Former Liverpool manager failure Gérard Houllier has blamed Wayne Rooney for England’s disastrous showing at the World Cup in South Africa this summer. Despite a rash of horrendous performances from Fabio Capello’s stars, Houllier says Rooney’s lack of goals was central to the country’s 4-1 humiliation by Germany in the second round.
“Probably the key to understanding why England didn’t perform at the World Cup is that the top players didn’t do as well as we could expect them to,” he said.
“I’m thinking mainly about Wayne Rooney. He’s an outstanding player but whether he was tired or wasn’t in good shape I don’t know. If Rooney, who for me is a top player and finisher, had scored a few more goals maybe.
“If you look at the teams with one or two top finishers – Germany, Holland or Spain – they usually go forward. Uruguay went so far because of Diego Forlán.”
Rooney, of course, had a poor World Cup but then so did 20 of 23 England players at the tournament. The rest didn’t play.
Strange then that there is no mention by the French Federation’s technical director of England’s other “World Class” stars such as Frank Lampard or Houllier’s beloved Steven Gerrard, who have produced so little at international level for the past decade.
No, when in doubt, Houllier simply resorts to the easy critique: blame Rooney.
He made a completely fair comment. He wasn’t blaming Rooney, you just seen a headline and jumped at it because the man is a former Liverpool manager. He’s completely correct in his assessment of Rooney and England.
Rooney didn’t play well, Houllier twice highlights how highly he rates Rooney by calling him top class and when top class players don’t perform then questions are asked.
If Rooney had performed as a top player should then England would have gone further, Houllier highlights Forlan as an example of this.
Seriously, you need to take off the red specs, as a United fan it was embarrassing to see this pop up on NewsNow. You’re just looking for something to complain about…
Or perhaps if Terry, Lampard, Gerrard, Barry, Cole, Carragher, Upson, Green …. et al had performed better England would have gone further? There are 11 men in a team and Houlier’s symptomatic of all the other ‘critics’ – take it out on England’s best player.
This is just embarressing Ed… The point he makes is simple; a successful team needs a star player to step up. Rooney is England’s greatest star, but did not step up (like the rest of the team,but that’s not the point). I agree with Non-biased contributor, such articles are embarressing to read as a United fan
Get a sense of humour and climb down off that high horse. Oh since it’s topical, interesting to note that the Capello Index rates Rooney as England’s worst player once (Algeria) and best player once (Germany). England’s a poor side, blown out of the water by a far superior team no matter what Rooney did or did not do. Just makes Houllier sound blinkered and vitriolic to single out one player as the cause of England’s failure.
Typical houllier :L But doesn’t excuse from the fact that Rooney gave the ball away more than any other player in the tournament ( shocking), probably his four worst games of the season came in the world cup 🙁
Cunt.
rooney didnt have a world cup but you cant blame a striker for the awful goals we conceded or the lack of chances created, its not like great crosses were going in and he was picking his arse lol.
there are 3 main reasons we didnt do well at the world cup
1) the formation – it always looked bad and everyone seemed to end up in the wrong place.
2) chucking in individuals rather than trying to create a team that would compliment each other, gerrard and lampard dont work in the same team.
3) players that are not of england quality like heskey plus overrated players like lampard added to the mess.
I can’t help but feel this is more to do with Houiller being an ex-Liverpool manager than his comments being out of line.
He’s right, Rooney didn’t perform at all, and he’s also right in suggesting that when your star players don’t step up, you’ve got a problem.
In fact, he compliments Rooney on a number of occasions, and surely it’s the highest compliment of all to suggest that if Rooney had played better, he could have propelled a mediocre England team to a more respectable finish.
This article is just vitriolic nonsense.
Vitriolic – pot calling kettle black aint it? Houlier could have picked on any of the England players. He chose Rooney.
Ronaldo anyone?!!!
Lampard Terry and Gerrard always seem to get away with playing shit and not facing the criticism that Rooney gets. Rooney was rubbish at the wc but so were most of the other players. It’s wrong to focus just on Rooney but what else do you expect – its just the kind of story the papers pick up on.
Did they ask him about Frances performance? You can spell exciting with out the letters exit -> out.
i’ll get your coat for you…that was about as funny as cancer