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2014-15 Performances

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5.9 Season Average Rating
Appearances
37
Goals
14
Assists
6
Yellow cards
4
Red cards
1
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No one said he will be dropped immidiately, nor that he will be dropped for the likes of Chicharito. It's still early, but once van Persie returns, he won't be playing whenever he decides to like it was the case with Moyes. Same goes for van Persie, I wouldn't be surprised if 3 of them(including Welbeck) end up being rotated quite often for each other and end up playing similar number of minutes depending of their form, and not names like it was the case before(and that was what most of us were saying anyway).

Btw Rooney doesn't look anything better at the moment than he was for us over last few seasons when he was in top form, his end product is great(but that comes and goes) and his all around play is pretty much the same - good, but nothing exceptional, we had lot of better performers than him at this tour. Still has those frustrating moments when he looks as agile as Vidic in some situations and of course his first touch is still inconsistent for top player. Out of Mata, Welbeck and him, technically he is still the weakest link but he makes up with some other things, but once he stops scoring I can see van Gaal having problem with it. It would be great if some of us end up being proved wrong and he ends up having great season(not just in terms of goals), as long as it's good for the team.
 
Have to say I think Rooney has looked excellent so far under Van Gaal. I'm one of his critics but he's been far more effective in the new system for me.
 
Man Utd 3:1 Liverpool
Can please someone tell him that he has other players to pass to beside our right wingback?
 
I was hoping Van Gaal would make him stop doing this slow crossfield pass all the time. It just kills the momentum of the attack.
 
Bojan11 said:
I was hoping Van Gaal would make him stop doing this slow crossfield pass all the time. It just kills the momentum of the attack.
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After the Madrid game Young spoke about how LvG was telling them to build fast on one side before switching the play to the other wing. Wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what's being asked of him, although you could argue he's been doing it at the wrong times
 
Amar__ said:
Can please someone tell him that he has other players to pass to beside our right wingback?
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Its as if when we're up against it our players lose composure and retreat to their comfort zones. Actually Rooney hasn't been very bad, he's not seen enough of the ball to be bad, but when he has had it its always out wide. His decision making has been totally off.
 
He's only done that like twice so far, and once was the best option available considering the area around him was crowded with their players. This is just people criticising him for the sake of it.
 
bosnian_red said:
He's only done that like twice so far, and once was the best option available considering the area around him was crowded with their players. This is just people criticising him for the sake of it.
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He did it 4 times, 2 times in the begining stages, and two times at the end, and pretty much every time(except maybe once when he didn't have much options) he killed our play. It's not the style we are playing at the moment at all, especially when he does it even though he has much better options to pass to.
 
He really wanted to win that match, fair do's, as did we Wayne !
 
Is he the best player in the league at being in the right place at the right time? For a good few years now the majority of his goals are him coming onto the ball at the right time or being there for a rebound..

The ball falls to Rooney in space in the box so often.. is it clever movement/positioning? Or is that when we complain all the time about him dropping deep it actually allows him to get into the box unnoticed. Although a few times you'll notice him pull off defenders at the right time too, so maybe a bit of both.

Considered making a thread for it as I've wondered it for a while yet never really see it mentioned, but I guess that's effort.
 
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Might get some abuse, but does anyone else think that the captaincy actually hinders him? For me he was trying to hard at times, I think to get the best out of Rooney you just need to let him relax and play his game, let him play on instinct. when he's captain I think he's too distracted and it ends up taking away from his game.

Just my two cents anyway.
 
Mixed game from Rooney tonight I thought. Had some good and bad moments, but Rooney being Rooney, comes up with an important goal from a great assist by Hernandez, which ultimately allowed us to go on and win the game.

Glad he got 90 mins. Can only be good for his fitness ahead of the upcoming season.
 
Not bad at all considering the stinkers he normally has against Liverpool, happy days.
 
