Wayne Rooney or Robin Van Persie?

Alcaraz

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Easily the two best strikers in the EPL at the moment and possibly the world. Both Wayne Rooney and
Robin Van Persie have shone for their respective clubs Manchester United and Arsenal despite both clubs coming off the back of trophyless seasons

Arguably, Robin Van Persie had the better season of the two strikers earning the golden boot in the EPL season with 30 goals to his name and bagging the PFA Player of the Year Award and the Football Writers Prize. Not to mention attaining a none too shabby 9 assists to his name. Certainly gives food for thought as to what football fans were missing out on during the seasons when Van Persie was injured.

Wayne Rooney had a stellar season as well bagging 27 goals and 4 assists during the campaign. Again proved time and time again why he is rated as one of the best players in the world by football fans around the globe. Perhaps his individual record this season was largely overshadowed by the goalscoring exploits of Van Persie but it was certainly a surprise for me to see he was not far behind at all


My verdict is Wayne Rooney. Yes Van Persie had a great season but a closer look at the stats will tell you another side of the story. Van Perise made 37 (1) apps en route to scoring 30 goals in the EPL. Wayne Rooney only made 32 (2) apps enroute to scoring 27 goals. Not a huge difference.

Not to mention that Wayne Rooney has been playing well consistently for a number of seasons now while this is the first time I have seen Van Persie play well for an extended period of time. Even then the numbers gap between them was not that big and some might argue that Rooney was the better player if one looks at Goals to game ratio.

So again the question is now directed at you. If Money was no object, which player would you rather have in you team?


 
Wayne Rooney. Has one of the most complete passing games for a forward, to go along his his finishing. More complete player. Although this is actually an odd season to praise him by. In terms of performance, he didn't actually have a great season. Played better the second half 10-11. Might have had more goals but his overall performance was down.
 
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Wayne Rooney. Has one of the most complete passing games for a forward, to go along his his finishing. More complete player. Although this is as actually an odd season to praise him by. In terms of performance, he didn't actually have a great season. Player better the second half 10-11. Might have had more goals but his overall performance was down.

Dont think he particularly had a bad season though. It was not his best but certainly a good one. Point I am trying to make is that people go on and on about RVP's goalscoring record but dont realise that Rooney is not far behind and would have surpassed it probably had he made more apps
 
Robin Van Persie. He has so much skill to set up goals and is brilliant at putting them in the back of the net he is also not too shabby with his weaker foot.
 
Dont think he particularly had a bad season though. It was not his best but certainly a good one. Point I am trying to make is that people go on and on about RVP's goalscoring record but dont realise that Rooney is not far behind and would have surpassed it probably had he made more apps

Wasn't a bad season, but certainly can play better. He actually described this season as a poor one for him.

Also more consistent and less injury prone than RVP.
 
Wasn't a bad season, but certainly can play better. He actually described this season as a poor one for him.

Also more consistent and less injury prone than RVP.

Yep he was much better in the 09-10 and 10-11 seasons. And obviously no one can deny the last part- Has been an excellent performer for a number of seasons now and and even in a average season he knocks in 27 goals
 
I love watching RVP but nobody can outmatch Rooney after one season, no matter how good it was. One thing Rooney has, is how consistent he is.

Also a lot of top strikers tend to drift in and out of games when things don't go their way, but Wayne always works his *** off for the team. It might not show on the invidual scoreboards, but sure does show with team results at the end of each season.
 
Rooney, every day of the week. RVP has had one good season, injury free. But Rooney has been consistently performing well for a long time.
 
Nice to see all my arguments for why Rooney is better have been covered.
 
Rooney. Last season Rooney scored 35 goals in 46 appearances whereas RVP 40 in 54.


Rooney also played deeper and even as CM in few games. His overall game was bit average last season but still he produced the goods scoring regularly. There are very few strikers who has Rooney's passing range and has the discipline to play in few positions.
 
Yep he was much better in the 09-10 and 10-11 seasons. And obviously no one can deny the last part- Has been an excellent performer for a number of seasons now and and even in a average season he knocks in 27 goals

His 09-10 season was also like last season, his overall game was not as good as 10-11 but he scored goals. We played 4-5-1 in most of the games so he was isolated a lot in games but it was his first season as lone striker (#9), considering that he did very well.

For me, best of Rooney was second half of 2010-11 season and 2006-07 season.
 
I prefer Wayne Rooney to RVP. Very consistent player in terms of both scoring, and giving assists, whereas Van Persie has had lots of injuries in the past which have hampered his seasons.
 
Who would you guys say is better if they were both fit and at their best?
 
