Wayne Rooney Tactic

Controversy, poor results and relegation.

This is…Wayne Rooney…the football manager…or is it?

Wayne Rooney is a famous former football player, who scored goals for fun for Everton and Manchester United among others.

And some of his goals are marvelous.

However, his football manager career feels like it has not started yet. Though, he seems to have good tactical principles.

Solid defensive shape, a controlling formation and clinical finishing.

But out of the clubs he has managed so far, the most solid perfomance was, ironically, at Derby. And I say ironically as the club got relegated, but not because of his managerial feat. But because of the club’s poor financial management.

Wayne Rooney seems to have solid tactical principles, but somehow, they don’t always get across to the players.

A solid defensive shape. He aims for it, sometimes it even works. However, if we take these two games for example, a week apart, six goals conceded. (Stoke vs Birmingham – 26.12.2023 and Leeds vs Birmingham – 01.01.2024).

Or if we take the most recent games, four goals scored by Sheffield Wednesday passed his Plymouth Argyle team. And let’s fac it, Sheffield Wednesday is not the most stable football club recently.

However, his defensive formation makes sense. The goalkeeper is not always a sweeper one, but in Football Manager is good to have one set.

The back four may be considered a bit aggressive, with two ball playing defenders on defend and two wing backs on attack. But if you consider the whole formation, it does work out.

The wing backs seem to be asked to stay wider, to help avoiding the opposition’s pressing game.

This may not be the exact roles Wayne Rooney asks his players to interpret, but the setup is not one that should concede 10 goals, at least if we take only the precious examples.

The midfield seems to have two defensive midfielders on defend and one central midfielder on support. At least if we consider the Birmingham City setup.

Which should be a solid setup, to prevent counterattack goals to be conceded.

Surprisingly, Wayne Rooney might be asking the defensive midfielders to stay wider, most likely in a bid to prevent the opposition’s wide players from starting or developing counterattacks.

The central midfielder is asked to take more risks and mark tighter. Take more risks in developing his own team’s attacks and mark tighter to press the opposition’s player, giving him as little time on the ball as possible.

And the front three might be two inside forwards on attack and an advanced forward. All three are asked to mark tighter and the right-sided one to stay wider.

Wayne Rooney, at least when he managed Birmingham City, seemed to have asked his front men to press their direct opponent on the ball, in a bid to force the mistake.

This setup, if it is indeed close to my interpretation, is not one that would lead to unbalanced results, like the ones Wayne Rooney’s most recent managed clubs got.

As mentality, I chose positive.

In possession, fairly wide attacking width, pass into space and play out of defence. Shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. And run at defence.

In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball to the defence, through short kicks.

And out of possession, a high press and a standard defensive line. Trigger press more often and trap outside.

In my save, this tactic helped us finish 2nd in the Bundesliga, with Bayer Leverkusen. Scoring 78 goals and conceding 30. And we have also won the DFB Pokal.

When you consider the results we got in my save, the tactical formation we just saw makes sense.

When you consider the results Wayne Rooney gets with the teams he manages, something doesn’t seem to click properly.

Again, this is my interpretation of the tactical setup he employed, at least for some of the matches managing Birmingham City.

Researching this video, I can say that Wayne Rooney seems to know what he wants to achieve from the tactical setup. I just think that he might be too ambitious for the level currently manages at. But with time and practice, both him and the team he manages might get the success they deserve.