Rafael Benitez: I'm a big Rooney fan... but I couldn't say it at Liverpool!
Rooney is very unpredictable to play against, which makes preparing teams to face him a very difficult job -- Rafael Benitez. You will understand why I was not able to discuss publicly the technical qualities of Wayne Rooney while I was with Liverpool! But now is the time to examine in detail the aspects of his play which we can look out for and enjoy against Ukraine tonight. They make him an even better player than the one he was a few years ago. England don't have much time to prepare for the very difficult challenges beyond this group stage and Rooney needs minutes on the field, which is why I think Roy Hodgson's likely decision to start with him is a good one. There is nothing wrong with changing a winning team. I remember the time when Rooney played only as a striker and a second striker. At Liverpool, we would use Javier Mascherano, Lucas Leiva and Xabi Alonso against him and they knew how to reduce the space for him to play the ball. I don't remember a game in whi...