Wayne Rooney is a massive admirer of Pep Guardiola.
So much so that in February, Rooney admitted that he would love to be Guardiola’s assistant.
The Manchester United legend was seemingly unafraid to ruffle a few feathers with his admission.
Having retired as a player in 2021, the Englishman is perhaps above football rivalries at this stage of his career and instead, his primary focus is on improving as a manager — even if that means working with the Manchester City legend.
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Wayne Rooney aims subtle dig at Pep Guardiola
Recently, Lionel Messi hinted that due to Pep Guardiola’s success, young players are being asked to play in a manner that those who play under his former manager do — such as only taking two touches of the ball before passing it to a teammate, which he believes impacts their spontaneity.
The £378,846-a-week man has undeniably transformed football with his vision when it comes to tactics and player profiling — which some might feel has been for the better for football while others might disagree.
While watching a clip of Jeremy Doku play a wayward pass to Romelu Lukaku in the second-half of Belgium’s 0-0 draw against Ukraine, Wayne Rooney felt the signature system Guardiola employs has led to players becoming more one-note nowadays.
Rooney said on BBC: “What we’re seeing here, not just with Belgium but with a lot of teams, with England and Holland at times, we’re seeing this system which everyone seems to be playing.”
The retired striker added: “Even though with players like [Jeremy] Doku who plays out wide, no crosses go into the box. I think the game’s got a lot more positional, trying to score the perfect goal.”
“I think it’s Pep’s [Guardiola] fault! He’s brought that in. He’s mastered it but everyone else seems to struggle to create clear-cut chances.”
Lazy to simply blame Pep Guardiola
Ultimately, what critics like Wayne Rooney perhaps struggle to realise is that football is cyclical in every possible way and to blame any individual for its potential decline in any department, such as Guardiola is unfair.
For instance, before the Catalan tactician’s appointment as Manchester City boss in 2016, England were not producing the level of talent they have in the past few years.
Nowadays, the rise of technically gifted players like Phil Foden, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jude Bellingham are a farcry from English football’s endless conveyor belt of physically-dominant players.
Whether that is linked to Guardiola’s influence on England as a footballing nation is debatable but ultimately, the aforementioned examples showcase that football is cyclical.
In today’s day and age, the individual talent players possess is perhaps not as high as during previous decades.
But soon enough, that will also change over time and if indeed Guardiola is at fault for that being the case, one can also credit him for playing a key role in the standard of tactics and football being at its very peak.