus on that and try to make it better. You need to be focused and train to the best of your ability."
3. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE EYES... Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole were said to communicate via telepathy, but for Rooney it's about eye-contact: "Sometimes you want a run from a forward but then when you're the forward you feel like you might not make that run. It’s easier for me because I’ve played in both positions. It’s about having eye-contact with your forward or midfielders, so you know when to run, when to pass."
4. NO GOAL FEELS BETTER THAN A TEAM GOAL... Wayne has netted some stunning strikes in big matches down the years – and no doubt in the build-up to Sunday’s Manchester derby we’ll remind ourselves of his stunning overhead kick. But Wayne cites Cristiano Ronaldo’s breakaway strike at Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final in 2009 as a perfect joint effort: "Great to watch and be involved in."
5. JAMES WILSON RECKONS ROONEY'S SET-PIECES ARE ONE OF HIS BEST ATTRIBUTES... He's yet to find the net from a free-kick this term but he was on target last season – again against City. “It’s just down to practice,” and Rooney stays out after training every day, working on the perfect balance of getting the ball over the wall and back down again.
6. WEST HAM GOALKEEPER ADRIAN WAS ASKING FOR TROUBLE WITH THAT GOAL... Wayne's famous strike at Upton Park in 2013/14 was exactly as Rooney planned. He’d seen Adrian off his line a few times earlier in the game, so when the ball dropped invitingly – albeit 57.9 yards from goal – he knew exactly what had to be done.
