Wayne Rooney | 2012-14 Performances

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MoneyMay said:
7 goals; 9 assists. Wow.
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He finds a way to produce even when the team isn't playing brilliantly and that's why he is so invaluable to us. We would see more performances like his first half if we had a better midfield. In the second half he had to drop far too deep and play a much more defensive role and help the team try and keep the ball when really he should be further up the field with a solid midfield behind him.

He gets an assist and a goal today and yet spends half the match or more near his own defence. Now imagine us with a better midfield, him and RVP would rip the league apart.
 
Man of the match today. Really ran his bollocks off and contributed all over the pitch. The only gripe I had was when he dropped deeper in the second half and we kept giving the ball away. He wasn't the only culprit but we seem to be terrible at keeping possession when we are under pressure in our own half.

Also, good to see his partnership with RVP is flourishing. They are really beginning to learn how to play off each other.
 
I'm going to get slagged again, but he was absolutely rubbish yesterday for most of the match. He had a great goal and a terrific assist, but other than that he gave the ball away so many times in dangerous areas with stupid flicks that never worked and some atrocious first touches. I have absolutely no idea how anyonce could think he was amongst one of our best players. Absolutely baffling for me.

How can anyone argue that he was motm when he's "terrible at keeping possession when we are under pressure in our own half." That's not the trait of a top class player.

He's a difficult one to judge though as he turns up with goals and assists, yet in my book plays really poorly at times. Very hard to drop him when he's so important. I still think that he impairs our overall play though in the number ten position. His technique, close control and short passing is way behind top class number tens. But, then he scores a terrific goal, works his arse off and has a great assist.
 
Rossa said:
I'm going to get slagged again, but he was absolutely rubbish yesterday for most of the match. He had a great goal and a terrific assist, but other than that he gave the ball away so many times in dangerous areas with stupid flicks that never worked and some atrocious first touches. I have absolutely no idea how anyonce could think he was amongst one of our best players. Absolutely baffling for me.

How can anyone argue that he was motm when he's "terrible at keeping possession when we are under pressure in our own half." That's not the trait of a top class player.

He's a difficult one to judge though as he turns up with goals and assists, yet in my book plays really poorly at times. Very hard to drop him when he's so important. I still think that he impairs our overall play though in the number ten position. His technique, close control and short passing is way behind top class number tens. But, then he scores a terrific goal, works his arse off and has a great assist.
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Gotta agree with this. Rooney is a curious case though - as you say, he does come up with the goods, but I think he leaves quite a bit to be desired to play that exact role.
 
seems like no matter how well Rooney's playing and how much of a positive influence he can be on our team, some people continue to focus on his cons
 
Rossa said:
I'm going to get slagged again, but he was absolutely rubbish yesterday for most of the match. He had a great goal and a terrific assist, but other than that he gave the ball away so many times in dangerous areas with stupid flicks that never worked and some atrocious first touches. I have absolutely no idea how anyonce could think he was amongst one of our best players. Absolutely baffling for me.

How can anyone argue that he was motm when he's "terrible at keeping possession when we are under pressure in our own half." That's not the trait of a top class player.

He's a difficult one to judge though as he turns up with goals and assists, yet in my book plays really poorly at times. Very hard to drop him when he's so important. I still think that he impairs our overall play though in the number ten position. His technique, close control and short passing is way behind top class number tens. But, then he scores a terrific goal, works his arse off and has a great assist.
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I wouldn't go as far as to say he was rubbish, but in the second half his touch deserted him and his passing was sloppy. Really let his own standards drop in the second half and I don't see how it was related to the way the team was playing. He lost the ability to control the ball.

Good first half though.
 
SirAF said:
Gotta agree with this. Rooney is a curious case though - as you say, he does come up with the goods, but I think he leaves quite a bit to be desired to play that exact role.
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Productivity wise, he has to be up there, or even more productive then any other #10 in the world. Not to mention the work rate he always puts in and the defensive work. Compare him with ozil for example. Both obviously world class players, ozil more of a playmaker with better control, passing and technique, but doesn't put in as much defensive work as Rooney does, and doesn't get close to the amount of goals. The way united play, Rooney is pretty much the heart beat of the team and has been for years. We play noticeably better when he's on song, and when he has a shit game, we as a whole seem to collapse. Who's to say that we'd be better overall playing ozil as a 10 behind van Persie then Rooney there?
He really is a one of a kind player that even when he has an off day, he usually still makes things happen.
 
