According to the BBC Dier will replace him in midfield not sure if that’s a positive or not. I’m hoping it is and at least the game won’t be slowed down by Shrek.
Well, I’d see that as a positive, in a number of ways.
First, Southgate has shown that he’s got the guts to drop Rooney to the bench. Yes, plenty of people have said that he should, but voicing such an opinion when you’re not the one doing it is easy. And bear in mind that he’s purely a caretaker manager (for the time being at least) and that caretakers don’t normally like to make waves. Taking the safe option would have been much easier; Southgate decided against doing that.
Second, he’s playing a holding midfielder (Dier) in a holding midfielder’s role. Whatever one might think of Dier (and he looks a pretty decent player to me), at least you’re not seeing a fading striker being shoe-horned into an unfamiliar role, purely to keep him in the side.
Third, Dier is accustomed to playing with Dele Alli in front of him; they combine well and I’d hope that they can do that for England as well. Far too much of Saturday’s match was dictated by Rooney, especially the second half. This meant that England had near-constant possession of the ball, a little way outside the Malta penalty area. And, time after time, the ball came back to Rooney, who would try and fail to thread a killer pass thorugh a mass of Maltese (and English) players. The second goal was a result of quick, one-touch passing; with Rooney dictating the play in the second half England stopped doing that. Dier is used to being part of a team that moves the ball quickly - this can only be positive.
Finally, if Rooney takes it on the chin then that’s a good thing. If he decides to strop off into international retirement then he won’t be missed.
Now that he has been dropped to the bench the next stage is not take him to away games, excuse being he does not travel to overseas tournements well, then dont select him for home games as he is not getting any game time.
Job done and Southgate can have the managers job
As he cant be any worse than the other options for the England team
Man U fans are delighted that Rooney has been dropped, as I can make out, most of them cannot stand the England set up! I think this goes back to the days when Man U were good and they used to pick up injuries on International break. That is now lwft up to the bigger teams, like Southampton FC!
