Rooney releases his pent-up frustration

Posted Thursday, November 25, 2010 by theguardian.com

Even before his goal against Rangers, the United striker looked leaner, fitter and more motivated than he has for some time

Rooney releases his pent-up frustration
Wayne Rooney displayed some rustiness, but plenty of energy in Manchester United's win over Rangers.

The moment Wayne Rooney craved arrived three minutes from the end. Here was the goal he probably needed to soothe his state of mind and seal his second coming as a Manchester United player. That it should come from the penalty spot mattered little and when Rooney ran to celebrate in front of the away supporters this was his chance to release some of that pent-up frustration.

He looked lean, apparently half a stone lighter after his week-long training camp in the United States, and after being of questionable fitness for so long it would have been encouraging for everyone associated with the club that he was able to play the entire match without any visible signs of tiring. Rooney even threw off his gloves at one point, as if to say he meant business, and overall he was entitled to be satisfied with his performance on a night where he may have won himself a pardon even from some of those supporters who had booed him at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon.

His last goal for United from open play came almost eight months ago in a Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. Other than that, there was a penalty against West Ham on 28 August, but if we strip it down to what happens in the red shirts, rather than the red-tops, it has been difficult sometimes to remember we are talking about a man who, somewhere in the midst of his own annus horribilis, managed to win virtually every footballer of the year award going. Now, at least, we have something approaching a sense of closure. Or, to put it another way, a feeling that at long last we can go back to talking about what Rooney is doing on the pitch rather than off it.

United fans will have to wait a little while longer for the apology Sir Alex Ferguson said would be forthcoming from a man who scored 34 goals last season, however. Another opportunity was missed in a pre-recorded interview, shown on ITV before the match, in which he did a commendable job of keeping a straight face as he argued his contract dispute was "nothing to do with money" – but he'll be acutely aware that the best currency when it comes to winning forgiveness will be to drag himself out of his slump.

It was probably inevitable that there would be times when his usual sureness of touch was not there. Two months since his last start, he can be forgiven a little bit of rustiness. Take the moment in the first half when Dimitar Berbatov picked him out with a cross from the right and Rooney's volley, from close to the penalty spot, carried little conviction. It was a difficult chance with the ball slightly behind him and almost waist high, but it still represented a genuine scoring opportunity, one he would have attacked with much more certainty this time a year ago.

For long spells Rooney played as though he was feeling his way back into it – simple tap-ins, nothing too elaborate, less demonstrative than usual. But there were encouraging signs. Five minutes before the interval Fábio da Silva surged down the left wing and crossed. Rooney's header flashed against the crossbar and gleefully we were reminded of the player who was capable of making opposition crowds collectively hold their breath.

The second half was in its infancy when he curled a 25-yard free-kick narrowly wide and increasingly there was the sense of a man growing into the game. In the 55th minute Rooney's touch to play in Michael Carrick was exquisite, about as good a three-yard pass as you could possibly wish to see. There were other moments when it was easy to tell this was a player who had spent so long out of the team and the crowd relished the carelessness that accompanied two wasted opportunities in quick succession, but even then the forward's body language remained positive.

In the end Rooney got to have the last word. He will hope this was the first day of the rest of his life.