Wayne Rooney Vs. Robin van Persie

BladeGunner wrote:You're a tit. The stupidity of this article is highlighted by the bit where you praise Rooney's ability to work hard for the team because he played a supporting role to accommodate Ronaldo, and then criticise van Persie for doing the same with the Netherlands in the World Cup for the sake of Sneijder.

Er...van Persie played upfront in the World Cup, did Rooney play upfront to accommodate Ronaldo? No. He's not playing upfront now either, more like ana ttacking midfielder, and he's still scoring at a similar rate to van Persie.

Also, you've made a thread to ask who the better footballer is at the moment and when asked why you believe Rooney is you continuously provide evidence from as far back as 2006. Then there are thing that are utterly baseless such as calling van Persie a glorified poacher. Eight assists in the Premier League and an impressive number of key passes per match and he's somehow a glorified poacher? What the fuck are you even talking about? And an equally good goalscorer? Really? Rooney's best ever season from a goalscoring perspective was in 2009/10 when he scored a total of 34 goals in 44 games. Van Persie's already scored 32 goals this season and he's played seven less games.

Should I only include games from this weekend or something? I'm evaluating what they have done over their whole careers, both players are generally at their peak now. As for being equally good goalscorers, well you're right I'm actually being a bit unfair there. RVP has 32 goals in 37 games this season playing as Arsenal's main striker, while Rooney has 26 goals in 31 games.

Both men joined their clubs in 2004, and Rooney has 173 goals, while van Persie has only 127. van Persie has made a lot less appearances over that period as well because he is so injury prone, another argument in Rooney's favour, and van Persie is older, meaning he's had more time in his peak.

The only bits of your argument that are even worth my time start with the claim about big games, and even then I disagree. Van Persie's proven that he's more than capable of stepping up in big games (he's scored against every team in the top five, except Manchester City, as well as several important goals in the Champions League, namely against Udinese, Dortmung and Milan), he just hasn't had as many opportunities in semi-finals and finals as Rooney has mainly due to having been part of an inferior team for most of his career and sometimes due to his continuous injury problems that he used to have. I'll give you the part about Rooney being better at headers, although that isn't exactly particularly significant. Better passing, I'd say they are about equal. Van Persie's better at short through balls, whereas Rooney's long passing is among the best in the world. Better temperament, probably about equal. Rooney's sending off in the 2006 World Cup comes to mind, although he's certainly matured more since then. And if you're going to criticise van Persie's temperament because he had one poor game against Milan, then I guess it's only fair to consider every time Rooney's been poor in an important game, e.g against Germany in the World Cup, Champions League final 2008/2009 etc.

You want to talk about goals against England's Top sides? OK, if you want to do that fine, I didn't included it because of how fucking pathetic the Premier League is this season when it comes to defending.

Rooney's goals in big games, this season only

Tottenham (H) - 1 goal
Arsenal (H) - 3 goals
Chelsea (H) - 1 goal
Man City (A) (FAC) - 2 goals
Chelsea (A) - 2 goals
Liverpool (H) - 2 goals
Tottenham (A) - 1 goal

It's completely worthless to examine this season's games like this when the defending is so awful.

ConorCelticFC wrote:I think what you mean is that one 'man' did sleep with hookers (and a granny, and God knows what else), and the other was found not guilty with it being universally accepted that the affair was just a money-grabbing whore-scam.

Both allegations were unproven.

Not really relevant to the question anyway. Van Persie is in a different class and has scored in virtually every game for Arsenal for about a year whereas Rooney has had his usual ten-game purple patches followed by ten-game scoring droughts. That's not even mentioning how awful he was in 2010.

He's been fairly consistent recently, his longest scoring drough lasting only 5 games, even then he was still playing really well for the team.

Very similar goal ratios? Lol. RVP has scored 7 more league goals and scored against Man Utd, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea this season and Barcelona last. Yet he doesn't do it in the big games? Rooney is the inconsistent hothead who is guilty of 'childish outbursts' like kicking Bulgarians. All RVP has done is kick a ball away against Barca which we can all agree no one would remember if the referee hadn't made a jackass of himself. You know RVP is far superior and have resorted to utter nonsense.

Er...Rooney has scored against Man City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea this season and Barcelona last as well. This is not a decent argument. He scored against Barcelona in a much bigger game as well, rather than foolishly getting sent off.

Regardless of where he played on the pitch (and he had never previously played as a lone forward prior to that World Cup), he was by no means the focal point. Rooney, regardless of whether he plays as an attacking midfielder or a forward, is the nucleus of the Manchester United team. Almost everything goes through him. Rewatch the Netherlands' World Cup matches and you'll see that van Persie played to serve the other players. He made intelligent runs and tidy passes that allowed Sneijder to thrive.

The "Rooney is playing as a midfielder" argument is rubbish. Despite playing as a "creator", he still has fewer assists than van Persie. He is played in that position to accommodate his talents. You don't hear Barcelona fans using the fact that Fabregas and the other two wingers play ahead of Messi as justification regarding why the Argentinian doesn't score more goals. Both players drift in and out of the box in free roles. That position is where he thrives and it is for that very reason that he will most likely reach his highest goalscoring tally this season, higher than the one he reached in 09/10 when he was played as a poacher.

You fail to mention that van Persie for his first four seasons or so was playing as a winger and that heavily contributed to his lower goalscoring tally. And then you mention his injury record, most likely no longer relevant as he's put it behind him by staying consistently fit for more than a year.

I'm only using the most relevant facts to the question. You ask who the best player is now, I'm inclined to provide statistics from this season. I understand that the standard of defending has been poorer than recent seasons, but that applies for both players. This is the first time where van Persie has been fit for an entire season, that makes this season the best to use for a comparison.