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"Rooney starting- are we really that short of strikers"

The little pikey who is wayne rooney is starting against Turkey. how depressing. Comeback sir Alan your country needs you. Still better than heskey. But where is Beattie?

Give him a chance, but perhaps not over all the other strikers - Such as Beattie etc.

He played great tonight.

*sings*

Hmmm if he carries on playing like he does and doesn't change into a michael owen inconsistent...

Well i hope a few of you have seen a little more of Rooney tonight to see that the boy deserves his place in the first eleven, he was sheer class and added something that England have been lacking since Gascoinge in 1990.

Remember Rooney is just 17... imagine him aged 20 in the next world cup!!

I just don't see it.
There are loads of good strikers and two or three who I would see ahead of Heskey.

I still think we should pick Heskey...Owen will always be our main striker especially if we qualify for Euro 2004, and if Owen plays then Heskey at least starts - they proved this against Lietchenstein.

Slovakia are keeping up the pressure on England.

They beat Liechtenstein 4-0.

Im confident Rooney will set the world alight and tonight is the start of his long adventure... the boy has enormous talent, 17 is not too young if youre goo enough and Rooney is more than good enough.

Come on England!!

I feel I have to stick up for Heskey, he along with Beckham was one of the players that impressed me at the weekend.

I agree Beattie should be in the squad, but in place of Jeffers

Being a scot I have no interest in the English team doing well. But onw thing surprises me about the squad.
Why pick Heskey? Especially over someone like Beatie?

Rooney deserves a go in my opinion and it is the only way he will get the experience, seems to be consistent whereas others aren't.

Take the likes or Ronaldo when he first appeared, the young starts he had helped him make a name for himself as wll as helping his country do well.

I don't like what Sven is doing, picking a 17 year old kid who lacks experience???

James Beattie is the Leading goalscorer in the Premiership and never even made the squad, never mind the starting line up itself. Rooney looks like a great player with pace and power, but surely he shouldn't be starting.