So suddenly 'we should have sold him' posters are back in force?
10
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 37
- Goals
- 14
- Assists
- 6
- Yellow cards
- 4
- Red cards
- 1
- Status
Didn't look 'past it' when he was on one of them scoring streaks and was our best player until Van Gaal permanently played him as a defensive midfielder. Play Van Persie or Falcao for two months as a holding midfielder and then see how they play up front straight away. Still think Rooney would be best in the number 10 role though.
Our best player... Maybe that's why we aren't that good.
Are they never not in force? Someone is always good for a 300k, granny shagger or doesn't want to play CM comment.
He didn't play 2 months as a holding midfielder either. That was about a game and a half. If he's our best player why hasn't he had a good game in 2015? His best game of the season was newcastle on Boxing Day and he played midfield that day. Best player though. Really shouldn't have given him the new contract. Like I said in the other thread we will witness his decline each passing game over the next 4 years. He is 30 this year, and people say Falcao and RVP are too old yet there's like 2 and a half years between the 3 of them, and 2 of them won't be here come 2016. Watching other top sides you see forwards with different qualities and right now our 3 lack pretty much all of them. You're screwed when your "best" player can't even play 5 yard passes consistently and has one shot on goal in about 900 minutes of football.
Rooney may have been made our main player since Ronaldo left but he has rarely been our best player. He can be a good contributor in a great team but he is not going to lead us to glory. We have won two prem titles since Ronaldo left, '10-11 and '12-13, in neither year was Rooney the main reason why we won. In the former season Nani, vidic and even Berbatov were more influential, in the latter, hands down RVP was the main reason.
It's just his second game playing further forward recently isn't it? It's not like he's been disastrous or anything in both these games. Granted, he was just decent and obviously more is required of him.
Tbh even I have niggling suspicions whether he could replicate his earlier form up front but hopefully he proves me wrong. Trust me, we need him firing with Falcao and RVP mucking about and esp with our chances of making top 4 heavily hinging on him.
Tbh even I have niggling suspicions whether he could replicate his earlier form up front but hopefully he proves me wrong. Trust me, we need him firing with Falcao and RVP mucking about and esp with our chances of making top 4 heavily hinging on him.
Rooney's touch and hold up doesn't really warrant him a striker role. He is best as a support striker who drops deep to pick up the ball and help the midfield.
He was our best player in 09/10 and 11/12. In the former season, he was absolutely integral to the team and hands down our best player. I'd even argue that he was more vital to the team than Ronaldo in 07/08. When Rooney got injured everything went to shit. We lost that title decider against Chelsea without him and lost the CL quarter finals against Bayern with an unfit Rooney being hurried back for the second leg (exacerbated his injury if I remember correctly). I have no doubts in my mind that we'd have won the league and made the CL final if Rooney was fit and firing for the business end of the season. Berbatov was extremely underwhelming during that season and when Rooney was injured iirc. Rooney was on course to match/beat Ronaldo's 42 goal mark before his injury as well.
I wouldn't say it's his fault that we threw away the league in 11/12 when he was fantastic and brilliant once again.
IIRC Rooney was pretty good in the second half of the 10/11 season as well. If anything Berbatov's contributions tend to be overplayed. He scored 5 goals against Blackburn and 3 goals against Pool (a great achievement and loved that overhead kick myself), almost half of his entire goal tally in 2 matches. Not trying to downplay his performances but he was never influential throughout that season and 'led' us to the title. In fact he didn't even feature in the CL final.
If you want to beat Rooney, use a different stick but don't try to wrongly belittle his previous contributions.
You jumped the shark in the bolded part. No one who knows anything about football would make that argument.
I'm not sure I agree that Rooney in 2009/10 was more important to the team than Ronaldo in 2007/08 but it's hardly an outrageous claim. In 2007/08, we had a variety of goal-scorers, the best defence in the world and a very strong squad. Clearly, Ronaldo was our main man and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful without him, but we still had a great team.
On the other hand, in 2009/10 we were a far weaker team. We truly relied on Rooney to make things happen for us and - as pointed out above - when he got injured, everything fell apart.
Without Rooney, the 2009/10 team showed that they couldn't cope in his absence. Look no further than the 0-0 draw away to Blackburn - a match which could have potentially swung the title race our way - as proof of that. In contrast, the 2007/08 team without Ronaldo would probably still have challenged for the title. As I said, it's a difficult comparison to make, but it's not crazy.
