Poll: Is Wayne Rooney past it and should he be sold?

Is Rooney past it?

  • Total voters
    1,482
Pogue Mahone said:
I don't think Rooney will be looked on as one of the very best strikers when he eventually calls it a day. He'll be considered as an incredibly versatile, hard-working attacking footballer capable of both creating and scoring goals consistently over the course of his career. A really valuable member of any squad and someone who is extremely highly rated by everyone who has managed him. We all knows that he blows hot and cold. He always has. Apparently if he doesn't score in the next two games he will equal the longest goal drought of his career. Which was, guess when? His first season at United.

So yeah, he's always been a streaky player but that's not a problem, over the course of a season or a career, providing you have other players ready and able to step up when he's not firing. It's the lack of those other players which might hurt us this season, rather than Rooney somehow suddenly being "past it".
Click to expand...

I think that assessment may have been fair in the past, but isn't good enough for us right now. This is because our system is structured so that he is our largest and most consistent source of productivity. Rightly or wrongly, the manager doesn't seem to be willing to unleash his other players to really go out and seek goals. As part of a front two, which Rooney has spent most of his career here, things were different in the sense that, we would be an even more brilliant team when Rooney was at his best, but when he's not, we may be just a boring team where Ruud van Nistelrooy scores winners for us, or Persie or whoever. And then for a period, we had Ronaldo, who was our best goalscorer. Again, of course, Rooney was a very good player, and when on song, the headlines were 'Rooney/Ronaldo tearing teams apart'. But when he wasn't on song, Ronaldo was very capable of doing it anyway.

In today's set up, there is no room for that. He is the Ronaldo. The Van Nistelrooy. A challenge he seems to have very publicly accepted too. The likes of Memphis and co are of course supposed to help, but sadly, the responsibility is on him. You're description of him 'always being a streaky player but that's not a problem, over the course of a season or a career, providing you have other players ready and able to step up when he's not firing' doesn't work with a one striker system where he is that one striker. I'm not even singling him out, that would not work for Chelsea either, for example, given the role Costa performs for them. He may be allowed to be injured of course, because then, Chelsea will play another striker in his place and expect them to deliver. He is not, however, allowed to be a pub player for large parts of the season, simply because, Chelsea are fecked if he is. Just like Spurs have bet the house on Kane delivering this season. In such an occasion (prolonged periods of terrible form), he must be benched, as the team needs somebody in his role to deliver. Just as we do. He (Rooney) is not our Oscar, for example, who the press can say 'he's been a little off the boil of late' and all is still okay.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I just thought he got nothing right all game. Usually there might be a moment or two of class but it was an utterly abject performance, from start to finish. Could be wrong, though. For obvious reasons, crap performances are less memorable than good ones!
Click to expand...
Fair enough, at least you have given a reason and not just gone the whole hog and smashed SHITTT.. JUST.. HES SHIT, GOD, DROP HIM, GET HIM OUT, PAST IT, SLOW. into the window and hit post. Because I honestly watched the game again and I just didn't see a horrible performance. Granted he was largely anonymous, had a few little funny moments ie. The silly pass on half way, the trap to Herrera and the touch at the end when he was through..

I am not trying to tell people how to think and all that but jesus christ, if that is a shit performance then like I said in the other thread his great performances are going to be like a stick of TNT going off in your drawers.

To me it was such a... 'meh... Hopefully he bounces back against Brugge..' type of performance. The reaction in general in my eyes has been absolutely absurd, borderline hilarious. Hilarious in a sense that I am concerned for the safety of innocent bystanders around some of the users.
 
United again! said:
Fair enough, at least you have given a reason and not just gone the whole hog and smashed SHITTT.. JUST.. HES SHIT, GOD, DROP HIM, GET HIM OUT, PAST IT, SLOW. into the window and hit post. Because I honestly watched the game again and I just didn't see a horrible performance. Granted he was largely anonymous, had a few little funny moments ie. The silly pass on half way, the trap to Herrera and the touch at the end when he was through..

