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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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Rooney has always been very average in midfield going back a few years when Fergie played him there for a while.
 
Seeing Barca play and Suarez be dangerous as the 9 on the break reminded me again that before we bought RVP I had no doubt they best move for us was to use Rooney as the 9 and buy quick, technically skilled players to work off of him. Herrera and Di Maria are a good start.

Let Falcao go back to Monaco, sign a great wide attacker and the best CM we can get and we'll be buzzing again with Rooney as our 9.

-----------Rooney--------------------(RVP, Wilson)
-Signing1------------Di Maria------(Mata, Januzaj, Nani)
-----Herrera---Signing2----------- (Di Maria, Mata, Fellaini)
-----------Blind--------------------- (Carrick)
Shaw-------------------------Rafael (Signing 3, Valencia/Young, Blackett)
------Rojo------Smalling----------- (Jones, Evans, McNair)
-----------De Gea------------------- (Valdes)

It's not perfect and we might well need a CB upgrade as well as a 2nd wide starter to let Di Maria play centrally and rotate for 2 spots with Herrera, but this is the basic, normal thing that most continental managers would do with out squad, right? Get another box to box CM to solidify the midfield, give Di Maria freedom even if it means forcing him wide more than he's best used at, play Rooney as the creative 9 who doesn't just clog the middle up and minimize the number of static footballers out there.
 
We're going to turn him into another Alan smith should we persist on playing him in midfield.
 
Q.P.R. 0:2 Man Utd
He can be gobshite at times - just utterly rubbish. His passing and time on the ball today are just atrocious. He's so much better playing as a striker.
 
Not great today, in midfield he gives the ball away far too often and goes for the wrong pass.
 
Put him back upfront where he needs to be, put di Maria deeper and get Herrera in midfield. It's not even something really hard.
 
Did a good job refereeing the game today.

Would be nice if he could start playing football again, mind.
 
We've taken a 30 goal striker and completely blunted him.

His pass to Valencia for the opener was evidence that he should always be stationed at the sharp end of the pitch - brilliant vision.

Why don't we just buy a proper midfielder seeing as we have loadsa money?
 
The poor streak continues. Newcastle was a clear anomaly. Passing a continual bum note throughout. This must be seen and recorded by LVG and his staff.

Energy was good today. That has to be commended as it was a concern previously. Needs to be swapped with Di Maria positionally for me now. Let him play alongside Falcao if RVP remains sidelined.
 
Was shit today.

Bobcat said:
Poor today, but that's understandable HES NOT A F*CKING MIDFIELDER.

I swear, if Van Gaal keeps playing Rooney in MF and Di Maria as a striker, im going to commit seppuku with a butter knife
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Email this post to LVG please.

If people from the caf can see this, then it should be fecking obvious.
 
Waste of his abilities. Let him focus on making a difference in the final third.

It's fine for the odd game the way fergie did it but considering him as your main central midfielder, is laughable.
 
Mixed performance from Rooney today. Made some simple errors (wasn't the only one) but at times, made some really nice passes, i.e., one that led to the first goal. Like many have said, though, get him up top.
 
So LVG has taken our highest combined scorer/assister and put him in a position where he's not doing either and we're looking worse. What is more worrying is that he has made the position permanent now and we have to look forward to more poor/average performances in midfield from him rather than the guy who was looking like scoring or assisting every game.

Why is he doing this? Our midfielders are back from injury so I have no idea. Seems like he just wants to boost his own ego by having a player change positions and for it to come off. He thought he was a genius after the Newcastle game but now its clear it isn't working and he's too stubborn to let it go. On this form in midfield, Rooney shouldn't play. Same goes for Di Maria and playing up front.
 
He can't spot a run to his left, it's like he is blind on the left eye, every pass, every instinct seems to be aimed at the right flank. Curious habit, shares it with Gerrard.
 
He was horrid today.

Play him up front or don't play him at all, simple as. We can see it, LVG can't.
 
you've got a guy who is quickly closing in on being the top scorer in Man Utd and England history, and we're playing him so deep he has next to no chance to score.


It really is odd. A game or two if need really be, but not every game
 
drdoityourself said:
He can't spot a run to his left, it's like he is blind on the left eye, every pass, every instinct seems to be aimed at the right flank. Curious habit, shares it with Gerrard.
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I've noticed that too, it's amazing! Drives me nuts.
 
Feed Me said:
We've taken a 30 goal striker and completely blunted him.

His pass to Valencia for the opener was evidence that he should always be stationed at the sharp end of the pitch - brilliant vision.

Why don't we just buy a proper midfielder seeing as we have loadsa money?
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Yep. He's a less-genius Totti who's more of an aerial threat. We should surround him with pace and technical skills.
 