Brophs said:
Him and the Romans...what have the done lately?
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No one is saying that he's not done anything. That's sort of the thing. He can play a very average, or even rubbish, match and still produce an assist or a goal - thus he's done quite a lot lately. His overall game, however, is too sloppy. It impairs our play a great deal, and him being our heart of the team is currently letting us down. He just isn't good enough in that role for me. It's especially his short passing that falls some way short of that of say Özil or even Kagawa. It's too sloppy and too often do we lose the ball as a result of it.
 
Yeah I think we should replace Rooney with Kagawa and see how well that goes for us.
 
Rossa said:
I'm going to get slagged again, but he was absolutely rubbish yesterday for most of the match. He had a great goal and a terrific assist, but other than that he gave the ball away so many times in dangerous areas with stupid flicks that never worked and some atrocious first touches. I have absolutely no idea how anyonce could think he was amongst one of our best players. Absolutely baffling for me.

How can anyone argue that he was motm when he's "terrible at keeping possession when we are under pressure in our own half." That's not the trait of a top class player.

He's a difficult one to judge though as he turns up with goals and assists, yet in my book plays really poorly at times. Very hard to drop him when he's so important. I still think that he impairs our overall play though in the number ten position. His technique, close control and short passing is way behind top class number tens. But, then he scores a terrific goal, works his arse off and has a great assist.
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He wasn't great but he was effective. He wasn't our best player though. Rvp and Januzaj were better among others. Rooney seems to make people's top 3 by default this season. Still, disagree with your assessment.
 
Rooney's sloppiness (and I agree that he suffers from this from time to time) is mainly a problem because we lack something in other departments. That, at least, is how I see it. If we can add some quality to our CM and field TWO wingers who both deliver the goods at the same time - we will look much better and Rooney won't be needed as much in the phase of play in which his sloppiness is a problem. I don't think we need a metronome passer in a conventional No 10 role. What we need is a more solid pairing behind whoever occupies that space. Rooney offers something a standard AM does not - and this may actually give us an edge if the rest of the set-up works. As has been said many times: In theory we can attack most teams to death with both Rooney and RVP on the pitch. But that theory hasn't been tested properly yet, as we still haven't found a solution to the CM issue.
 
Rooney has his flaws, but he is our best player. And that's saying something with RVP, Vidic, DDG, Rafael, Carrick and Nani around. He's still one of the best players in the league and without him, we would be a much weaker team.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
He wasn't great but he was effective. He wasn't our best player though. Rvp and Januzaj were better among others. Rooney seems to make people's top 3 by default this season. Still, disagree with your assessment.
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Fair enough. It would be boring, but it would make sense, if everyone agreed with me all the time. Agreed on the people's "top three by default this season" as his performances have been a bit hit and miss thus far. Only problem is that we've had no one except DDG who has performed consistently very good.
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
Rooney has his flaws, but he is our best player. And that's saying something with RVP, Vidic, DDG, Rafael, Carrick and Nani around. He's still one of the best players in the league and without him, we would be a much weaker team.
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What do you mean by best player? Are you talking about form, in which case I agree. If, however, you are talking about class, I think RVP is the better player and has been for a little while now. He's a better finisher, better technique, at least as intelligent on the ball, links up better, better passer and I dare say about as quick these days. Thus, Rooney only has work rate and strength where his abilities outshines RVP's.

