Wayne Rooney is a striker, says Roy Hodgson as England boss insists Manchester United star will lead his attack

• Roy Hodgson says he will continue to play Wayne Rooney up front
• Rooney is four goals from becoming England's all-time top scorer
• The United star has played in midfield 12 times under Louis van Gaal

Roy Hodgson has told Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal that Wayne Rooney’s best position is to play as a striker.

Rooney, who is captain of club and country, has been forced to play in the centre of midfield 12 times under the van Gaal regime.

The England forward is just four goals away from becoming the all time leading England goalscorer. Sir Bobby Charlton currently holds the record with 49.

Wayne Rooney (left) controls the ball under pressure from Burnley's Scott Arfield on Wednesday 

Rooney's heat map against Burnley shows that he spent the majority of the game behind the halfway line

Hodgson said: ‘Wayne’s a goalscorer isn’t he? So one always likes to see ones goalscorers in positions where they can get into the box and in and around the box. 

‘If you’ve got several other goalscorers and you can afford to use one of your goalscorers a bit further back, that’s fine. 

‘But he’s our top goalscorer in the qualifiers, he’s just a couple of goals away now from being England’s leading goalscorer, so I hope he will continue to score goals for us.

‘We’ll only use him in the position that suits our team and I don’t know that will be centre midfield where he plays for Manchester United because they’ve got other players and that’s where they think he does the best job for him and I fully respect that. 

Louis van Gaal: Midfield will suffer if i play Rooney as a...

England manager Roy Hodgson (centre) watches QPR take on Southampton last Saturday

Louis van Gaal leaves the pitch after Manchester United beat Burnley 3-1 at Old Trafford on Wednesday

‘At the moment I don’t necessarily think that (central midfield) will be his best position for us and I don’t have any immediate plans to play him there but who knows? I will never say never.’

Rooney scored twice against Scotland in the country’s last international and will play in his favoured position in next month’s Euro 2016 qualifier with Lithuania on March 27 and the friendly against Italy four days later.

Hodgson added: ‘Wayne’s the sort of player, he can play anywhere. You couldn’t surprise me if one day he played right-back and did very well. He’s a very, very good footballer.’