Thursday 9 April 2015 16:03, UK
It's official. If Louis van Gaal wants to get the best out of Wayne Rooney, then he needs to play him as a central striker.
The Manchester United and England captain has been played in a variety of positions this season, including several games in midfield, but cutting-edge new research shows that his best position is as a centre-forward.
The findings also suggest that Rooney is better suited to playing as a defensive midfielder rather than an attacking midfielder or out wide.
Sky Sports asked the boffins behind a groundbreaking player development system to analyse Rooney’s attributes using their brand new technology.
Pro Soccer Development have identified 65 skill sets that are crucial for a football player and each are rated out of 100 according to UEFA standards. Rooney's last six matches have been analysed in depth to produce the results.
According to this revolutionary player rating system, Rooney's best positions are:
Striker (rating 91)
Right midfield (90)
Defensive centre midfield (90)
Right wing attacker (89)
Centre attacking midfield (89)
Left midfield (89)
Centre midfield (89)
Right defence (89)
Left wing attacker (88)
Left defence (88)
Centre defence (86)
Sweeper (86)
The results suggest England boss Roy Hodgson was right when he called on Van Gaal to play Rooney up front more often, but that the Dutchman’s decision to play him as a holding player against Burnley in February was more astute than many commentators thought.
Ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby, Pro Soccer Development also analysed Manchester City’s David Silva and the results show he is as effective as Rooney in attacking areas, but falls behind him in defensive play.
According to the data, Silva's ratings for each outfield position are:
Left wing attacker (90)
Central attacking midfielder (89)
Left midfield (89)
Left defence (88)
Centre midfield (87)
Right wing attacker (86)
Defensive centre midfield (86)
Striker (85)
Right midfield (84)
Right defence (83)
Sweeper (81)
Centre defence (79)
The results show Silva rates higher than Rooney in several attacking areas, such as one-versus-one attacking. Rooney attempts four of these situations per match with a 68% success rate, while Silva attempts six per match with 88% of them successful. That’s one reason why the Man City man is far better suited to playing out wide.
Sturge Mazzocchi, the brains behind the system, explained: “The reasons Wayne Rooney has high ratings for numerous positions and David Silva less versatile is because Wayne Rooney has a more transferable skill set in terms of his defensive attributes.
“This is measured across 65 skills and calibrated by position and Wayne has many defending skills that are transferable between midfield and full-back too.”
The researchers insist that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo would score even higher than these players in attacking areas, while traditional defenders like Branislav Ivanovic would rate much higher than Rooney at right-back.
Pro Soccer Development claims to be the most advanced player development system commercially available in the world with technology that can be used at grassroots level and elite level.
