Wayne Rooney: is it time to drop England's 'faded relic'?

The man who was supposed to be England's talisman is under fire after another lacklustre show

Wayne Rooney playing in the England v Italy game
(Image credit: 2014 Getty Images)

So now it's nine and counting. Perhaps the least surprising thing about England's 2-1 defeat to Italy at the World Cup on Saturday night was another underwhelming performance by Wayne Rooney, supposedly one of the best strikers of his generation yet still searching for his first World Cup goal after nine appearances.

Granted, the Manchester United striker teed up Daniel Sturridge for England's equaliser in Manaus but that was about as far as Rooney's contribution went. Factor in his diffidence in dropping back to help his left-back, Leighton Baines, in resisting a wave of Italian attacks and his failure to bury a glorious second-half chance, some are asking whether it wouldn't be in England's best interest if he was dropped for Thursday's critical clash with Uruguay.

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Bill Mann is a football correspondent for The Week.co.uk, scouring the world's football press daily for the popular Transfer Talk column.