As a United fan, i could be biased, but in my opinion Rooney is the best striker in the world. Ronaldo and Messi, clearly the best players in the world, are wingers and attacking midfielders respectively, and the only other players close to Rooney's level are Xavi and Iniesta, both central midfielders. RVP has had one season at Rooney's level. Come back in 2 or 3 years, if RVP is still scoring as many goals as he did last season, then we can talk about him as being as good as Rooney. Rooney has been doing it for the last 8 years. Plus, I think Rooney's overall game, his link up play, his passing, his defensive work and physicality, is better than RVP's.
 
As a United fan, i could be biased, but in my opinion Rooney is the best striker in the world. Ronaldo and Messi, clearly the best players in the world, are wingers and attacking midfielders respectively, and the only other players close to Rooney's level are Xavi and Iniesta, both central midfielders. RVP has had one season at Rooney's level. Come back in 2 or 3 years, if RVP is still scoring as many goals as he did last season, then we can talk about him as being as good as Rooney. Rooney has been doing it for the last 8 years. Plus, I think Rooney's overall game, his link up play, his passing, his defensive work and physicality, is better than RVP's.

He hasn't done it cuz he's been injured. Big surprise that his first full season fit he's the EPL top scorer :p

If I were a team playing with one striker, I would pick RVP, but if I were playing with two, then I'd pick Rooney
 
This sounds like a job for Devil's Advocate Man!

If we consider them nearly equal on finishing ability - with Van Persie's superior total offset by a higher amount of games played - we can really only make a difference between them in terms of what they contribute to the team. Now, work rate is subjective, but all those who say Rooney works harder than Van Persie have a point. However, I reckon he seems to be slowing down, and working much less hard than he used to. Moreover, he's a 'hole' player nowadays: part of his JOB is to prevent the opposition regista from controlling the game. We don't know if Van Persie would work as hard as Rooney as a trequartista, but if we take one isolated example - the 1-0 City win at the Etihad, where Rooney was a lone striker - when the roles were reversed, Rooney didn't seem the be exactly buzzing with energy. That's not necessarily his fault, more the fact that as a lone striker, there's not much to work hard FOR.

As such, with work rate a dodgy and subjective system to be basing our analysis on, we have to use stats to decide on the key question here: Is Rooney really that much more 'complete'? Apparently he offers more to the team than just goalscoring which Van Persie doesn't, or perhaps does, but to a lesser extent. But the facts and figures seem to say otherwise: not only does Van Persie have more than double Rooney's assists (in a team that scored fewer than United, let us not forget), he also has 92 key passes to Rooney's 51, indicating that creatively at least there's a strong argument for him being a more complete and thus better player. As one final clincher, consider the fact that Van Persie has not only doubled Rooney's assists and nearly doubled his key passes in a team with fewer goals scored, but has done it in nearly half the amount of average passes per game. If we're going on team contribution stats, there's only one winner, and it's the Dutchman.
 
As a United fan, i could be biased, but in my opinion Rooney is the best striker in the world. Ronaldo and Messi, clearly the best players in the world, are wingers and attacking midfielders respectively, and the only other players close to Rooney's level are Xavi and Iniesta, both central midfielders. RVP has had one season at Rooney's level. Come back in 2 or 3 years, if RVP is still scoring as many goals as he did last season, then we can talk about him as being as good as Rooney. Rooney has been doing it for the last 8 years. Plus, I think Rooney's overall game, his link up play, his passing, his defensive work and physicality, is better than RVP's.

I think it's hard to say. Different strikers have different roles, much like different CM's have different roles. Zlatan for example is amazing when he wants to be. His work rate unfortunately isn't at the level of Rooney's but he can create magic in a way Rooney can't. There is no doubt that Rooney is one of the best strikers in the world, though.

Also, does anyone here know how to resolve the issue of not being able to write post anything? On my desktop computer (I'm on my laptop right now) when I go t write a reply there just isn't a textbox to write it in, even when I go to advanced settings. I can write a title to my post, but that's it.
 
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He hasn't done it cuz he's been injured. Big surprise that his first full season fit he's the EPL top scorer :p

If I were a team playing with one striker, I would pick RVP, but if I were playing with two, then I'd pick Rooney

Yes, but you could be technically the worlds best players, if you're always injured you aren't much use. Of course, the fact Van Persie has had a lot of trouble with injuries isn't his fault, but being able to stay fit and injury free is always going to be a key factor in any sport, and Rooney clearly is less injury prone than RVP, so that's a point in his favour.

If i was playing with one striker i'd pick RVP as well, with Rooney behind him in the hole :p
 
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