Wayne Rooney has named a “sensible” former England star as his toughest-ever opponent, given each his tackling potential and talent in possession of the ball.
Rooney reveals toughest-ever opponent
Only a few defenders have been in a position to get the higher of Rooney regularly, as evidenced by the very fact the Manchester United legend is the third-highest scorer in Premier League historical past, with a whopping 208 objectives to his identify.
The Liverpool-born ahead spent nearly all of his profession at Outdated Trafford, the place he loved a substantial amount of success, taking part in a component within the Pink Devils profitable 5 Premier League titles, 4 EFL Cups, one FA Cup and one Champions League.
Through the Sir Alex Ferguson period, United have been extraordinarily dominant, however they did go three seasons with out profitable the title within the early noughties, given the emergence of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, who completed high back-to-back in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
The likes of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech all cemented themselves as Blues legends within the course of, however it’s their former captain who was named as Rooney’s toughest-ever opponent when talking on The Overlap. The 39-year-old mentioned:
“I’ve all the time mentioned John Terry was one of many hardest defenders to play towards. On the ball he was excellent – he was sensible, and he may sort out. I additionally used to love taking part in towards massive centre-backs as a result of I wished a problem and wished that physique contact – I may spin all of them and are available off them, then take them on. John Terry was the hardest although.”
Terry was a part of the greatest-ever Premier League defence
It ought to come as no shock that Rooney regards Terry as his most tough opponent, given every thing the previous England star achieved at Chelsea, most notably taking part in a key function within the west Londoners setting the report for fewest objectives conceded in a Premier League season.
Through the 2004-05 marketing campaign, Mourinho’s facet shipped simply 15 objectives throughout all the season, with the 78-time England worldwide lacking simply two video games, and he has since gone on to lavish the Portuguese supervisor with reward.
Not solely was the ex-Chelsea captain a rock on the again, however he’s additionally the highest-scoring defender in Premier League historical past, scoring 41 objectives in 492 appearances.
With Levi Colwill set for a prolonged spell on the sidelines as a result of an ACL harm, Chelsea are in want of a brand new centre-back, however it will likely be extraordinarily tough to search out one able to coming near replicating the influence Terry had at Stamford Bridge.