Would love to get the thoughts on those who said van Gaal won't see a place for Rooney.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
There was always a place for him, he is a class player, but I dont want him has captain.
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When van Gaal was announced, heaps thought Rooney would clash with him and he would be first out the door and RVP would be the main striker. This is obviously when many thought 433 would be the most used formation.
 
Please don't make him captain. I can live with him being with us and contributing but to make him captain would just signal that we are controlled by media/marketing and over-rated hype.
 
As an aside, I don't really get why the meeja have decided that Van Gaal's comments make him more likely to make Rooney captain?

Giving him the armband means he's on the shortlist, sure, but the comments after the game seemed to - if anything - play down the likelihood of this being a permanent decision.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
As an aside, I don't really get why the meeja have decided that Van Gaal's comments make him more likely to make Rooney captain?

Giving him the armband means he's on the shortlist, sure, but the comments after the game seemed to - if anything - play down the likelihood of this being a permanent decision.
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Yep, he gave it him as he had decided he was likely to play the 90 minutes - the same reason he gave for giving it to both Smalling and Cleverley.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
As an aside, I don't really get why the meeja have decided that Van Gaal's comments make him more likely to make Rooney captain?

Giving him the armband means he's on the shortlist, sure, but the comments after the game seemed to - if anything - play down the likelihood of this being a permanent decision.
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The press are creating stories based on every little thing Van Gaal says. There's nothing in his comments to indicate Van Gaal wants Rooney to be his full time captain, and the fact Fletcher has a) captained the side more in the U.S. than anyone else and b) was sent up with Rooney to lift the cup last night would indicate, at the very least, that Van Gaal hasn't ruled out giving the armband to Fletch. However, that does not suit the media obsession with Rooney so its being ignored.

On Rooney himself, did ok last night. Not his best game but when we needed him to pick a finish out of his locker he did. It was his first clear sight at goal and he dispatched it, with ease actually. In his place many would have missed. Rooney didn't. Can't ask more than that from a centre forward. Yes, his build up wasn't as good as it has been blah, blah, blah. But a centre forward is there to score goals. He scored when we needed him to. End of really.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Saw this tweet in the van gaal thread.



It is me or his looking leaner than he has done in years?
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Watched the game in HD last night, and it's most apparent in his face when the camera catches him square on. You can actually see pronounced cheek bones, which indicates a bit of weight loss.
 
I think Wayne has basically been on an upwards curve fitness and form-wise since he came back at the end of last season. Essentially, his training with England in Brazil and his United pre season have meant he's been going in the right direction for a while now and it's starting to show. Could be a great season for him.
 
He took a lot of flak during the World Cup, he's probably out to prove a point this season.
 
Zen86 said:
He took a lot of flak during the World Cup, he's probably out to prove a point this season.
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He'll be out to prove he is better than Sturridge, which he is.
 
It was so predictable really - after getting such bizarrely venomous amounts of criticism, you just knew he would prove people wrong. He is simply a fantastic footballer.
 
It's absurd that some United fans wanting to offload him before van Gaal arrived. We couldn't foresee that LVG would implement the 3-5-2 to accommodate the trio of van Persie, Mata and Rooney, but the aforementioned are unquestionably our best outfield players. Even if we aren't able to extract the absolute maximum out of those three - and I still have my reservations - we can't afford to lose players of Rooney's ability.

He will have a very good season I predict. I was under the early impression that van Persie would be our star performer next season, due to his relationship with van Gaal and slight favouritism from the manager due to his captaincy for the national team and how LVG speaks in such high praise of him. However, Rooney looks excellent, not only in terms of his effectiveness, but also his overall game and fitness.

It will be interesting to see LVG's selections. The potential of a Rooney, Mata and van Persie attack is mouth-watering, but I think van Gaal will want Welbeck's pace, link-up play and athletisicm in the team. It's so important for this system to be a success, as we witnessed in the first half last night and any inclusion in the team would come at the expense of either RVP or Rooney. That could be an issue, but the latter two pick up enough injuries for all to get a fair share of games.
 
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