[Sam]

He's beyond parody now.

He actually plays like a 40 year old who's come out of retirement for his testimonial, just plodding round the pitch playing the occasional long pass that looks good on the eye.

 

[Ananke]

[


I like your optimism but its not going to happen. First for country, i kind of agree that he will be dropped to the bench but without a doubt Rooney will be on that plane. Even if he has the worse season ever, he'll be on that plane to France next year. For club, Rooney salary is huge and i cant see any club taking Rooney with that huge salary. I don't think Rooney isn't going to settle for a cut salary, so he'll most likely just run down his contract and then go in 2019.

MLS would cough it up.

 

[Mutter Merkel]

He's beyond parody now.

He actually plays like a 40 year old who's come out of retirement for his testimonial, just plodding round the pitch playing the occasional long pass that looks good on the eye.

He tackles like Boris Johnson these days, too.

 

[Sam]

He tackles like Boris Johnson these days, too.

He would struggle in the Championship these days. I mean he genuinely would. Thats how bad he is.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Just posted this in another thread but looking at the poll I'm not the only one who thinks this is an issue of woeful form, rather than him suddenly being physically incapable of playing anywhere close to his usual level in the weeks running up to his 30th birthday. Which begs the question, why is he playing so badly?

I would put this down to three things:

1. Massive crisis in confidence.
2. Not getting enough chances. Which, in turn, puts more pressure on him and adds to 1.
3. The captaincy thing. Van Gaal loves to make football seem incredibly complicated. Rooney has always been an instinctive footballer. Now he's being asked to be the embodiment of his manager on the pitch, with all the chat about phases of possession and micro-management of the position of every player on the pitch. Is it any wonder if the whole thing has blown Rooney's (simple) mind? And a blown mind brings us back to point 1.

So yeah, he's been shit all season but you have to wonder if the player himself is able to turn things round, without the other issues being addressed...

 

[Sky1981]

Just posted this in another thread but looking at the poll I'm not the only one who thinks this is an issue of woeful form, rather than him suddenly being physically incapable of playing anywhere close to his usual level in the weeks running up to his 30th birthday. Which begs the question, why is he playing so badly?

I would put this down to three things:

1. Massive crisis in confidence.
2. Not getting enough chances. Which, in turn, puts more pressure on him and adds to 1.
3. The captaincy thing. Van Gaal loves to make football seem incredibly complicated. Rooney has always been an instinctive footballer. Now he's being asked to be the embodiment of his manager on the pitch, with all the chat about phases of possession and micro-management of the position of every player on the pitch. Is it any wonder if the whole thing has blown Rooney's (simple) mind? And a blown mind brings us back to point 1.

So yeah, he's been shit all season but you have to wonder if the player himself is able to turn things round, without the other issues being addressed...

He scores a hattrick, broke the england record, if that doesnt give him some confidence then what else?

People have been telling us it's just a drought and he'll find form once he got goals, he got it and still...

 

[Santoryo]

Aaaand I think that blaming Rooney situation on Moyes is just being lazy to be fair.

Someone has to go to prison

 

[SirAF]

I've been saying this since Moyes was appointed. Fergie had gotten RVP to play up front, and Kagawa to play behind him. Hernandez and Welbeck were good enough backups.

100x this.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

He scores a hattrick, broke the england record, if that doesnt give him some confidence then what else?

People have been telling us it's just a drought and he'll find form once he got goals, he got it and still...

Well, exactly. Game like the one in which he scored a hat-trick, and other goals he has scored this season indicate he's still capable of performing at a reasonable level. Even if only fleetingly. Which goes against the narrative that his problem is entirely physical.

 

[sunama]

that was back when it was 442 you have a go we have a go. Shearer was class but I wonder how many he's score under this philisophy

Shearer was top goal scorer for Blackburn.
Shearer was top goal scorer for Newcastle.
He was a proflific scorer for England.
He'd score in any team, in the No.9 position.

And this excuse that it is LVG who prevents strikers from scoring, is ridiculous. What manager would tell his strikers not to score? I mean seriously? And why didn't Martial listen to LVG, when he was our No.9 and free scoring?
Di Maria, last year, was also taking pop-shots at goal. Nobody seemed to tell him not to shoot.
It seems that only Falcao (last year) and Rooney (this year), are the one's who refuse to shoot/score.
Falcao is now proving his inability at Chelsea.
And Rooney is proving his inability at MUFC.

 

[fallengt]

I've been saying this since Moyes was appointed. Fergie had gotten RVP to play up front, and Kagawa to play behind him. Hernandez and Welbeck were good enough backups.

