Prepared to be called stupid on this....
Last season Lukaku for a worse (?) Everton team than this looks and scored 25 in 37 games
As discussed on here under the new owner they've spent the summer participating in the transfer market
Obviously Rooney isn't Lukaku but
- we should expect him to play every game?
- if we assume Baines isn't week in week out now, he'll be on some penalties?
- Everton have replaced Lukaku with Sandro (22yo Barca, Malaga) and Rooney. Beyond that there don't look to be rotation options?
So, Rooney has spent two years gradually morphing into a support striker (and playing less,rotated)
he's gone from
games/goals premier league
34-27 under Sir Alex
27-12 under Sir Alex
29-17 under Moyes
33-12 under LVG
28-8 under LVG
25-5 under Jose
and he's now 31
From a cursory view of Everton's pre-season Rooney is up top. Shouldn't he rebound into the 15-17 range?
Now obviously we might expect any or all of the following to hit 15 goals
Lukaku/Kane/Aguero/Jesus/Lacazette/Morata/Sanchez etc
but there will be injuries and rotation.
Can Rooney get in the top 4 at 66-1? or structurally does his age/different type of play mean this is unlikely?
https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-goalscorer