Wayne Rooney surprised some observers by leaving Erling Haaland off his shortlist of the Premier League\u2019s three best players so far this season. The former England captain has adopted an increasingly combative media role this term, offering unrequested advice for managers and players, proposing transfer strategies and airing wild conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n
Rooney\u2019s top choice was Antoine Semenyo. \u201cI think he\u2019s been great for Bournemouth, carrying on his form from last season,\u201d Rooney told Amazon Prime Video. Semenyo has either scored or assisted more than half of all the Premier League goals Bournemouth have racked up this season. He also carries a release clause worth a modest \u00a365 million ($85.4 million), and there is expected to be a fierce bidding war for Semenyo this January.<\/p>\n
Rooney\u2019s second selection was Bryan Mbeumo. \u201cI\u2019d also think I\u2019d put Bryan Mbeumo in there,\u201d he mused. \u201cI think he\u2019s been really good for Man Utd, even after a difficult start for the club. I think he\u2019s been really good.\u201d The table of top contributors in the draft lists Erling Haaland with 14 goals and 1 assist, Antoine Semenyo with 6 goals and 3 assists, Bryan Mbeumo with 5 goals and 1 assist, and Viktor Gy\u00f6keres with 4 goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThird one, I\u2019d probably go Viktor Gy\u00f6keres,\u201d Rooney concluded. On Gy\u00f6keres he added: \u201cArsenal have been crying out for a No. 9 for a few years now, and he\u2019s come in, and his determination, and his work rate, and his hold-up play [have been good]. Obviously he\u2019s scored a few goals as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rooney\u2019s choices have prompted debate. Haaland\u2019s 14 goals across the first 11 top-flight games stand out, and by City\u2019s first game of September he had already scored more goals (five) than Gy\u00f6keres can boast even now. The piece also notes other high-performing midfield and defensive players this season, including Mois\u00e9s Caicedo, Declan Rice, Gabriel, Dominik Szoboszlai and Granit Xhaka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rooney chose Semenyo, Bryan Mbeumo and Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, notably excluding Erling Haaland. Reactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,739,1083,172],"tags":[801,260,1215],"class_list":["post-4563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-bournemouth","category-man-utd","category-epl","tag-antoine-semenyo","tag-bryan-mbeumo","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}