World Cup 2010 - Houllier: Rooney form to blame
Former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier believes Wayne Rooney's poor World Cup explains England's abysmal performance in South Africa.
Fabio Capello's side crashed out of the tournament with a 4-1 drubbing by Germany in the second round and Houllier insists England's stars failed to deliver, singling out the Manchester United striker, who drew a blank and struggled throughout, for individual criticism.
"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 told BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme. "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."
He added: "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 Forlan.
"England were also unlucky because of the goal that was disallowed against Germany. It was a good goal."
Houllier insists the benefits of a winter break, which Fabio Capello said was needed in the Barclays Premier League following England's exit, were made clear by the identity of the semi-finalists.
"Of the teams that reached the semi-finals, Germany, Holland and Spain had a break of at least two weeks over the Christmas period or new year," he said.
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the problem was that capello didn;t have the COHONES to drop Rooney who was playing with a fractured ankle and Steven Gerard who had the worst 12months of football ever and only got called up because of his name.
I wouldn't lay the blame on Rooney, more like the team & the management.
There was just something about the england squad didn't seem to gel together right, the team seems to be almost if not the same as the 2006 squad, next time, maybe some new blood should be added to the team & leave some of the 2006 & 2010 players home, new blood, younger players from the top flight and possibly Alan Shearer as the new manager.
To be fair, none of the big names did anything in the world cup, kaka, robinho, ronaldo, anelka, drogba, rooney, even messi didn't score, not sure why a failed former french school teacher has singled out rooney, or why this is even news worthy.
I heard Shrek is going to play for Rooney nxt season so he can lose weight
The problem was:
There were 11 Roonies on the pitch.
Terry should have been sent packing simple as.
Rooney no excuses he was awful.
Just a load of spoilt brats.
I am disgusted with the lot of them.
We English are the laughing stock of world football because of them.
not just Rooney... everything made a diiference, even the pre tournament behaviour of Terry and Cole I think made a difference. How can a team feel good about itself with people like that in it? Everything was wrong.
I am amused at the constant ravings of the uneducated who keep asserting (wrongfully) that the English players "didn't care", "had no heart", "are only in it for the money." That is patently false.
..
Regardless, it may follow that if @#$%headed supporters and journalists ceased to hurl abuse at them/rubbish them because of the club they play for and the fact that they earn more money than them and are boning class birds instead of the atrocious fat chav pigs the supporters get., that might be an incentive for them to try harder.
~
You might very well think that, I'm afraid I couldn't possibly comment.
its the same every world cup @#$% team @#$% manager,all overpayed over sexed,they played with no heart,no spirit and no guts,its seems the only people that had those 3 things were the fans,most of the teams we played in our group we should have buried but ib fact they buried us,it was shameful.insulting,they should all b sacked and sent 2 siberia,out of sight,out of mind best place 4 them,roll-on 2014 it could not get any worse,COULD IT
Don't point the finger at Rooney. Point it at the guy that still selected him despite his blanks. Ahem.
it was the whole team. Can't win the world cup on your own the coach also stuffed up. Also England always are over rated they are on the same level as New zealand, australia maybe as good as usa. At the end of the day they have done well to get to the second round. Well done boys better luck next time. Or and by the way new zealand did have couple of palyers unemployed in that team ouchhhhhhh
for whatever the reasons are...still steven gerrard is the best player among the england's squad...rooney, lampard, terry, barry...they're all useless...can't create chances infront of goal...only gerrard makes the different...they should focus on gerrard rather than rooney the shrek
i blame Frank, Barry, Lennon and Terry. Useless. Rooney had no service in all honesty, i cant think of one decent chance someone created for him.
How come everybody is blaming a single player. There is 11 players in the team who must also take some part in the downfall of the team for whom were all hyped up by the media first of all then every other person in the country . Why not accept it, that overall they were made to look average because of there so called poor performance and whatever the system the manager ordered them to play .
English football what a complete and utter waste of space - How many English footballers do we actually have in the Premier League?
ROONEY, WHAT A WASTE OF @#$% SPACE, HE'S AVERAGE IN THE UK AND TOTALLY USELESS FOR ENGLAND, AND UNITED WANT TO GIVE HIM MORE MONEY, WHAT HE NEEDS IS STOP EATING THOSE MARS BARS LOSE ABOUT 10 STONE AND A GOOD KICK IN THE BOLLOCKS, OR BETTER STILL SELL HIM TO SOME @#$% ARAB TEAM.
lets face it they were all @#$%
I blame the blamers. Blame blame blam.
hdhfnffvgg
If its one players fault then that shows how bad the english team is.
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