Our most integral player over last 3-4 years in terms of goals and assists, and always consistent in both respects every season, now being pushed into midfiled, makes no sense

As hes not good there, and when you have herrera, di maria, mata, fellaini, blind, carrick why does Rooney have to play out of position?
 
drdoityourself said:
He can't spot a run to his left, it's like he is blind on the left eye, every pass, every instinct seems to be aimed at the right flank. Curious habit, shares it with Gerrard.
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It goes for his defending also, the number of times QPR were allowed to double up on Blind while Rooney is nowhere to be found was driving me insane.
matherto said:
Play him up front or don't play him at all, simple as. We can see it, LVG can't.
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Agreed.
 
I can't believe the clueless pundits compare him to Scholes.

He is miles behind Scholes as a midfielder and will never be as good.

That chance at the end of the first half, where he could have shot, but just passed it straight at the defender summed him up as a midfielder.

Play him striker.
 
Thought there would be more posts in this thread. He really was wasteful with possession and poor overall. Clearly not a midfielder and needs to be moved back up front. But will it actually happen? Most likely not.
 
Bojan11 said:
I can't believe the clueless pundits compare him to Scholes.

He is miles behind Scholes as a midfielder and will never be as good.

That chance at the end of the first half, where he could have shot, but just passed it straight at the defender summed him up as a midfielder.

Play him striker.
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This.

Anyone comparing Rooney to Scholes is just insulting the Ginger man himself. One thing people need to understand, coaches and pundits alike, is that Rooney is totally useless as a midfielder. Until the very end of his career, Rooney should and must play as a striker.
 
Kakeru said:
This.

Anyone comparing Rooney to Scholes is just insulting the Ginger man himself. One thing people need to understand, coaches and pundits alike, is that Rooney is totally useless as a midfielder. Until the very end of his career, Rooney should and must play as a striker.
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I'm in the Rooney up front camp but that statement is just wrong. He isn't totally useless in midfield, he has proven he can play well there.
 
Eric'sCollar said:
I'm in the Rooney up front camp but that statement is just wrong. He isn't totally useless in midfield, he has proven he can play well there.
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If we talk about ball retention and the ability to make good passes from deeper positions, would you ever ask Didier Drogba, Luis Suarez or Zlatan Ibrahimovic to play in midfield because they have some of those "qualities" to play in midfield? They would be the first to tell their managers to go "F" themselves if something like that happened.

Rooney, like any other striker, is a much bigger threat up front than anywhere deeper. LVG is not helping anybody by playing him in a position where he will never be among the best.
 
Kakeru said:
If we talk about ball retention and the ability to make good passes from deeper positions, would you ever ask Didier Drogba, Luis Suarez or Zlatan Ibrahimovic to play in midfield because they have some of those "qualities" to play in midfield? They would be the first to tell their managers to go "F" themselves if something like that happened.

Rooney, like any other striker, is a much bigger threat up front than anywhere deeper. LVG is not helping anybody by playing him in a position where he will never be among the best.
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That has absolutely nothing to do with your statement saying he is totally useless in midfield. I agree he should be up front, that's not what I was questioning.
 
Yeah he's not totally useless there but I'd have herrera or fellaini ahead of him as a midfielder. Rooney should only start if the others aren't fit. It's an insult to our other midfielder to say that a striker in the team is a better midfielder than them.
 
Eric'sCollar said:
That has absolutely nothing to do with your statement saying he is totally useless in midfield. I agree he should be up front, that's not what I was questioning.
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Based on what I saw of him against QPR combined to the way he performed in the previous 5 matches (after Liverpool), that should be the end of that silly stint in midfield for him. Using Rooney in midfield should only come as a last resort when injuries strike us down hard.
 
Hoping Rooney plays in his best position, so if he doesn't perform, I can have my usual moaning about him.

Now the moaning of his average performances feels a bit unjustified, because he's clearly not a CM but still work hard on the pitch. Bah..
 
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With all the fecking notes LVG takes, you'd imagine he'd have noted the number of times Rooney has given away the ball or been dispossessed in Midfield. He's not a CM for feckssake! Play him upfront!
 
mlclauhk said:
With all the fecking notes LVG takes, you'd imagine he'd have noted the number of times Rooney has given away the ball or been dispossessed in Midfield. He's not a CM for feckssake! Play him upfront!
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Apparently he "hasn't impressed" as a striker apart from the finishing of course.
 
It has probably something to do with him not being able to act as a targetman which is something LvG requires of his striker and he doesn't have the pace like Di Maria and Wilson for the second striker position.
We have to use him as a #10 then, that will mean Mata getting dropped.

Bit of an issue dropping Rooney since he is the captain and always have to play.
 
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