I am not trying to tell people how to think and all that but jesus christ, if that is a shit performance then like I said in the other thread his great performances are going to be like a stick of TNT going off in your drawers.

To me it was such a... 'meh... Hopefully he bounces back against Brugge..' type of performance. The reaction in general in my eyes has been absolutely absurd, borderline hilarious. Hilarious in a sense that I am concerned for the safety of innocent bystanders around some of the users.
Click to expand...

You cannot be serious?

Can you give me an example of a performance, by any footballer ever, that you consider to be a 'horrible performance'?
 
Rozay said:
You cannot be serious?

Can you give me an example of a performance, by any footballer ever, that you consider to be a 'horrible performance'?
Click to expand...
Kyle Walker against us at Old Trafford last year for a start. But I'd have to go sifting through my mental annals to find a forward player who was horrible. Obviously for me, horrible has to probably involve a serious string of being unable to pass the ball to your team mates (say for arguments sake under 60% completion?), not being able to control the ball at a rate in the same vicinity (sub 60%), a dangerous give away in your own half doing something stupid.. You know, stuff that is pretty horrible?

I didn't say it was a performance on the better side of average, but I think horrible is reaching a little bit. In my view anyway, especially after watching the game a second time.
 
United again! said:
Fair enough, at least you have given a reason and not just gone the whole hog and smashed SHITTT.. JUST.. HES SHIT, GOD, DROP HIM, GET HIM OUT, PAST IT, SLOW. into the window and hit post. Because I honestly watched the game again and I just didn't see a horrible performance. Granted he was largely anonymous, had a few little funny moments ie. The silly pass on half way, the trap to Herrera and the touch at the end when he was through..

I am not trying to tell people how to think and all that but jesus christ, if that is a shit performance then like I said in the other thread his great performances are going to be like a stick of TNT going off in your drawers.

To me it was such a... 'meh... Hopefully he bounces back against Brugge..' type of performance. The reaction in general in my eyes has been absolutely absurd, borderline hilarious. Hilarious in a sense that I am concerned for the safety of innocent bystanders around some of the users.
Click to expand...

Look, practically all of us want nothing more than for Wayne to do well, even if it makes our criticism look as ludicrous as you claim it is; but his defenders can't keep portraying the critics as thick/insane/kneejerk/anti-United just because it supposedly deflects & discredits the criticism. Nor, after all this time, can the usual retorts of 'you hate him because he's a scouser/because of the contract disputes/because of his wages/because of his private life' stand up anymore. His lack of inspiration and his fading ability is a problem for both United and England and that can't be whitewashed away with, ironically, kneejerk defensiveness.
 
Thing is, even if he regains some forms and gets a good run under his belt, you just know that - at some point again this season - we'll see two games (and more) from Wayne Rooney that are like the two we've just seen... and we a) can only replace him with Hernandez (fine, but hardly ideal) and b) refuse to replace him anyway.
 
SteveJ said:
Look, practically all of us want nothing more than for Wayne to do well, even if it makes our criticism look as ludicrous as you claim it is; but his defenders can't keep portraying the critics as thick/insane/kneejerk/anti-United just because it supposedly deflects & discredits the criticism. Nor, after all this time, can the usual retorts of 'you hate him because he's a scouser/because of the contract disputes/because of his wages/because of his private life' stand up anymore. His lack of inspiration and his fading ability is a problem for both United and England and that can't be whitewashed away with, ironically, kneejerk defensiveness.
Click to expand...
I'm trying to play the devils advocate and in my short time on the caf, two of the more sensible posters in yourself and Pogue are expressing some serious doubt in his ability. That in my eyes is cause for concern regarding a player, that is more when I say to myself well if these guys are seeing this then why aren't I because they are usually pretty switched on and cluey?

I was just curious as to what counts as a horrible performance. Or in Pogue's case, his worst performance ever. I am not trying to defend him I just wanted some clarification that what I was seeing (a sub standard but not diabolical performance) matched up with some of the user who I've grown to know as quite switched on.

