When DC United signed Wayne Rooney in the mid-season transfer window, coverage stateside
focused on his excellent goal-scoring record and his positive remarks about it being an
“exciting time in the club’s history”. Indeed, while DC United has hardly set MLS
alight in recent seasons, the unveiling of Rooney, new investment, and a new stadium
all seem to herald an upswing for the club, if not necessarily the start of a new era.
Rooney has bedded in well, too, so far scoring four and getting six assists in 10 starts
and two appearances from the bench.
DC United, under Head Coach Ben Olsen, play with a back four and some midfield variation
– the basis is a 4-4-1-1, though this can look like a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-1-4-1, depending
on how staggered the midfield are for attack or defence.
So far, despite some debate when he arrived based on his previous couple of terms in the
Premier League, Rooney has not started in midfield, although he has on occasion dropped
back towards the end of a game. But he is not exactly a pure number nine, either. In
fact, it is Rooney’s versatility that makes him a dangerous player.
DC United have a preference for keeping possession and at their fluent best, they are capable
of bringing the ball out of defence and transitioning it forwards in a series of quick, angled passes.
Rooney is often central to this, dropping away from the back four into the ‘false
nine’ space, and playing a return pass.
Rooney is also excellent at switching the angle of attack, and this benefits the attacking
midfielders who play around him – the excellent Luciano Acosta, who tends to play as a very
attacking central midfielder, and the first choice wide players, Zoltan Stieber and Yamil
Asad. As he drops and collects the ball, these players can burst wide ahead of him or, in
Acosta’s case, past Rooney, who is strong and technically skilled enough to take the
ball under pressure and get it to the runner.
Rooney can then push forwards too, supporting the attack with a late run into the box, or
hang back and wait around the edge of the box for shooting opportunities. No player
for DC United has taken more shots from outside the area than Rooney, with 1.4 per 90 – Yamil
Asad is next, with 1.1 per 90 – and this shows how Rooney is not always looking to
take up advanced positions, but waits around the edge of the box for cut backs.
However, Rooney is not just an attacking fulcrum for faster players to run on to his passes.
He leads the line as well, playing with his back to the defending centre backs and contesting
aerial balls, or looking to run off the shoulder of the last defenders. His makes quick bursts
to the near post, or peels off towards the back post, using his excellent positional
sense to find space.
Rooney combines especially well with Acosta and the two regularly swap positions during
moves. It is in this sense that Rooney is most like a false nine. But a traditional
false nine is the furthest attacker forwards – by pulling away from defenders vertically,
the player then has space to drive forwards in to, which creates confusion, or they are
closed down by a defender pushing up, which then leaves space for wide players to cut
inside towards.
But Rooney does this, while also acting as a straightforward, backing into the centre
back, contesting aerial balls, playing off the shoulder kind of centre forward. And he
does both in the same game, sometimes dropping to let Acosta run off him, sometimes winning
the ball and laying it off to the Argentinian attacking midfielder. It means that DC United
have a very flexible style of attacking play that at times works superbly well.
Rooney has, of course, shown this sort of tactical flexibility before in his career,
playing, for example in the Manchester United team of 2007/08 as a fluid 9/10 alongside
Carlos Tevez, who played the same way, or playing in the channels and cutting inside
as part of an attacking front three. He’s played as a nine, a ten, and a midfielder.
At DC United, Rooney is showing that he still has the ability to play a variety of roles
and determine the course of a game.