My argument would pretty much be that Rooney is a top class player, but we have a better striker than him in RVP, and as a number ten, I think other players would improve the side. Therefore, I'm not against selling him solely based on what the team needs (he's obviously far too good to be a squad player). The fact that I think he's a prick (obviously based on what I see in the media - he may be a stand up mate for all I know) and should have been thrown out of the club in the summer is another argument altogether.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
Rooney's sloppiness (and I agree that he suffers from this from time to time) is mainly a problem because we lack something in other departments. That, at least, is how I see it. If we can add some quality to our CM and field TWO wingers who both deliver the goods at the same time - we will look much better and Rooney won't be needed as much in the phase of play in which his sloppiness is a problem. I don't think we need a metronome passer in a conventional No 10 role. What we need is a more solid pairing behind whoever occupies that space. Rooney offers something a standard AM does not - and this may actually give us an edge if the rest of the set-up works. As has been said many times: In theory we can attack most teams to death with both Rooney and RVP on the pitch. But that theory hasn't been tested properly yet, as we still haven't found a solution to the CM issue.
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That's a bit strange to me. How can Rooney's sloppiness, which is mainly his simple short passing that most five year olds could manage, and first touch where he gives the ball away, and some weird decision makings, where he stops and tries to faint the ball and gives it away instead of running at full steam ahead, be anyone but his fault alone? If DDG makes a mistake, is that because the midfield lacks creativity? If Vidic loses a header, is that because Hernandez first touch is a bit sloppy?

If you play as a number ten, you are expected to be an integral part of the build-up play. Thus, he's not an ideal number ten at all. As a striker, he's very, very good, but RVP is better, and trying to accomodate both will impair our play, imo.
 
Rossa said:
That's a bit strange to me. How can Rooney's sloppiness, which is mainly his simple short passing that most five year olds could manage, and first touch where he gives the ball away, and some weird decision makings, where he stops and tries to faint the ball and gives it away instead of running at full steam ahead, be anyone but his fault alone? If DDG makes a mistake, is that because the midfield lacks creativity? If Vidic loses a header, is that because Hernandez first touch is a bit sloppy?

If you play as a number ten, you are expected to be an integral part of the build-up play. Thus, he's not an ideal number ten at all. As a striker, he's very, very good, but RVP is better, and trying to accomodate both will impair our play, imo.
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It's obviously his fault alone that he tends to be sloppy or unfocused with his passing. What I'm getting at is something like this: His involvement in a certain phase of play for us should, ideally, be a bonus of sorts: Him dropping deep and involving himself in the build-up as a de facto midfielder should happen because he's on song and up for it - not as a necessity stemming from the fact that we don't have a strong enough midfield who can take care of this phase themselves. He isn't a number ten - he doesn't actually play as a number ten either. His role is different. But I think this role of his can work very well for us - if we can just sort out that pairing behind him.

If the problem was that we play a standard 4-2-3-1 with an unsuitable AM in the form of Rooney - it would be easy to fix. Just replace the unsuitable AM with a more suitable one. But it's much more complex than that. We don't play a standard 4-2-3-1. It's a different set-up with a different sort of player in what would normally be the AM role.
 
IMO, Rooney (and RVP) would be a better player for us if we had a better midfield. I think too often hes been sacrificed for the good of the team due to lacking in other departments. I kinda get what chester is saying.
 
Rossa said:
What do you mean by best player? Are you talking about form, in which case I agree. If, however, you are talking about class, I think RVP is the better player and has been for a little while now. He's a better finisher, better technique, at least as intelligent on the ball, links up better, better passer and I dare say about as quick these days. Thus, Rooney only has work rate and strength where his abilities outshines RVP's.

My argument would pretty much be that Rooney is a top class player, but we have a better striker than him in RVP, and as a number ten, I think other players would improve the side. Therefore, I'm not against selling him solely based on what the team needs (he's obviously far too good to be a squad player). The fact that I think he's a prick (obviously based on what I see in the media - he may be a stand up mate for all I know) and should have been thrown out of the club in the summer is another argument altogether.
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Rooney is our best player. He simply has more influence on a game than anyone on United. Even more than RVP who's brilliant and a shade behind Rooney for our next best player.
 
Yup I think RvP is better as well, but Rooney has obviously been better this season so far.
 