There have literally been people saying he can't trap a ball, he's slow and he literally couldn't complete a pass. When on further viewing a second time there were many satisfactory touches, he completed at a decent enough rate and his pressing at high speed is in my eyes actually quite impressive (even that goal last week was a direct result of his run at pace to get to the box before Walker.. Who in truth was behind him). I am merely trying to take them out of the equation and have some actual discussion about the player that doesn't involve a host of absurd posts distorting the reality of a player who is not in peak form and trying to paint it as a player who is not even championship standard.

Constructive criticism is fine, this scapegoating that has gone on is quite frankly, in my view, over the top big time.

But I don't mind walking away as I got the answer I wanted from Pogue. I don't want to be painted as some sort of banner man for house Rooney. I don't really care either way, I am trying to make sense of why maybe my patience and understanding is causing me to see things differently to others.

I'll drop the same pearl I've dropped in the other threads, he's not a hold up no9 player and him trying to play in this system is what is making him play poorly. I don't think he'll score a shit load of goals and just looking at our buildup play we have bigger problems in the front line than the inclusion of Rooney as a playing commodity. In the view of the majority on the Caf he's being asked to spin gold out of stone cold feck all.
 
Last edited:
Blimey, I've never been accused of being sensible before. :D
 
sully1 said:
see the difference was RVP was on fire from game one the season we won the title last, he was setting a benchmark from the first whistle of the game to Aguero, Suarez etc. if you want to win the title you have to outscore me first.

Wayne on the other hand has already missed 2 or 3 easy chances to score in the first 2 games, at 300k a week he really needs to hit 25+ goals this season. Secretly he knows that
Click to expand...

I wonder if he does, apart from his brief spat with SAF during his last season, no one ever drops him, even when playing like utter dogshit in the 3 months after the 2010 world cup he STILL got played week in week out. He is coasting because there is no real competition and I dont think he believes he will ever get dropped again.
 
I've been saying he's past it for a couple of years - nice to see that others are starting to catch on as well.

He reached maturity earlier than other players, peaked earlier (24?) and so its only natural that he will decline earlier.

I think the fact that he has been shifted about to various positions has masked his decline to some extent - because he's been a good team player and done "OK" in each role he's been asked to play - but the expectations were not as great because he is playing out of his best position.

But now he is back in his best position it is becoming clear to the masses that he has declined. Nowhere near as good as what our top European rivals have in central attacking positions (Aguero, Suarez, Benzema, Ronaldo, Messi, Sanchez, etc) - we shouldn't just talk about "strikers" now because the game has evolved so much and there are shades of grey.
 
United again! said:
Kyle Walker against us at Old Trafford last year for a start. But I'd have to go sifting through my mental annals to find a forward player who was horrible. Obviously for me, horrible has to probably involve a serious string of being unable to pass the ball to your team mates (say for arguments sake under 60% completion?), not being able to control the ball at a rate in the same vicinity (sub 60%), a dangerous give away in your own half doing something stupid.. You know, stuff that is pretty horrible?

I didn't say it was a performance on the better side of average, but I think horrible is reaching a little bit. In my view anyway, especially after watching the game a second time.
Click to expand...

His performance was Andy Carroll-esque. I'm unaware of the percentages, but if the key indicators are an attacker 'failing to trap a ball' or 'failing to pass te ball to your teammates', there were several examples of this against Villa. I doubt many footballers ever, over 90mins, fail to find a teammate under 60% of the time. Especially in a team as pedestrian as ours. A simple pass backwards to a defender, unchallenged will probably give an attacker a decent average once done enough times.

