Why Wayne Rooney is so crucial to Manchester United

It might well have taken the best part of two thirds of the current season, and four defeats, for Sir Alex Ferguson to fully realise the absolute importance of Wayne Rooney to Manchester United’s cause.

It is anything but coincidental that Rooney took no part in those four Premier League reversals, and that fact will not have been lost on the manager.

No player on the planet can match his apparently unfathomable source of energy and passion; his willingness to cover every square yard of the pitch in chasing every ball hoisted into his attacking zone or bolstering a defensive blockade should it be needed; fetching, carrying, feeding and delighting with a subtle touch here, a paralysing surge there.

In orchestrating the dismantling of Arsenal in the fifth-round FA Cup-tie at Old Trafford, he not only produced the near-perfect striker display but proved beyond doubt that he is the one player United cannot afford to be without. And that is not said lightly when you consider the kind of form that Cristiano Ronaldo has been in this season.

Much of Arsenal’s success this term has been structured on the unbending defensive qualities of William Gallas and Kolo Toure, in much the same as United have drawn on the commanding presence of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.

I don’t think I’ve seen Gallas and Toure worked over so effectively, dragged out of position so many times, left looking accusingly at each other, and generally having a miserable time. And it was all because of Rooney.

It’s no exaggeration to say that he could have scored five or six (instead of the one he did get) had he done justice to the openings he was either presented with or manufactured himself. And it is perhaps the most telling verdict on the performances of Gallas and Toure that three of United’s four goals were headers.

When Ferguson paid close on £40m to Everton for Rooney on August 31, 2004, he envisioned the young Scouser as the first secure cornerstone of his next re-building project. Since then he has spent wisely, if somewhat extravagantly, on young players who now, after three years, are beginning to respond to his patient attention.

Ronaldo is already established among the world’s finest, and it is clear  that his young compatriot, Luis Nani, and teenage Brazilian sensation Anderson will be sharing the limelight with him very soon.

But Rooney remains the catalyst, the essential ingredient to United’s success. No-one was more gutted that he when United’s Champions League campaign came to a shuddering halt last February. No-one will be more highly charged and driven than Rooney in the coming weeks to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.