Thought he was good, would've been better and would've put the game to bed if it wasn't for some bizarre decision-making in the final third at times.
Wayne Rooney | 2012-14 Performances
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Thought he handled the interview very well, credit to him. I don't like praising Rooney though so I'm going to have to counter that by saying his finishing tonight was shit.
Rooney and a lot of our other players need to shoot more when in good positions.
The Real Sociedad players looked honoured to be playing against him, and were desperate to receive his shirt after the match. Rooney is respected and revered throughout the world, except, it seems, by many his own football club's fans.
Solid performance, definitely looks better without van Persie.
Of course she hasn't. She doesn't need to. Jeff prods from the moment he walks in the door
Very professional answer to a difficult question, handled it very well.
In my eyes he actually got some respect back tonight.
As mature a reaction as you could expect from him there. Fair play to him.
Well except he talks about Fergie having made a correction, when so far as i am aware he hasn't.
I wouldn't have minded if he had said something to Shreeves after the "reigniting a feud" line, all very tabloid.
I wouldn't have minded if he had said something to Shreeves after the "reigniting a feud" line, all very tabloid.
He was good tonight, but I was a bit disappointed with his cutting edge, or lack thereof... the Rooney who played against leverkusen would have scored and assisted a few tonight.
Agreed about how well he handled that poisonous interview - really professional.
It's so strange to me.
"I am deliberately trying to wind you up to get a quote. What is your response?". It's so thinly veiled and such poor journalism.
In the Sky interview, Fergie said it was a verbal transfer request, so technically Rooney is right from my understanding.
Give it a rest.
I wouldn't even call it cutting edge, it was literally just finishing. He was very sharp other than that and had a bag-full of shots, many on target, as well as putting people in for a couple of great chances that could easily have been assists.
He was unlucky not to get an assist when Valencia hit the post and on another day he gets an assist for his pass across goal to Ashley Young. Not to mention he hit the post and they ended up scoring an own goal (which we won the game from).
That pass to Young should have been better really... but I don't want to sound like I'm getting on the guys back or anything, just thought his final product should have been a bit better.
He seems to have learnt how to take players on again which makes me think this transformation is just simply down to improved fitness levels, which sort of proves Fergie's point doesn't it?
I thought Young was not anticipating enough. He was basically running at the edge of the 6 yard box and really should have come central beating the keeper to the ball. Don't know how you'd expect someone to deliver a beast of a cross from that position.
Yeah its been ages since we've seen Rooney dribble like that, good to see. Our best player again tonight.
very nice bit of dribbling for the goal. It's good to see him taking players on again, it seems to be something that he lost for a while. He has definitely looks more dangerous at times this season as a result.
Got to wonder if Moyes is encouraging him to try it more compared to SAF, or if Moyes has just managed to get him fitter or if he feels he has something to prove again.
Got to wonder if Moyes is encouraging him to try it more compared to SAF, or if Moyes has just managed to get him fitter or if he feels he has something to prove again.
Much better positioning from him tonight. Good to see that he seems to like to link up with kagawa.
Happy Birthday Wayne Rooney! May you continue your good form and stay long at club. 
Official stats don't count it as an assist, but transfermark does. In 11 games this season, he's scored 5 goals and assisted 6. Some nice numbers so far. He can get into double figures next month.
This is true. We always look much better with a fluid front three or four anyway and if rooney is willing to cover back then you're right.
Can anyone remember the last player that Rooney actually managed to pair up well with upfront for more than half a season? It seems strange that he can't seem to strike up a good partnership for someone of his calibre.
Saha... Rooney operates best with a striker who is a hybrid of pace/poacher and good at hold-up play. Someone like Lewandowski would work well with Wayne, as would a peak Torres of yesteryear.
There has been too much space between the strikers and the CMs in the last couple of games because Rooney has been higher up than usual. Against Chelsea I think he did play deeper but if you have a look at MoneyMay's post in the Moyes tactician thread you'll see that he's been a lot higher. It doesn't show every touch, but the graphics below show Rooney vs Southampton and Özil vs Norwich from this weekend gone and it's easy to see that they play the number ten role differently, Özil has more presence inside his own half picking up the ball closer to his CMs.
Rooney vs Real Sociedad:
Bigger midfield presence last night, in contrast to the game against Southampton. He was clearly more involved in play from our own half and in deeper central areas.
Had a look at Kagawa's and he also had a big presence in midfield last night which helps explain why our passing was better there since they were playing closer to the CMs, made themselves available as an outlet and were less spread out. Nice to see Giggs tell Rooney to drop deeper into midfield early in the second half when he was starting to get a bit higher. Even Gary Neville pointed it out. It makes such a difference as it's such a luxury to have two players playing high when the midfield needs support.
Rooney had a good partnership with Hernandez in 10/11, it is not his fault that Welbeck outperformed Hernandez in 11/12 and took his place. The fact that Saha, Tevez and Berbatov have come out and either said how brilliant Rooney is (best striker they've played with) or how great he was to play with shows that maybe your criticism is unwarranted. In fact, I'd say it is one of his strengths that he has been able to strike up so many partnerships in his career.
Yeah, Rooney had a fantastic partnership with Berbatov after all.
They didn't make fantastic partnership, they rarely started big game together(that was down to Berbatov though).
It was sarcasm, and I don't remember Rooney having a particularly great partnership with Tevez either to be honest.
Sorry, my bad.
Do many teams have strike partnerships these days? Most teams play with one centre forward with 2 or 3 supporting players, and Rooney is rarely that centre forward these days anyway.
PSG play with Zlatan and Cavani but they're in a front three, Cavani starts on the right ,Lavezzi on the left and Ibra is the main man. It's been working well for them I have to say, Cavani is seen as sacrificing himself but he still gets many goalscoring opportunities. Rooney could still get those opportunities if he starts further RVP and even on the left. When there is a will, there is a way.
PSG, maybe? Is that what they're doing with Zlatan and Cavani?
EDIT: Heh, answered as I typed....
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