I can appreciate people wanting to isolate the one performance and call it just that, one performance - but to imply that it wasn't that bad is impossible in my view. The list of strikers who could have performed better is quite huge, and probably includes players well below Premier League level to be honest. Again, it is fair to say that Rooney himself is not a League 2 standard footballer, or course - but the performance against Villa was. It is the kind of thing you expect to see in a John Smith advert of a random dad having a go with his heroes. I am almost certain that there will not be too many more performances of that level again this season, otherwise, a spade being a spade, Rooney will basically now only be as good as a League 2 player. Sadly, I am almost equally convinced that we will not see many performances of a top class level either. By next May, I'd expect his average performance level to have been that of a mid-to-lower PL level player, although the hope is that he doesn't have the goal return to match, partly because he plas for a far superior team, and largely because he is a far more talented finisher than those players.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
I've been saying he's past it for a couple of years - nice to see that others are starting to catch on as well.

He reached maturity earlier than other players, peaked earlier (24?) and so its only natural that he will decline earlier.

I think the fact that he has been shifted about to various positions has masked his decline to some extent - because he's been a good team player and done "OK" in each role he's been asked to play - but the expectations were not as great because he is playing out of his best position.

But now he is back in his best position it is becoming clear to the masses that he has declined. Nowhere near as good as what our top European rivals have in central attacking positions (Aguero, Suarez, Benzema, Ronaldo, Messi, Sanchez, etc) - we shouldn't just talk about "strikers" now because the game has evolved so much and there are shades of grey.
Click to expand...

Even Costa with two dodgy hamstrings and busted up knee still looked better the Rooney yesterday against City
 
As Daniel Taylor puts it, 'This video of Rooney, in his pomp, probably says more than any words about the change in him now.'

 
Those who still believe in Rooney have mostly been singing the same tune as in he has these dips and then gets into form and puts in some unbelievable performances. But for me even on form over the past couple hasn't shown any of those unbelievable performances warranted of his high stature. On form nowadays he´ll maintain an acceptable scoring record with an avarage touch. Never has he shown me something that suggest he is still the same world class attacker he once was. His pace, ability to beat a man and gung ho style just isn't there any more, you won't see him create much for himself anymore. Yes he scored from midfield and that goal against Villa, but he doesn't seem to have that quick acceleration that affords him space to pull anything regularly out of the bag anymore.

Those who don't believe it saying he's just 29, seriously have to consider other factors. Physically an early developer, played close to 700 games already, a player who made his name with his main traits being physical is sure to fade faster than the avarage lifespan of a standard footballer.

And I've never seen such cop-outs that are just accepted for a professional footballer, that seem to apply only to Rooney. He always starts the season slow, he cannot be dropped as he needs to play to get into form (could be applied to anybody basically but every other player in the squad has to perform to be picked).

He is also said to be starved of service, even though he has quite notably been a big part of that service. A lone striker should attempt a few runs behind the defence, turn with the ball and build up momentum, and most importantly, hold the ball up, bringing the other attacking players into the play higher up the pitch, is paramount to getting the service you need. That's why Hernandez and this modern version of Wayne Rooney will most likely not be good enough up top, a lack of service they themselves are creating. Van Nistelrooy was excellent in this, held the ball up, found a suitable supplier and filled the box.
 
We're at home to Brugge and Newcastle, then Brugge again away from home. Pretty good time for him to start scoring (if he starts) and I expect him to.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I don't think Rooney will be looked on as one of the very best strikers when he eventually calls it a day. He'll be considered as an incredibly versatile, hard-working attacking footballer capable of both creating and scoring goals consistently over the course of his career. A really valuable member of any squad and someone who is extremely highly rated by everyone who has managed him. We all knows that he blows hot and cold. He always has. Apparently if he doesn't score in the next two games he will equal the longest goal drought of his career. Which was, guess when? His first season at United.

So yeah, he's always been a streaky player but that's not a problem, over the course of a season or a career, providing you have other players ready and able to step up when he's not firing. It's the lack of those other players which might hurt us this season, rather than Rooney somehow suddenly being "past it".
Click to expand...