Rooney touch is too inconstant. His best isn't as good as rvp and his worst is far worse.
 
fergieisold said:
It's clear to me that we have some fantastic players, but Rooney is the best. He's frustrating at times with his loose balls and untidy first touches but without him we'd be weaker than if we lost any other player.
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Nah, that myth was destroyed last season where we did great despite him hugely underperforming or not plying.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Nah, that myth was destroyed last season where we did great despite him hugely underperforming or not plying.
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Yet he was our 2nd best player in terms of productivity.

Rooney is our best and most influential player. Him being a grade A prick does not change that.
 
akash02 said:
Yet he was our 2nd best player in terms of productivity.

Rooney is our best and most influential player. Him being a grade A prick does not change that.
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Productivity isn't everything. You can put up good numbers yet others can be better than you.

Van Persie is our best player and has been the best in the premier league over a period. And he's quite capable of carrying us as he proved last season where we got better results than at the start of this season. Rooney being a prick has nothing to do with that. He's also a quality player.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Productivity isn't everything. You can put up good numbers yet others can be better than you.

Van Persie is our best player and has been the best in the premier league over a period. And he's quite capable of carrying us as he proved last season where we got better results than at the start of this season. Rooney being a prick has nothing to do with that. He's also a quality player.
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Van Persie had a better season than Rooney last time around, I am not arguing that.Although we still wouldn't have won the title without Rooney's contributions and Rooney stepped up when RVP was going through his goal drought.

But when Rooney is in form he's far more influential to the team and much more involved than Van Persie is. Comparing the results from last season is a pointless exercise given the changes that have taken place.
 
Anyone who doubts what Rooney brings to the side is too caught up in what happens off the field and they let that cloud their judgement on him as a player.

He is our x-factor. When he plays well, he is the main man, he is the one who is going to get things going and usually has a direct impact on the result.

Sure other players have claims to be 'better' and 'more important' but when Rooney is in form, he is our main man.
 
akash02 said:
Van Persie had a better season than Rooney last time around, I am not arguing that.Although we still wouldn't have won the title without Rooney's contributions and Rooney stepped up when RVP was going through his goal drought.

But when Rooney is in form he's far more influential to the team and much more involved than Van Persie is. Comparing the results from last season is a pointless exercise given the changes that have taken place.
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He's more involved because he plays in the number 10 position. It's his role to get that involved. It's rvp's job to open up defences through his movement. While Rooney due to his position gets involved more, he doesn't decide matched as frequently as van Persie does and also messes up more moves through poor first touches than your usual number 10. It's all about opinions of course. For me personally, rvp I'd the better player and has consistently proven that ever since he got over his injury issues.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Van Persie is our best player and has been the best in the premier league over a period. And he's quite capable of carrying us as he proved last season where we got better results than at the start of this season. Rooney being a prick has nothing to do with that. He's also a quality player.
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But Rooney has been better at the start of this season, thus warranting major thinking over being our 'best player'. I don't think you can deny that. Also I've seen RVP go through patches of having a 'poor and inconsistent' touch. I think it's relative. Rooney may appear to be inconsistent but I don't personally think it effects his game that much. Or as much as the stick that Cafsters love to beat him with suggests.
 
ghaliboy said:
But Rooney has been better at the start of this season, thus warranting major thinking over being our 'best player'. I don't think you can deny that. Also I've seen RVP go through patches of having a 'poor and inconsistent' touch. I think it's relative. Rooney may appear to be inconsistent but I don't personally think it effects his game that much. Or as much as the stick that Cafsters love to beat him with suggests.
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So who is the better player is decided by a start to a season? I'd rather take a 2 or 3 year spell. Otherwise we might as well take October and call januzaj our best player. Rvp has anyway struggled with injuries this season and is still putting up excellent numbers btw.
 
fergieisold said:
It's clear to me that we have some fantastic players, but Rooney is the best. He's frustrating at times with his loose balls and untidy first touches but without him we'd be weaker than if we lost any other player.
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I disagree with this more than any other post regarding Rooney's quality. He is a very good player when on form, but we have a fair few players that if you took out of the team we'd be far weaker. Mostly because we have an few other talented players who can play in his position. So if we say Rooney is an 8, he'd be replaced by a 7. Whereas De Gea, Rafael, RVP or Carrick would be replaced by someone a few levels lower. It doesn't make them better players, but it makes them more important in my opinion.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Van Persie is our best player and has been the best in the premier league over a period. And he's quite capable of carrying us as he proved last season where we got better results than at the start of this season. Rooney being a prick has nothing to do with that. He's also a quality player.
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Before RvP, Rooney was carrying the team with tevez, Berbatov etc. Both of them have the capapbilities to carry teams. What's your point here?

