Where would you play Rooney?

Where does England captain Wayne Rooney fit into Roy Hodgson’s side at Euro 2016?

It is a topic being hotly debated right now, given the England manager’s range of options in forward positions and Rooney’s recent switch to a midfield role for Manchester United after a poor goal return up front this season.

There has also been an intriguing twist, with news Rooney has told Hodgson he would prefer to play at the base of a midfield diamond, effectively as a holding midfielder, according to Sky sources.

Here, with the help of Sky Sports Now guests Stuart Pearce, Alan Smith and Danny Higginbotham and Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher, we look at the range of options – and whether Rooney should be in England’s starting XI at all.

Up front

Wayne Rooney is England’s record goal scorer, with 51 strikes for his country from 109 caps. Since his international debut in 2003 he has been a fixture in the Three Lions’ frontline.

However, Rooney has struggled to find the net at European Championships and World Cups – he has scored just twice in 13 appearances at major tournaments since his four goals at Euro 2004.

Now, with Tottenham’s Harry Kane and Leicester’s Jamie Vardy the top two scorers in England and Rooney returning just seven league goals for Manchester United in 2015/16, he is not necessarily an automatic selection up front.

“The more I watch Kane and Vardy – Kane mainly, I think he’s going to be difficult to shift from playing that position now,” says Carragher. “I know Kane has come late [to the England set-up in Euro 2016 qualifying], similar to what Wayne did when he was a youngster in Euro 2004, but the way Kane has played this season and the way he’s played for England of late, I think he’s going to be difficult to shift.”

On the left of a 4-3-3

Rooney started the 2014 World Cup on the left of a front three featuring Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck and that role could be an option again for the England captain, with Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy taking up the other spots.

Smith says that may be the best way to incorporate Rooney into the starting XI – he teed up Sturridge’s strike in the 2-1 defeat to Italy with a cross from the left. “I’ve got a feeling Hodgson will go 4-3-3 and Wayne Rooney on the left, which isn’t ideal but he’s done it before,” Smith told Sky Sports Now. “Rooney has done it in World Cups and it …

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