The problem with Rooney is he has the awful combination of needing to play every game to keep his fitness/play himself into form, as well as being horrendously inconsistent. So you end up with one of two situations: you either have a first team player who is terrible 1/3, decent 1/3 and good-awesome 1/3, which isn't good enough for a top level striker. Or you end up with an even worse squad player who is probably awful 1/2 or decent 1/2. Invariably managers choose the first option which means 1/3 you have 9 other players trying to carry someone who looks like a part time player. So he can't be a squad player, but can't be the key player (at a top team) either. Most other players when they're going through a spell like Rooney is; you'd just drop them and play you're second choice until they improved. With Rooney you know that'll only exacerbate the problem.

Personally I've being championing for a while that he should play the left of a 4-3-3. It's isn't his "best" position (what is?!) but it's a position where inconsistency is far more forgiving and working hard even if you're out of form is good enough to do a job (see Willian), whereas if he puts in one of his top class performances he'll still be scoring/assisting. Unfortunately in the middle of the park, particularly as a sole striker his bottom level causes a complete breakdown in our play.
 
I tend to agree with the belief that the amount of football he's played has caught up with him a bit. What is it 650+ games? He looks burnt out right now and in a similar fashion to RVP in his last year with us ie his touch has gone, looks a bit leg weary, getting bullied off the ball. Perhaps he feels it a bit too and has lost some of the confidence you need to deliver at this level.

I still think he'll get goals though - just needs to find his mojo.
 
He isnt the right striker for our system.

LVG seems to want the #10 to operate virtually as a second striker, and also have goal threats from the wide players. In that system I feel that the striker needs to offer good strength and hold up play, with the ability to simply make the ball stick and lay it off to one of the trio behind, as well as offer a good work rate and closing down of opposition defenders.

Rooney simply does not have the touch, technique or general strength to operate in this quasi-target man role. Personally I think he peaked maybe 5 years ago. I loved watching Rooney as a youngster - he was an explosive player with flair and the potential to be the best in the world. Whether due to age or instruction, he grew into a very different player over his time here - a more orthodox #9 poacher, which is fine, but good poachers are not that hard to find, whereas the player Rooney could have been would have been pretty much a one-off I think.

As things stand, I would have been happy to sell him at any time in the last 3 years, and feel that we may have missed the opportunity when SAF left. This isnt to say he hasnt had moments of good form since then, but simply that when you look at what Rooney offers us compared to some of the other top strikers in the league over that period - Suarez, Sanchez, Aguero for instance - Rooney comes up well short.
 
McUnited said:
As Daniel Taylor puts it, 'This video of Rooney, in his pomp, probably says more than any words about the change in him now.'

Click to expand...


That tweet really bugged me. Taylor's always been an attention-seeking muppet. Trial by youtube, is it?

He should watch this next video in its entirety, all from just one season, unlike the one he chose. A season where Rooney spent a significant chunk of it playing in central midfield and as a team we played deeply conservative deeply conservative football, creating far fewer chances than we would have in previous seasons. Still looks like a cracking player in this clip, mind you.

 
Relem said:
I'd agree that it certainly looks like nonsense now. Less so back in 2004 when he ignited the European Championship and looked to be leading England to some belated silverware prior to his injury in the quarter-final. At the age of 18. He was an exceptional talent who was miles and miles ahead of where (slim) Ronaldo was at 18.
Click to expand...
I was looking from the outside, and I didn't see him igniting the EC, he didn't look to lead England to me and the idea England getting some silverware is there at any championship, but only in England. I just saw a very promising player who was also ahead of his age and had a lot of drive and energy about him. There were three interesting youngsters at that EC, and I always thougt that Ronaldo and Ibrihimovic had more potential than Rooney. Rooney was special, but Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo could already do some exceptional things with the ball.

I'm not saying the English can't be realistic about the quality of their players and the talent of their youngsters. But if there is indeed a great talent, the English tend to get hysterical about it and lose all perspective and start talking about the world's greatest immediately, not just in football but in sports in general. "Just great" appearantly is not one of the possibilities, it's not great, or the greatest of all time, there's nothing in between. And back then, the English also lacked realism concerning the chances of silverware, nowadays the English seem to have adapted to reality. But from the late 90's to the 00's there was lots of easy money to be made by betting against England, because so many English put their money where there hope was.
 
