Rooney Walks the Fine Disciplinary Line

Boxing Day brought up the regular issue about Wayne Rooney's on-field behaviour and unusually the player himself has been moved to reply. It's a subject that just won't go away.

On the one hand there are those who say Rooney is out of control, a liability to his team and getting away with things because of who he is. On the other the player himself- and his United coaching staff- argue that he's just a tough competitor with a ferocious will to win and a tremendous work ethic. Rooney himself says that he is able to be calm and rational on the park.

Surprisingly, there is evidence to support both points of view which shows what a delicate line the England star is walking- and at the moment he's pretty successful at doing it.

For those who say Rooney is a hard nut with a bad attitude there's the number of yellow cards he's picked up. He already has 51 yellows in the Premiership and he's just reached the age of 23. Rooney's played in just over 200 Premiership games and picks up cards at nearly one every four games.

That average is faster than Robbie Savage - who is the Premiership leader in yellows- who got 89 cards in 346 appearances, so he is well on course to become the leading offender in the history of the Premiership.

Yet the sheer amount of yellow cards offers credence to the alternative view that Rooney is in control of himself more often that not, because he has only been dismissed twice in the Premiership. His high profile red cards have come in Europe or on England duty.

These statistics point to a player with a definite edge but also the ability to decide to cool it when the first yellow card has been handed out. Some may argue he should get the yellows faster for his sometimes vicious dissent but it's clear that he can usually pull his temper in when needed (aside from a couple of occasions when Sir Alex Ferguson brought him off for protection).

The real problem for Rooney will come if refereees decide to clamp down on the dissent, which he seems less able to master. His tackling is of the old-fashioned 'letting the player know he's around' variety- once the point is made he can leave it at that.

Inevitably, Wayne Rooney will be picking up suspensions regularly, because five yellows takes him out for one game but clearly his manager thinks that's a price worth paying for his aggression and work rate. If officials decide to take a less lenient view of his dissent that might have to change but for the moment the player is pulling off his balancing act.