The Observer:
It is fair to say that Watford did find him a handful. They found Cristiano Ronaldo and Henrik Larsson handfuls too, but Rooney was out on his own. You couldn't take your eyes off him. The confidence was back, the first touch was back and a fourth goal in three games duly arrived, yet there was more to it than that. Something new. What Rooney demonstrated against Watford, and this is where Queiroz scores 10 out of 10 for prescience, was a hitherto unsuspected subtlety.
His pass to Larsson for United's third goal featured exactly the same sort of deception that had left David James flat-footed in the Cup tie. Once again Rooney shaped to shoot, once again the entire defence was fooled, only instead of a shot he opened his stance at the last moment and cushioned a measured pass forward that needed only one of Larsson's reliable touches to leave Watford and the rest of the stadium gaping at the beauty of something so audacious in its simplicity.
Rooney's touch for his own goal was almost as deft. Where once he would have been straining to break the net, improved Rooney was relaxed enough to hold his position and let the ball come to him, giving himself time for another chip that a defence could do nothing about.
He ran and he tackled and even whipped over a few crosses, too, but it was the smartness of his play that stood out. Suddenly the comparisons with Eric Cantona did not seem quite so fanciful and there are some even more illustrious names that could fall within Rooney's orbit. It has long been obvious that he is England's outstanding player, but Rooney has generally been regarded as effective but limited, instinctively talented rather than clever. It was even remarked a couple of months ago that he was floundering in adulthood, all the promise of a precocious youth having reached a plateau some way short of true greatness.
We shall see. Rooney is only just 21 and is definitely still improving. Clearly it would be foolish to make him out to be the new Johan Cruyff on the basis of a couple of moments of excellence against a dispirited Watford, though the potential is there and, as Queiroz so rightly says, one thing leads to another. Rooney does not just score great goals, he makes great goals for others. And when he plays with confidence he seems capable of just about anything.
Alex Ferguson said: 'He is just coming to his game. Like everyone else, young players have periods when teams analyse them and do different things to stop them, and it makes it more difficult and they have to readjust and perhaps start thinking about their game a little bit. It's a growing-up thing. He's coming up against different obstacles in different matches and hopefully he is overcoming all that and coming into his right form.'