SteveJ said:
Look, practically all of us want nothing more than for Wayne to do well, even if it makes our criticism look as ludicrous as you claim it is; but his defenders can't keep portraying the critics as thick/insane/kneejerk/anti-United just because it supposedly deflects & discredits the criticism. Nor, after all this time, can the usual retorts of 'you hate him because he's a scouser/because of the contract disputes/because of his wages/because of his private life' stand up anymore. His lack of inspiration and his fading ability is a problem for both United and England and that can't be whitewashed away with, ironically, kneejerk defensiveness.
Click to expand...

Spot on. We all know Rooney is patchy but at this point it's not just that he's playing crap, he looks physically blunted as well.
 
United again! said:
Because I honestly watched the game again and I just didn't see a horrible performance. Granted he was largely anonymous, had a few little funny moments ie. The silly pass on half way, the trap to Herrera and the touch at the end when he was through..
Click to expand...

Absolutely respect your opinion mate but I just can't agree with that. He was honestly terrible from start to finish. It was summed up when in the final seconds he went in on goal, took such a bad touch that all he had left to do was knock it out for a throw in so villa had 100yards to get to our goal. That was his only contribution to the game.

I genuinely don't think I've seen him play worse for us. But I'm also not suggesting he's past it, he's done for or we need to sell him because that's nonsense.

He's always been a streaky player and usually that's fine. Trouble is he's now our main striker who you need to get goals even when they aren't playing well and that for me is the problem.

He will get goals and he will dig us out of a few holes this season... But he's not the player he once was and I think needs a bit of competition to make him realise he's not guaranteed to start.
 
He's looked useless in two matches but then again he hasn't really been given much support.

To be fair, when Mata played Memphis through and Memphis put it wide, Rooney would've buried it.
 
Todd said:
He's looked useless in two matches but then again he hasn't really been given much support.

To be fair, when Mata played Memphis through and Memphis put it wide, Rooney would've buried it.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure current Rooney would've buried that change. But I'm also sure that Memphis in a few weeks will bury a similar chance. It's all about confidence for these guys and both need to find theirs a little.

LVG defending Rooney will do him the world of good though! The manager clearly believes him in so he'll be determined to repay that faith.
 
Todd said:
He's looked useless in two matches but then again he hasn't really been given much support.

To be fair, when Mata played Memphis through and Memphis put it wide, Rooney would've buried it.
Click to expand...
I guess the issue is whether Rooney is still capable of such runs. He got a great ball over the top from Schweini that he wasted.

Still think it'll improve with time.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
That tweet really bugged me. Taylor's always been an attention-seeking muppet. Trial by youtube, is it?

He should watch this next video in its entirety, all from just one season, unlike the one he chose. A season where Rooney spent a significant chunk of it playing in central midfield and as a team we played deeply conservative deeply conservative football, creating far fewer chances than we would have in previous seasons. Still looks like a cracking player in this clip, mind you.

Click to expand...

Sorry that is a nothing video, half of it is close ups of Rooney and super slow motion replays/celebrations. And how is it all from one season as it has the goal away to West Ham from the Moyes season and the away goal to Arsenal last season.
 
Ixion said:
Sorry that is a nothing video, half of it is close ups of Rooney and super slow motion replays/celebrations. And how is it all from one season as it has the goal away to West Ham from the Moyes season and the away goal to Arsenal last season.
Click to expand...
:lol: so now we even have to cheat on the youtube highlights, man that is depresing.
 
Ixion said:
Sorry that is a nothing video, half of it is close ups of Rooney and super slow motion replays/celebrations. And how is it all from one season as it has the goal away to West Ham from the Moyes season and the away goal to Arsenal last season.
Click to expand...

It was the top hit when I googled Rooney 2014/15 highlights. I didn't go through it forensically because I didn't need to. There were loads of good moments last season, if that video caught even half of them it would make my point.
 