Iirc Fergie wanted Lewandowski, Hazard, Kagawa in that summer. So yes, I would say SAF had planned to push Rooney out of the team, He clearly saw this coming. Any manager post-Fergie era would struggle with Rooney whenever he's off form.

 

[sunama]

If he carries on playing like this he will put Hodgson in a difficult situation as well, the current Rooney can't lead the attack for England.

Hodgson already dealt with that situation.
Rooney was dropped for the last 2 England games, because he was "injured".
Bear in mind, Rooney played the game (for MUFC), before the 2 England games.
And on the day of the 2nd England game, he declared himself fit to play for MUFC (which he did, against Everton).

I think Hodgson will continue the "injured" excuse, if/when he wants to drop Rooney.

He'll start at Palace, he'll be absolute shit, we'll all come on here and talk about how shit he was and then next game he'll be the first name on the team sheet.

That sums it up nicely.

 

[Ixion]

Hodgson already dealt with that situation.
Rooney was dropped for the last 2 England games, because he was "injured".
Bear in mind, Rooney played the game (for MUFC), before the 2 England games.
And on the day of the 2nd England game, he declared himself fit to play for MUFC (which he did, against Everton).

I think Hodgson will continue the "injured" excuse, if/when he wants to drop Rooney.

I think that was more out of fairness to United really, there was no need for him to play and potentially get injured now England have qualified and he's broken the record so Hodgson did Van Gaal a favour.

I don't think Hodgson wants to drop Rooney yet, not that his international form has been that amazing, England had an easy group and he was gifted a bunch of penalties to get over the line past Sir Bobby.

 

[Rozay]

Just posted this in another thread but looking at the poll I'm not the only one who thinks this is an issue of woeful form, rather than him suddenly being physically incapable of playing anywhere close to his usual level in the weeks running up to his 30th birthday. Which begs the question, why is he playing so badly?

I would put this down to three things:

1. Massive crisis in confidence.
2. Not getting enough chances. Which, in turn, puts more pressure on him and adds to 1.
3. The captaincy thing. Van Gaal loves to make football seem incredibly complicated. Rooney has always been an instinctive footballer. Now he's being asked to be the embodiment of his manager on the pitch, with all the chat about phases of possession and micro-management of the position of every player on the pitch. Is it any wonder if the whole thing has blown Rooney's (simple) mind? And a blown mind brings us back to point 1.

So yeah, he's been shit all season but you have to wonder if the player himself is able to turn things round, without the other issues being addressed...

The gist of that ultimately seems to follow the 'it's someone else's fault ' line that the press trot out in discussion of Rooney. Even the captaincy thing is not an excuse for me. He's been saying from before Van Gaal came that he'd like to be the skipper, and I've never seen it mentioned as an issue with England, arguably an even bigger responsibility.

I'd be utterly astounded if he returns to any form close to what he was once capable of, rendering this just some sort of blip in form. Also, if this is just a spell of poor form and not a decline , when exactly did it start? If it was just this season, are we then saying that last season was Rooney at his best? Or the season before that? Because from my observation, he hasn't regularly performed at a level that is fitting of his status in the team for around 3 or 4 years now. So unless we are calling that just an extremely long spell of poor form, all signs point to a notable decline. Unless of course, there s an excuse for him not being as brilliant as he was in 11/12 since then that is of course down to someone else, and he will just return to his 'normal self' once whomever is responsible corrects their errors.

What level of Wayne Rooney performance do you actually expect him to return to if the factors you listed were not an issue? 4 years ago? Or another point since then that wouldnt have been anything special anyway?

 

[clarkydaz]

Shearer was top goal scorer for Blackburn.
Shearer was top goal scorer for Newcastle.
He was a proflific scorer for England.
He'd score in any team, in the No.9 position.

And this excuse that it is LVG who prevents strikers from scoring, is ridiculous. What manager would tell his strikers not to score? I mean seriously? And why didn't Martial listen to LVG, when he was our No.9 and free scoring?
Di Maria, last year, was also taking pop-shots at goal. Nobody seemed to tell him not to shoot.
It seems that only Falcao (last year) and Rooney (this year), are the one's who refuse to shoot/score.
Falcao is now proving his inability at Chelsea.
And Rooney is proving his inability at MUFC.

who said anything about telling strikers not to score? bar the odd screamer Shearer got his goals from the ball being in the box, something that doesn't happen here. Like what Scholes has just said about Sheringham, Cole and RVN being useless in this team as they need service.