It is a controversial point and I can see how you can struggle to understand the point I was trying to make, by just taking that statement at face value.
Did Rooney have a better season than Ronaldo or was better than him? Absolutely not. The 07/08 team was an excellent team with an excellent supporting cast for Ronaldo in Rooney, Tevez, Scholes, Giggs, Carrick etc. We did rely on Ronaldo for match winning performances but not to the same extent as Rooney on 09/10. If memory serves me right, we were ridiculously dependent on Rooney to drag us through that season with many players not being great overall. Valencia was good that season but I'm struggling to think of many more. Nani in the second half of the season I think? Most certainly not Berbatov or Owen...
Put it this way, I would have been much more at ease going into a match in 07/08 with Ronaldo injured than Rooney in 09/10. Just look at the business end of the 09/10 season when Rooney was injured and you might begin to comprehend the point that I was trying to make. That's all not to say Ronaldo wasn't integral to the 07/08 season, he obviously was. However, I don't think it is ludicrous to claim that Rooney was more important to the team in 09/10 than Ronaldo in 07/08.
Man Utd 2:0 Sunderland
Once again, average at best for at least 10 matches in a row, doesnt deserve to start every match for me. Does he have a little bit class in him? And why does he have to complain/shout to the ref everytime he whistles, so pointless.
Captain,Leader,Legend.
Well done Rooney!
Another penalty. Overtaken RVP in penalties this season.
10+ Goals in 11 straight seasons
Things Rooney is better at than Messi:
- Penalties
- Heading the ball into open goals
- Penalties
- Heading the ball into open goals
Poor today. No doubt about it. Falcao offered much more movement. Scored a penalty and a rebound header. Ignore the headlines tomorrow.
He is a forward, end of.
Falcao was terrible in the first half, the only good thing he did was conceding a penalty, Rooney had an average performance and scored 2 goals, RVP and Falcao can't even score on their best days
Now Louis me aul' flower, there's your 20+ goals a season striker, two in one game today. You didn't know it but you had him all along.
Our only capable striker... Hopefully he actually starts up there on his own from now on.
This.
Good to see him scoring again, keep him playing striker and more will come.
Two goals, but a very average performance, at best. Good to see him scoring though.
Your agenda is ridiculous.What, he played as bad as Falcao yet a couple of goals will mask that again. Ultimate stats player.
Penalty and rebound other than that not special. But it can also be that he'll go on a decent scoring run from now on, lets hope that.
Agree, thought he was particularly poor first half and he picked up in the second slightly but not great. Happy that he got a couple of goals.
Well we need strikers who score goals. Rooney scores goals. Let's keep at it with him up front.
Don't know why everyone dismisses the penalty, it was 0-0 he's not exactly flowing with goals and he dispatches it brilliantly, a lot of other players would have bottled that. He should be playing upfront from now on, he brings goals and movement, I don't know what game some idiots on here were watching he was constantly making runs and creating space in there and with a bit more composure with the crossing we could have had another few from that. It seems some on here do have agenda's when it comes to certain players I think we were good today alot better than we've been in terms of style of play, it probably took the bit of stick from the crowd earloy on to get us going but the width in our game made us create panic in their box, like I said before just need to improve that final ball.
Much needed confidence.
Thought he did well today even without the goals. Some dodgy passing here and there but generally a solid performance.
Play him up top or nearer to the goal and he'll score. That simple.
I couldn't give a feck how, but Wayne scores goals, even he plays average at best. Play him on his own upfront and we will be better off at the end of the season.
I have come to terms ages ago with his all round game not being as good as it used to be. But at least you can't argue with his stats. Plus he is just not a midfielder, full stop.
You can also not expect him to perform wonders when most of our other players seem to be clueless and our manager plays him in every thinkable position bar defence and gk.
You can also not expect him to perform wonders when most of our other players seem to be clueless and our manager plays him in every thinkable position bar defence and gk.
I am no fan of Rooney. His overall play today was unimpressive but goals win matches and that is what we sorely need. As poorly creative as our midfielders are we need someone who can still manage to put the ball in the net. He is not as skillful as RVP or Falcao but he does seem to find the net so he deserves to be the main striker at the moment. The Valencia cross to a delayed Rooney entrance into the box has in the past yielded some goals.
- Status