High time for Wayne Rooney to justify his captaincy, wages at Man United

As is often the case with football fans, there are certain players who will always split the opinion of the supporters.
In the 2010-11 season, Dimitar Berbatov was the Premier League's top scorer, having scored more hat tricks by the turn of the year than Wayne Rooney had goals as Manchester United went on to claim that record-breaking 19th title. Huge sections of the club's fan base wanted rid of the "lazy" Bulgarian, though, with Old Trafford rarely singing his name and his goal tally being dismissed because he scored five in a single match against Blackburn.
Something strange occurs when a group of fans set upon a player, dishing out unfair and exaggerated criticism, and then a counter-group forms, one that lavishes unwarranted and magnified praise. Depending on who you spoke to, Berbatov was either the best striker in the league or one of the worst to have played for the club.
A similar situation can be found with Rooney this season, although the cause for complaint is not his laziness. If there was ever to be an insult thrown at the United and England captain, it wouldn't have anything to do with his lack of effort.

Gary Cahill talks about Wayne Rooney ahead of the Euro 2016 Group E qualifier versus Slovenia where the England captain is expected to earn his 100th cap for his country.

This week, Rooney described himself as the most competitive player at the club, and he's probably right. He will cover the length of the pitch, sprinting all the way back to his own goal if he believes there's even the smallest chance of him putting in a tackle that prevents United from conceding. Rooney throws himself into challenges, gets furious with his teammates when they make a mistake and is always disappointed to be substituted off the field.
For all those winning qualities, United supporters are entitled to be disgruntled over a few things with their new captain. For example, while many supporters would rather gloss over the fact that he tried to leave the club for bitter rivals Manchester City in 2010 -- and then attempted to do the same in a bid to play for Chelsea less than three years later -- it doesn't mean these things didn't happen.
Yet no fan should really begrudge a player doing what is best for his career. Cristiano Ronaldo is remembered fondly by United fans and was warmly greeted by them when he returned to Old Trafford with Real Madrid in the Champions League in 2013. However, the stark difference between the behaviour of Ronaldo and Rooney is that the former was, for the most part, fairly honest about his intentions. Everyone knew that sooner or later he would be leaving Manchester for Spain.

Dimitar Berbatov was equally divisive among Man United fans but didn't pretend to be nearly as integral to the team as Wayne Rooney has.

Rooney is a different matter, for he had conned the supporters into believing he was one of them. The Everton fan ran around kissing the United badge, giving interviews saying he wanted to stay forever and that he hoped to one day emulate Ryan Giggs in terms of legendary status at the club. To see his repeated lack of loyalty rewarded with fantastic new contracts and, now, the captain's armband, is a source of frustration for plenty of fans.
Now as one of the highest earners in the country and the club captain -- all of it in the context of him twice trying to leave for United's rivals -- more should be expected of him. Just showing up shouldn't be enough to win the fans over. This season, quite simply, Rooney has not been good enough. He has a few goals and assists to his name, but he hasn't risen to the reasonable expectations of the captaincy in the way Louis van Gaal hoped he would.
Against Leicester, for example, he gave the ball away and the opposition scored from the resulting possession. Yet he wheeled around and screamed at United's defenders, namely the young Tyler Blackett, in what has become a fairly familiar reaction to his own mistakes.
Against West Ham, he got sent off for a totally needless foul on Stewart Downing and ended up missing games against Chelsea, Everton and West Brom. After having more than a month off, he then returned against Man City and didn't have a single shot in 90 minutes. He lost possession with over a quarter of the passes he made, managing to find a United player with less than half of his attempted balls in the attacking third of the pitch.

Largely anonymous against Man City, Wayne Rooney's performance was inexcusable given he'd spent a month out with a suspension.

This isn't an argument to say he was United's worst performer on that occasion, because he wasn't; he was one of the better players in red. However, after having five weeks off, you would expect that the freshest man on the pitch, wearing the captain's armband, might do more to inspire his teammates against their rivals. Chris Smalling's early red card meant that a result was almost impossible and Rooney certainly tried to win regardless, but he was nowhere near effective enough.
United then played Crystal Palace, and the team's performance was one of the flattest of the season at Old Trafford. Rooney, playing more deeply, was again fairly impotent. He had a great chance toward the end of the game to put United 2-0 up, but his effort was inexcusably wide from inside the box. He saw plenty of the ball but too often lost possession without being under pressure. Sloppy touches, inaccurate passing and failure to shield the ball led to some frustration on the terraces.
Rooney has always been a player who divides opinion, but for all the cursing that went on when the striker put the ball wide late on or conceded possession, there were as many or more people chanting the player's name.

Louis van Gaal's biggest error at United might be putting so much faith in Rooney.

In defence of the captain, fans will deflect attention away from the Englishman to the likes of Robin van Persie, who, despite putting away a few goals this season, has looked a mile off the pace. If Van Persie was earning what Rooney does, had been named the captain and had a month's rest, maybe there would be more focus on his performances, too. Yet the fact that the aging Dutchman doesn't appear to be the player he once was doesn't negate the fact Rooney isn't doing well enough.
United fans are entitled to demand more from their captain than other players, particularly those on the wrong side of 30, and pointing to the performances of others is irrelevant to how well Rooney is playing in comparison to how he should be playing.