United again! said:
I'm trying to play the devils advocate and in my short time on the caf, two of the more sensible posters in yourself and Pogue are expressing some serious doubt in his ability. That in my eyes is cause for concern regarding a player, that is more when I say to myself well if these guys are seeing this then why aren't I because they are usually pretty switched on and cluey?

I was just curious as to what counts as a horrible performance. Or in Pogue's case, his worst performance ever. I am not trying to defend him I just wanted some clarification that what I was seeing (a sub standard but not diabolical performance) matched up with some of the user who I've grown to know as quite switched on.

There have literally been people saying he can't trap a ball, he's slow and he literally couldn't complete a pass. When on further viewing a second time there were many satisfactory touches, he completed at a decent enough rate and his pressing at high speed is in my eyes actually quite impressive (even that goal last week was a direct result of his run at pace to get to the box before Walker.. Who in truth was behind him). I am merely trying to take them out of the equation and have some actual discussion about the player that doesn't involve a host of absurd posts distorting the reality of a player who is not in peak form and trying to paint it as a player who is not even championship standard.

Constructive criticism is fine, this scapegoating that has gone on is quite frankly, in my view, over the top big time.

But I don't mind walking away as I got the answer I wanted from Pogue. I don't want to be painted as some sort of banner man for house Rooney. I don't really care either way, I am trying to make sense of why maybe my patience and understanding is causing me to see things differently to others.

I'll drop the same pearl I've dropped in the other threads, he's not a hold up no9 player and him trying to play in this system is what is making him play poorly. I don't think he'll score a shit load of goals and just looking at our buildup play we have bigger problems in the front line than the inclusion of Rooney as a playing commodity. In the view of the majority on the Caf he's being asked to spin gold out of stone cold feck all.
Click to expand...

I think what made his performance this week was that everything was just not right. His touch, especially. His movement although not static was not productive. He wasn't making the runs where he needed to. Even his energy levels looked down and that's meant to be a key attribute for him.

As Pogue correctly said, it's not uncommon at all for Rooney to have down matches where he's completely out of it. But it is rare when everything and I mean everything was wrong and there was no real shining moment where he showed his quality.

I don't think he's past it, 2 games in a season is way too early to make that claim. But as we saw with Terry yesterday, a player of his calibre and publicity will always draw rapid analysis which is potentially over the top.

Labelling it knee jerk is probably wrong. Plenty on this forum (I'm not one of them) have been saying he's been on the decline for a while. So for them, this is a confirmation of that theory. I won't judge him on two games as I didn't feel he was on the decline before and actually I backed him for at least 20 goals in one of the other threads but even I am starting to get worried. Worried not because I think he has lost his quality; I still think eventually albeit in spells he will find his rhythm and technique and what not, but because he genuinely looks like he doesn't know how to play that lone striker anymore. It's the fact he continually comes deep and even when he does its unproductive. Generally a pass backwards. He plays with his back to the opposition goal and whilst he can find his quality again, to change a mentality of playing like that and suddenly turning into the man who can run channels, make runs behind defences, and generally beat a man is very very difficult.

That's my greatest fear. He's a potent and productive striker and is very clinical despite what people on here will say. But I'm seriously questioning if he will ever get in the positions again regularly to utilise that ability. And in LVGs current system, that is precisely what we need.
 
Sparky_Hughes said:
I wonder if he does, apart from his brief spat with SAF during his last season, no one ever drops him, even when playing like utter dogshit in the 3 months after the 2010 world cup he STILL got played week in week out. He is coasting because there is no real competition and I dont think he believes he will ever get dropped again.
Click to expand...

Steven gerrard and john terry never got dropped either...and then it just happened
 
K2K said:
kenwright would never pay those wages....it would be a good move for him though....seeing him back in blue, he looked happy to be back...i think maybe that would relight the fire...
Click to expand...
Am I being naive to think he would take a pay cut?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.