After landing his first league goals since September last weekend, is Wayne Rooney about to embark on a sparkling run of form once again?
Christmas being a time of tradition and all, it’s about time for a Wayne Rooney goal spurt. Although the bulldozing, follically-enhanced striker is undisputedly one of the top players in the league, he can never be labelled as a consistent goalscorer, a label that sits easily with, say, the peerless Robin van Persie.
Rooney ended a nine game goal drought with two against Wolves last Saturday and while his latest dry spell can be explained in part by his dropping back to midfield and his team’s overall mediocrity in attack, going for long periods without scoring is a pattern that has repeated itself many times in Rooney’s career to date.
In fact, in the last five seasons, Rooney has only reached the mythical 20 league goals milestone on one occasion – in the 2009/10 season when he netted 26 goals and was the runaway winner of the Player of the Year award. That campaign aside, the best he has managed is a pretty average 14 in 2006/07.
The flip side to Rooney’s inconsistency is that when he starts scoring, it tends to be a while before he stops. Put simply, he’s your classic spurter, although we do apologise for any lewd connotations that phrase might conjure up.
At the start of the season, Rooney was on fire. He may have only scored in five games, but managed a quite bountiful nine goals in that period. Just because he scored two against Wolves doesn’t mean he’s a dead cert to hit the net repeatedly over the coming weeks, but there was a clinical nature to both of his finishes against Mick McCarthy’s men that indicated that the spark just might be back.
Add in the fact that United seem to be on a mission to make up for their humiliating Champions League exit and there would seem to be a lot of positives in restoring Rooney to your fantasy team.
There’s also the fixture list. United’s next six games are against QPR, Fulham, Wigan, Blackburn, Newcastle and Wigan before a tricky spell where they face Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool in the space of four games. Around that time, of course, they will also return to European action where, as Ashley Cole will readily testify, you can catch them in action on Channel 5 on Thursday nights.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: David Silva (£10.5 million). Arsenal are a team in form and there is a possibility they could come away from the Etihad with something to show for their efforts on Sunday, but we can’t see this one being a stalemate. There’s only four games this season when Silva hasn’t contributed either a goal or an assist and in two of those, he only got a limited amount of time off the bench.
Mid-Range: Daniel Sturridge (£6.9 million). Now an established member of the Chelsea first XI, Sturridge is buzzing and has three goals, two assists and 28 points in his last four games.
Bargain Basement: Steve Morison (£5.0 million). He ain’t pretty (check out the blue ‘i’ beside his name on the fantasy football website for his unflattering profile picture), but he’s effective. Four goals in his last five and if you’re looking for a striker at a knockdown price, Morison’s your man.
Irish Pick: Jonathan Walters (£6.7 million). We’re genuinely looking for alternatives, but we keep coming back to Walters week after week. With four goals and four assists, he’s the sixth highest-scoring midfielder in the league, above the likes of more celebrated figures like Rafael van der Vaart, Juan Mata and Yaya Toure.
Captain’s Pick: Wayne Rooney (£11.9 million). Man City will tell you that QPR away are no easy proposition, but they’re not exactly watertight at the back and Rooney will be in the mood after last weekend.
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