WAYNE Rooney has been struggling to hit the back of the net. He failed to find score at the 2010 World Cup and was almost a spectator as the Three Lions went crashing against a rampant Germany side in the first knockout round of the competition.

The Manchester United and England forward played in 342 of England’s 360 World Cup minutes, and despite featuring against the likes of Algeria and Slovenia, the man who scored 26 Premier League goals and 36 in total last season, failed to get on the score sheet in South Africa.

The closest he came to breaking his duck was against Slovenia when having been played into the penalty area, he cannoned a shot against the post summing up his stint in South Africa.

Many people started asking themselves why the man crowned as England’s best hope in the tournament failed to score even against lowly oppositions as Algeria and Slovenia.

After the World Cup, some people reckon that Rooney failed to live up to the hype, believing that the former Everton striker may not be as good as he is made out to be.

Some pundits believe that England manager Fabio Capello got his tactics wrong and that the English man partnerships were not as good as expected. Perhaps Rooney would have been better utilized if he were played as a lone man up front.

Though the striker massively flopped at the World Cup, he was always essential to Manchester United last season.

From this point of argument, one can believe that the striker can only be as good as the supply he gets from his team-mates. This shows that the current Manchester United squad has more potency compared to the England national team.

Rooney’s scoring ability declined after the injury sustained against Bayern Munich in the quarter finals of the lucrative Champions League in March, and many people still believe that the forward has not yet recovered fully from the nagging ankle injury.

He was used during the second leg of the same competition at Old Trafford but the striker looked far from the expectation. Manchester United and English medical doctors gave him a go a head to the World Cup but many people still cast doubts on the length of his injury recovery.

The period to the World Cup was too shot to give him 100 percent recovery and fitness.

With only one game of the 2010-2011 English Premier League season, question marks are still raised whether the talisman will be able find the back of the net this season as often as he did last season or flop like at the World Cup in South Africa?

While Chelsea’s Didier Drogba, last season’s Premier League top scorer opened his account for the new season with a hat trick against new boys Blackpool last weekend, Rooney was subbed at Old Trafford when nothing seemed to go his way.

Rooney’s performance against Newcastle United was not convincing as United out three unanswered goals past the Coca Cola Championship (second division) winners. Though he had a hand in one of the three goals Man United scored against Chelsea in the FA Community Shield, the young English man is yet to silence very many of his doubters.

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