Wayne Rooney: skill development 

Rooney. At 16, he was one to watch. At 18, he was a household name.  
Here, he reflects on how his playing journey made him a Three Lions favourite. 

Recognise your weakness

At a young age, Rooney played with much older players who had a physical advantage. However, understanding himself and his opponents helped him to develop his game.  

"I think the first real big influence was Colin Harvey [former Everton coach]. I played for the U19s for Colin when I was 14, and that's really when the tactical part of the game came in.  

"He made me realise I was a lot smaller than the U19 players. So, I really had to focus on how I found space. And how I don't have as much physical contact with the opposition because they were too strong for me.  

"That's when I started playing as a number ten, rather than a number eight or nine. And that's something Colin wanted me to do. I also used to study videos of Jari Litmanen [former Ajax forward] quite a lot to see how he moved to create space for himself."   

Keep practising

To master a skill, you need the opportunity to practise. For Rooney, taking extra time after training to work on his game was vital.  

"I think it was 2009/2010; I didn't score many headed goals. I spent about ten months practising after training, just working on my heading. Then I went on a run of scoring 15 headed goals in a row.  

"So, I believe that the more time you put in, the more practice you put in, whatever that is – whether in my case, heading, whether it's your weak foot, free-kicks, penalties – then you'll really improve.  

"I always worked on free-kicks and penalties at the end of the sessions. But also, I'd go and take five corner kicks, five wide free-kicks... I'd practice shooting from the halfway line. I always felt there's going to be a chance in the game that I'm going to be taking a corner or a wide free-kick, or I'd have the opportunity to shoot from distance, so I tried to cover everything which I felt I'd be involved in."