RvP "was" our best player last season. This season till date has all been Rooney's.
 
Absolute Fruit Cake said:
Before RvP, Rooney was carrying the team with tevez, Berbatov etc. Both of them have the capapbilities to carry teams. What's your point here?

RvP "was" our best player last season. This season till date has all been Rooney's.
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If you hadn't gotten butthurt over someone calling rvp as the better player, you would have noticed the point. I was responding to claims that Rooney can carry the team which is a positive in his comparison with rvp by saying that so can rvp (which is exactly what you just said).

This seasons just started. Rvp has been very good for someone who's not been fully fit. His numbers are excellent. Rooneys been better but probably down to not having injections stuck into him. They're both great players. But for me rvp when not injured is a superior player.
 
I don't know why people bother to argue over these things. "Best player" accolades are obviously subjective.

It's hard to like Wayne Rooney, but it's also hard to ignore that he's generally played really well this season for the most part. One thing you have to admit though, and the same could be said for last season, is that even when he's not at his best he is productive and manages to affect games with goals and assists.

He does have irritating moments though when he's sloppy and his touch deserts him and he loses the ball in risky positions. Fergie often said that when the game is tight Rooney is at his best but when were comfortable he is the worst for getting sloppy and easing off. There was no reason for his passing and touch to be as bad as it was in that second half against Fulham yesterday, and with Moyes calling him a leader, it's at times like those, when we are a bit under the cosh, the leaders should lead by upholding their standards, thus encouraging the rest of the team to. He can drop off so badly sometimes after being brilliant.

I still think there is an argument that the team would be better off and more balanced with an attacking midfielder in behind a main striker (RvP or Rooney) than it is with two up top though. I think that will be Adnan's role in the future, and whilst Kagawa could do it now his form isn't as good (although he hasn't really been given a run to gain form so it's a bit catch 22 for him). He can make us a bit inflexible but on current form he definitely deserves to be in the team. The team benefits more when he plays a bit deeper, but he by his own admission wants to play as a striker.
 
LR7 said:
I don't know why people bother to argue over these things. "Best player" accolades are obviously subjective.

It's hard to like Wayne Rooney, but it's also hard to ignore that he's generally played really well this season for the most part. One thing you have to admit though, and the same could be said for last season, is that even when he's not at his best he is productive and manages to affect games with goals and assists.

He does have irritating moments though when he's sloppy and his touch deserts him and he loses the ball in risky positions. Fergie often said that when the game is tight Rooney is at his best but when were comfortable he is the worst for getting sloppy and easing off. There was no reason for his passing and touch to be as bad as it was in that second half against Fulham yesterday, and with Moyes calling him a leader, it's at times like those, when we are a bit under the cosh, the leaders should lead by upholding their standards, thus encouraging the rest of the team to. He can drop off so badly sometimes after being brilliant.

I still think there is an argument that the team would be better off and more balanced with an attacking midfielder in behind a main striker (RvP or Rooney) than it is with two up top though. I think that will be Adnan's role in the future, and whilst Kagawa could do it now his form isn't as good (although he hasn't really been given a run to gain form so it's a bit catch 22 for him). He can make us a bit inflexible but on current form he definitely deserves to be in the team. The team benefits more when he plays a bit deeper, but he by his own admission wants to play as a striker.
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I definitely want to see that eventually. I personally don't like Rooney as a number 10 and prefer him right up top. Problem is we have the leagues two best strikers but I guess it isn't the worst problem in the world :)
 
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