Steven Gerrard claims that England fans should not be pushing Wayne Rooney out of the national team for a dip in form.
A recent survey indicated that fans overwhelmingly support the decision to drop Rooney in favour of young strikers like Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy. The latter have recently scored in the friendly games for England. Rooney is yet to feature for the national team in 2016, but he finished last year with five goals in eight appearances. His record with Manchester United in the 2015-16 campaign has been extremely disappointing. Young striker Anthony Martial has been frequently able to overshadow him.
Gerrard reckons that there is no loyalty amongst the England fans after having seen Rooney score some vital goals over the past decade. The Manchester United forward is the leading goal scorer for the England national team with 51 goals in 109 appearances. He recently went past Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of 49 goals for the national team. Gerrard says that Rooney should be the figurehead for England at the Euro 2016. The national team go into the competition in buoyant mood after having won all of their qualification matches. They also managed a win friendly against world champions Germany before going on to lose against Netherlands, who did not qualify for the Euro 2016.
“I get those who say Wayne has had a dip in form… he’ll be the first to admit that. But he is still a top class international footballer who can be the match-winner for his country in France. We need him there.I also think there is an issue of respect here.For the last 10 years Wayne has been entertaining England fans — he’s become our greatest goalscorer — and it was not that long ago there were questions about where the next Rooney was coming from,” said Gerrard.