Rooney is kind of misunderstood as a striker amongst our fan-base. There's this idea doing the rounds that Rooney has always been a world-class dominator whose pedigree is rightfully reflected by his inclusion towards the top of the goal-scorer lists for both England and Manchester United. There's also this idea now that when the quality of Rooney's performances aren't obvious (i.e. he doesn't score goals) that he's actually contributing at an elite level in more subtle ways; almost invisible to the eyes of mere laymen.

There is a genuine degree of truth in both arguments, but they lack nuance and are often used to paint over cracks and dismiss criticisms.

The greatest thing that can be said about Rooney is that he's managed to achieve unbelievable consistency throughout his career (even if, ironically, his performances are known to dramatically fluctuate over the course of individual seasons). A real English prodigy out of the Everton academy, Rooney was a central part of the Manchester United first team from the tender age of 19, and that hasn't changed for over a decade. He's Manchester United's third highest scorer, but he's played for the club longer than nearly any other striker. Cantona only had 185 apps, Van Nistelrooy had 219, Ronaldo had 292.

Wayne Rooney has 480. For England, he's the eighth most capped player ever – with 25 more caps than Gary Lineker, who has the same number of goals.

Again, there's credit to be given to Rooney for his ability to perform at a high level for a prolonged period of time, but the point is that the number of goals he's scored over the course of his career isn't a reflection of how prodigiously he's scored them.

There was one point when Rooney was absolutely the definition of world-class, and that was during the period between 2010 and 2013. These were undoubtedly his prime years, and were it not for a dismal start to the 2010-11 season resultant from an exhausting World Cup campaign, we'd probably reflect on that three year period as the golden age of Rooney's career. I remember specifically the game against West Ham in 2011, when Rooney launched a second-half comeback and scored a hat-trick. That was the game where he pulled up in front of the TV camera and swore like he was some kind of mad-man totally consumed by the will to win. It kind of dawned on me how completely invincible he was in that moment; he had the ability to transform a listless first half performance into a dominant tour de force purely through will-power. Barely anyone in the world at that point was capable of doing anything similar.

Outside that three year period, however, Rooney has always been the great utility striker; the side-kick. He started his United career playing second fiddle to Van Nistelrooy, then came the Ronaldo era and he was the support man again, and most recently was the brief Van Persie stint, where once more, Rooney was the facilitator. He's almost never been the 30 goals a season man who leads the line.

Rooney has reached an impasse at this stage in his career. Realistically speaking, the balance is going to swing away from Rooney being that dominant goal-scoring threat and towards playing the complimentary role that he's so successfully executed for the majority of his career. At 30, he's not fast, he's not as agile, and there have been various elements of his technical ability that have partially suffered as a result. All of these things are near deal-breaking for a primary striker whose currency must be goals.

My fear is that Van Gaal's prescriptive system – the meticulous choreography and excessive caution – will rob Rooney of his greatest trait. That raw intuitiveness and inspiration – the kind that made him leather a volley straight into the top corner against Newcastle when he was only a teenager; the kind that made him do a bicycle kick against Manchester City in the middle of a terrible performance; the kind that made him lob a ball to the edge of Aston Villa's penalty box, just in front of Van Persie, from behind the half-way line – is in all likelihood stifled by our current set-up.

If Rooney wants to be a central part of our squad playing into his 30s, he has to find a way to harness those strengths in spite of his deficiencies. Talk to Giggs, who readjusted his own career better than anyone, who consistently managed to show his quality in spite of his age. When I see threads filled with comments asking why we need another striker when we have Wayne Rooney, it becomes clear how much time Rooney bought himself with his former glories. People need to understand that there isn't much of a future left for him as a primary striker. He just doesn't have the legs to score goals in sufficient quantity anymore.