Post match interview suggests Rooney is a very bad liar

I don’t know if anybody has covered this, and if they have, fair play. It needed to be mentioned given the curious nature of our defeat against Man Utd at Old Trafford.

When the final whistle went, I was going through a range of negative emotions although I was still proud of the performance the lads gave. Normally I don’t bother hearing post match interviews, with regards to the opposition anyway, but this time I did because I actually wanted to know what Ferguson and his cronies made of the game.

My reaction was of absolute disgust to see Rooney receive man of the match. He did nothing in the first half and made his name in that game on a fortunate decision. Anyway, Rooney was there with his champagne, talking away in probably the least amiable Scouse accent. I didn’t pay too much attention to his actual words at the time because his body language was just something that couldn’t be ignored. I had to watch it again in order to say what I will below. To see the video (I’m not going to type the link), so instead just type ROONEY INTERVIEW AUGUST 29 in youtube and you should find it.

I don’t know about you but saying that a fellow human is lying is pretty complex. We as humans are pretty complex and even a lie detector machine can’t be relied upon to give a reliable test. For me I usually look for unusual behaviour or unusual tone in conversation, basically anything unusual. The best way to catch liars is to catch them when they least expect it, maybe an elaborate plan to trap them, but that is stating the bleeding obvious. Moving on.

Some other ways to tell that someone is lying.

1. Stress gestures (scratching, itching etc)
2. Looking to the right.
3. Touching the nose/covering the face/mouth.
4. Wide-eyed, innocent look.

Within the first 20 seconds, he is seen touching his nose and scratching his head above the right ear twice!

He makes a conscious effort to look to the left throughout the interview as if the answers to his questions are there present in that direction on autocue (I guess this is media training, getting your players to look the left). However, When asked about the penalty he replies looking to the left first and then he looks to the right which is linked with imagination. Says it all that Rooney had to fabricate a story when it was obvious what his intention was!

He continues touching his nose, scratching his head, turning his ear and it almost appears to be a strange sort of post match ritual. And what is going on between seconds 49 and 52! Play that bit again and again and it looks so stupid to say the least.

His scratching continues, with more beard stroking and then around 1 minute and 14 seconds he gives the biggest wide-eyed look as if he was rehearsing for a ‘talk to frank’ advert. Getting the munchies are you Rooney? A full face rub follows, deduce what you can from that.

Finally he asked about the Arshavin penalty incident to which he replies “No I didn’t see it, I can’t even remember it to be honest.” Fair enough, selective memory and all that, but that covered no.4, the innocent look. I can’t believe Rooney was so original that he had to use a Wenger-like answer but that is another matter.

You know my opinion. Watch it frame by frame, I don’t even have HD definition TV but you will see that Rooney clearly planted his knees towards the ground even before Almunia made contact. He was anonymous in the first half and given the partnership of Gallas and Vermalaen he was never going to score in open play. The only way, he and Utd could draw level was from a penalty or a set piece where distractions happen more often. This is indeed how Utd got their goals.

It is funny because the media will never acknowledge this (Rooney’s penalty attempts) and it was interesting how they never looked up Rooney’s dive in 2004. I guess he is just an honest hardworking English player, just like McGeady is a thorough professional for Celtic. In case you don’t know, McGeady was sent off for diving in their league match on Sunday. It is okay though seriously; they aren’t foreign and don’t play for Arsenal. Also, it is just as well that they did their business on the weekend when UEFA are enjoying the time off!

On a slightly more positive note, I don’t think all the media is against us. I suggested yesterday that Redknapp was sympathetic (perhaps this was driven more out of his hatred for Utd) as were pundits on other platforms from what I hear. And Richard Keys tried his best to relate Rooney’s penalty attempt to Eduardo’s. When these things happen, we have to appreciate the minority out there in the media, who are well wishers of Arsenal and football in general. Lest we forget the two aren’t separate entities but one.

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