Wayne Rooney finds a way as England edge short-handed Estonia side in Euro 2016 qualifier

While others of Europe’s supposed superpowers are encountering difficulties in booking their place in Euro 2016, England’s designated superstar ensured their path to France is rather truer, writes Richard Jolly.

Wayne Rooney, centre, celebrates with teammates while England escaped Estonia on Sunday night. Shaun Botterill / Getty Images

Estonia 0 England 1

England Rooney 73'

Red cards Ragnar Klavan (Estonia)

Man of the match Wayne Rooney (England)

There was the good, the bafflingly bad and the unfailingly enthusiastic. Wayne Rooney in a nutshell, then.

The captain was the match-winner, marking his 99th cap with the goal that defeated Estonia and maintaining England’s 100 per cent start to this qualifying campaign.

While others of Europe’s supposed superpowers are encountering difficulties in booking their place in Euro 2016, England’s designated superstar ensured their path to France is rather truer.

Yet this was a microcosm of the modern-day Rooney. There was a goal for the highlights reel, a free kick that Sergei Pareiko pushed into his own net.

It had a numerical significance, as many of Rooney’s feats do. He is on the brink of two landmarks, the 100th cap and a 44th goal that will draw him level with Jimmy Greaves, the poacher supreme of the 1960s.

Look beyond the statistics and the picture is rather more mixed.

His finishing was decidedly mixed – he could easily have accelerated beyond Greaves – and there was a period when Rooney’s touch deserted him, as it can. It is a reason why many dispute his billing as one of the game’s modern greats.

There are times when technically he is bizarrely poor, occasions when the ball just bounces off him. Roy Hodgson was considering substituting him, with Rickie Lambert readied as the replacement, when the Manchester United captain ended Estonia’s resistance.

A reprieved Rooney, buoyed by his goal, stayed on and resumed his eager, energetic work.

It was as well he struck and not just because it meant England avoided the embarrassment of failing to beat the 10 men of the 81st-best team in the world rankings, because, alongside him, Danny Welbeck illustrated that he remains an enigma.

The scorer of a fine double in Switzerland and a Uefa Champions League hat-trick against Galatasaray has only mustered one goal in four league games for Arsenal and was ineffective in Estonia.

Welbeck’s destiny remains unclear: he may yet prove an A-grade centre-forward, as his international record suggests he is, or the perennial utility man whose scoring ratio was cited by Louis van Gaal as a reason to sell the Mancunian.

During the long impasse as England waited for a breakthrough, it was tempting to think of two recent departures.

When Frank Lampard retired from international football, one witticism was that he and Steven Gerrard could not even do that together. Yet, however mismatched they appeared in their country’s colours, their exits deprived Hodgson of men who scored 50 goals at this level.

If it is an exaggeration to say England could not live with them and now cannot live without them, the figures are a reminder of their predatory instincts.

Lacking both, Hodgson selected a midfield without an international goal. Adam Lallana was chosen as the most offensive, in place of the rested Raheem Sterling.

Hodgson and Brendan Rodgers should share some of the blame for the youngster’s fatigue. The Liverpool manager fielded the teenager for 120 minutes against Championship opposition in Middlesbrough; the England manager picked him for 45 against the minnows of San Marino.

Neither, it seems, can cope without him and, with stalemate beckoning, Hodgson brought Sterling on because Lallana was a decorative, rather than a decisive, presence and the demands on a No 10 are rather higher.

At least, at the base of the midfield diamond, England had the game’s most influential performer.

Jack Wilshere played the pass of the night, chipped over the Estonia defence for Rooney to volley just off target. If his is the Pirlo role – that of the deep-lying playmaker that England’s Italian nemesis has perfected – this was a sign the Arsenal man can play penetrative passes from far out.

Less reminiscent of the Juventus man was a 40-yard driving run that culminated with a shot into the side netting.

Wilshere interchanged well with Fabian Delph and Jordan Henderson, too, and the rotation in the midfield formed a welcome contrast with the days when England were predictably rigid.

Delph lent running power, which brought a reward when he burst past Ragnar Klavan, forcing the Estonia captain to block him and resulting in the defender’s second yellow card.

Yet the Aston Villa man was replaced in the search for a goal. He is not the most prolific neither are the current generation of England midfielders.

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