How Rooney evolved to become Manchester United's all-time top scorer

As Wayne Rooney scored the brilliant goal on Saturday to equalise for Manchester United against Stoke City and break Sir Bobby Charlton’s club record, it was obviously a moment of celebration, but there was none forthcoming from the main man. It was a classic ‘get the ball’ moment, and it would be difficult to say that was for show.

One of Rooney’s greatest qualities, after all, has always been that he’s a winner; that he has that drive. That was a strong undercurrent of Darren Fletcher’s warm speech about his former captain at the nicely-timed FWA tribute night on Sunday, particularly when talking about the more trivial light-hearted moments like when Rooney would lose his cool when not beating teammates at other sports like table tennis or even on Playstation.

Fletcher told a few new tales about the 31-year-old, like the very friendly relationship he had with Carlos Tevez despite the fact neither spoke the same language.

That was certainly more refreshing than the same old debates we’ve heard about Rooney for pretty much the last half decade, how he deserves more respect for everything he’s achieved, but that respect still shouldn’t necessarily temper fair criticism that he is past his best and no longer worthy of a starting place, or that he never quite became the dominant overpowering central star in the way he should have been.

Rooney himself referred to some of that criticism in what was a conciliatory speech towards the press, stressing the necessity for fair debate - and that despite some of the controversies he’s of course been involved in.

As images flashed up on nearby screens of Rooney in his youth, a time when the monosyllabic nature of his comments almost became infamous. It was difficult to square that with the polished speaker here. That is perhaps the defining characteristic of his career, though, that a montage of his best goals made clear. He has almost been a football chameleon, taking on more roles and appearances in his 15 years in the game than the vast majority of other careers.

From 2002 to 2006, he was a young impact player, whose sheer power and strength often overwhelmed opposition. It was still a relatively uncontrolled power, as reflected by how he still didn’t fully have his own position, but was almost a roaming forward.

That changed from 2006 to 2009, when there was unmistakeable control to his game, and consequently the United teams’. Rooney was one of their three interchanging forwards, with Cristiano Ronaldo and one of Louis Saha, Carlos Tevez and then Dimitar Berbatov. This may not have been Rooney’s peak as an individual player, but it was probably by far his peak in terms of how well he fitted with a team, their approach - and application.

The way those trios - especially before Berbatov added more pause - instinctively interchanged at speed was so often glorious, and led to some of the greatest glories in the club’s history. There was one moment shown at Rooney’s tribute night that remains one of his finest, and the finest display of this high-speed finesse, the brilliant counter-attacking goal in the 2006/07 season against Bolton Wanderers.

Sam Allardyce remarked afterwards that his team wouldn’t so much as have “scars” after being cut open like that, but require “plastic surgery”. It’s also worth remembering that, in one of the season’s biggest matches - the Champions League semi-final first leg against eventual winners AC Milan - it was Ronaldo who was accused of going missing, and Rooney who scored two big goals, including a dramatic match-winner in the final minutes.

The England captain was even talked of as being the level just below Ronaldo and Leo Messi in the 2009/10 campaign, when he hit 26 goals in 32 appearances - his best ever return as a player and saw him gain is best ever WhoScored rating (7.91). That was when he transformed into a ruthless and relentless focal point, but also when the trajectory of his career began to halt.

Something changed after that April 2010 ankle injury that denied him the World Cup that could really have seen him move up a level. The controversy of his about-turn in wanting away from United later that year hardly helped and, while he recovered his scoring rate in the 2011/12 season - with 27 in 34 appearances - it marked the end of another stage in his career. After that, and after the signing of Robin van Persie, he began to more morph into a standard playmaker - but has still never quite performed to the same degree there as his other positions.

Then again, there aren’t too many players who can go from 5.7 shots per game and 0.7 tackles in the 2009/10 season, to 1.8 of the former and 1 of the latter this term. His game has transformed, but that’s almost the story of his career. It is worth celebrating, even it is still very far from above criticism.