Wayne Rooney lasted less than an hour of the Merseyside derby clash with Premier League giants Liverpool at Goodison Park on Saturday.
For the second weekend in a row, Everton’s Wayne Rooney was subbed off against one of his old adversaries.
The 32-year-old’s number was up just before the hour as Everton slumped to a humiliating home defeat to Manchester City a week ago, and Rooney was off again in the Merseyside derby stalemate at Goodison Park on Saturday. And Rooney was clearly unhappy with Sam Allardyce’s decision, the number ten spotted making his displeasure very obvious when he took a seat on the Everton substitute’s bench.
And The Sun (page 49, 9th April) has now reported that the issue has not yet been resolved. It is understood that Rooney is furious with Allardyce for intimating in a post match interview that he no longer has the legs to make a decisive impact in such a high-profile encounter. Allardyce, however, might have had a point with Rooney unable to make any sort of real impact in a derby which never really got going.
But considering Rooney’s excellent record against Liverpool, and his tally of ten goals in 24 Premier League games this season, if there was anyone capable of making the breakthrough against Jurgen Klopp’s much changed side it was Rooney.
It remains to be seen, however, what role the former Manchester United man can expect to play at Everton for the remainder of this season, especially with Cenk Tosun seemingly nailing down that centre-forward position.
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