THINK of Wayne Rooney’s greatest moments as a player, and it’s the natural brilliance that comes shining through.

The teenage tyro bursting onto the scene with Everton, hammering home from distance against Arsenal. The emerging star with England, bulldozing his way through the early stages of Euro 2004 before an untimely ankle injury wrecked his and his country’s hopes of winning the trophy. The global superstar with Manchester United, winning the derby with an outrageous overhead kick.

So much of what Rooney did well felt like it was down to his instinctive excellence. Yet speak to Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick, Rooney’s team-mate, friend and now managerial rival, and you quickly get a different view of what made one of English football’s greatest-ever forwards such a potent threat.

Yes, Rooney was brilliant. Yes, his level of raw ability meant he was always going to be a star. But you don’t play for Manchester United for more than a decade and become England’s all-time record goalscorer (a record that has subsequently been claimed by Harry Kane) through unrefined talent alone.

You have to be fiercely committed and self-driven. You have to be a deep footballing thinker, willing to hone and alter your game as tactics change and teams develop. You have to be a selfless team player, accepting of the need to put collective achievement ahead of personal glory.

In Carrick’s opinion, Rooney was all three. That is why he was so successful as a player, and it is why, ahead of today’s reunion at the Riverside Stadium, Carrick is confident his former colleague will be a huge success as a manager now he has returned to England following a brief sojourn in the United States with DC United.  

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“Whatever football intelligence is, then Wayne had a football brain and he has got a football brain,” said Carrick, who will share the Riverside touchline with Rooney today as his former team-mate oversees his first game in charge of Birmingham City. “He’s probably underrated in that respect really, in terms of what people think of him.

“He tends to get judged on his natural talent, and that’s probably natural because of the way he burst onto the scene and flew through his career. But there’s always been a lot more to him than that. He’s a lot smarter and intelligent than people probably give him credit for.”

While most assessments of Rooney’s playing career tend to focus on the early and middle section of his playing days, when he was the leading the line and banging in goals for fun, Carrick feels it is more instructive to look at the latter half of his time at Manchester United.

Then, as United began to falter and Rooney began to find himself competing with other forward options, one of England’s greatest strikers found himself helping out in a wide position or slotting in to plug a gap at the heart of midfield.

Playing alongside Rooney in a central-midfield position, Carrick got a renewed appreciation of his team-mate, both in terms of his willingness to sacrifice personal considerations for the greater good of the team and his ability to pick up new skills and master a new position at such a late stage of his career.

“He played midfield with me on a number of occasions,” said Carrick. “We played together as a two with United in quite a few games – we played a cup final together against Palace where he was a midfielder. He’s played number nine, he’s played ten, he’s played off the right – that sums him up really, his game understanding and his intelligence. He could always play different roles within the game.

“That’s the player he was, he was unselfish. He sacrificed himself for the team a lot of the time, and that summed him up really. Because he was like that, that’s why I think he’ll do so well as a manager, because it’s not just about him. When you’re a manager, it’s not about you, it’s about getting the best for everybody else. He did that as a player, and I expect him to do the same in the role he’s in now.”

To this day, Carrick and Rooney remain close. They regularly speak to each other on the phone, and Carrick was one of the first people to congratulate the new Birmingham boss when his appoint at St Andrew’s was confirmed.

“We don’t talk much about tactics or football,” smiled Carrick. “It’s like any other friendship – we have known each other a long time now and probably speak to each other more than the others (ex-Manchester United team-mates). It’s a natural friendship. We’re always there for each other, supporting each other. It will be nice to see him.”

As relatively new managers, Carrick and Rooney’s career trajectories continue to follow a similar path. Rooney cut his managerial teeth in difficult circumstances with Derby County before heading to the US, and now returns to the Championship aiming to lead Birmingham into the Premier League. Carrick inherited an extremely tricky situation when he took over at Middlesbrough, with his side in the relegation zone when he was appointed, and still regards promotion as a viable ambition this season despite his side’s current position in the bottom half of the table.

“We’ve been in the game a long time, and he has had very similar experiences to me,” said Carrick. “We’ve had similar paths in terms of clubs and managers we have worked for.

“Now, we’re in a new part of our careers. How do you change from player to manager? Well, I think your football brain is your natural brain in terms of what see, and that doesn’t really change.

“It comes naturally when you see certain things, and I think that’s always really applied to me and Wayne. I never doubted that Wayne would do well moving to coaching or managing, if that’s what he chose.

“We’ll enjoy this game and stay friends after it, no matter what the result. Maybe it will be strange standing next to him on the touchline, but we have done this long enough. Come Saturday, we’ll have our eyes on the game.”

Middlesbrough (probable, 4-2-3-1): Dieng; Smith, Fry, Lenihan, Engel; Barlaser, Hackney; Jones, Crooks, Greenwood; Coburn.