Also Rooney was rested for England because the games were dead rubbers and LVG PUBLICLY said he would prefer Rooney didn't play as he needed a rest. If England needed points he would have played, nothing to do with being dropped for form

 

[Pogue Mahone]

The gist of that ultimately seems to follow the 'it's someone else's fault ' line that the press trot out in discussion of Rooney. Even the captaincy thing is not an excuse for me. He's been saying from before Van Gaal came that he'd like to be the skipper, and I've never seen it mentioned as an issue with England, arguably an even bigger responsibility.

I'd be utterly astounded if he returns to any form close to what he was once capable of, rendering this just some sort of blip in form. Also, if this is just a spell of poor form and not a decline , when exactly did it start? If it was just this season, are we then saying that last season was Rooney at his best? Or the season before that? Because from my observation, he hasn't regularly performed at a level that is fitting of his status in the team for around 3 or 4 years now. So unless we are calling that just an extremely long spell of poor form, all signs point to a notable decline. Unless of course, there s an excuse for him not being as brilliant as he was in 11/12 since then that is of course down to someone else, and he will just return to his 'normal self' once whomever is responsible corrects their errors.

What level of Wayne Rooney performance do you actually expect him to return to if the factors you listed were not an issue? 4 years ago? Or another point since then that wouldnt have been anything special anyway?

Oh I do think it's his own fault. Don't get me wrong. I just wonder whether he'd be quite so abject under another manager, playing for a different team. We've developed into a fantastically boring and conservative team. I can't imagine any attacking player looking at our games and thinking yes, I'll do well there. I'm just floating the idea that whatever is causing Rooney's to play so badly is exacerbated by Van Gaal's influence on our team.

 

[Happytom82]

something that doesn't happen here

Martial got the ball one time inside the box yesterday, and it was panic galore, but great defending of Ayala to save the day. Rooney got it and lost it every time.

 

[Rozay]

Oh I do think it's his own fault. Don't get me wrong. I just wonder whether he'd be quite so abject under another manager, playing for a different team. We've developed into a fantastically boring and conservative team. I can't imagine any attacking player looking at our games and thinking yes, I'll do well there. I'm just floating the idea that whatever is causing Rooney's to play so badly is exacerbated by Van Gaal's influence on our team.

Perhaps, but I think it could be argued both ways personally. As it can be said that Van Gaal is a restrictive manager who is inhibiting Rooney, it can be argued the other way (although it would still ultimately be LVGs fault tbh). Van Gaal's rep also takes a battering weekly for being negative or whatever, but you can argue that he couldn't possibly have looked a great attacking coach with Rooney, Persie, Falcao and Di Maria in the form they have been in since he came. Martial has had very little trouble exciting fans and being bold, and Van Gaal would look a lot better and a far more adventurous coach if he had another Martial instead of Rooney.

I don't think his intention is to be dull, it isn't his way or the Dutch way, not historically. I don't think he has had any great offensive players really since he's been here, except a couple months of Martial, and he probably longs for a Neymar or two, probably more than a Strootman.

 

[Sam]

Martial's performances upfront have put paid to any excuse Rooney could hide behind that its LVG's tactics that are restricting him. The same excuses that were used for Falcao and RVP last season, and have also been blown away by their continued poor performances at their new clubs.

LVG's football might be boring and slow (it is) but it doesn't make a player unable to control a ball, pass, dribble, run, hold off a challenge etc etc

Rooney's been slowly regressing since 2010, and has finally hit the wall. He's just hit it a few years earlier then anyone expected. His body is clearly ruined, you only have to take one look at the way he can't handle any physical presence anymore to see that. Whether that be pace or strength wise, he just can't deal with it. He either gets outpaced, or out muscled. We're two months into the season and he already looks absolutely shot.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

If he carries on playing like this he will put Hodgson in a difficult situation as well, the current Rooney can't lead the attack for England.

The current Rooney can't lead the line for hereford city

Was laser pen to blame for Rooney missing penalty?
Wayne Rooney's recent difficulties continue as he misses a penalty in Manchester United's shock cup exit to Middlesbrough, but was he put off?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ough-Wayne-Rooney-penalty-miss-laser-pen.html

A scouser not accepting responsibility for something? What ever next?

 

[SteveJ]

I blame the Loch Ness Laser.

 

[clarkydaz]

I don't think his intention is to be dull, it isn't his way or the Dutch way, not historically. I don't think he has had any great offensive players really since he's been here, except a couple months of Martial, and he probably longs for a Neymar or two, probably more than a Strootman.

his intention is to control the game, and if you get 3 chances and don't score/win then its your own fault. that's what I get from his aftermatch interviews

Longing for a Neymar/Bale to make your philosophy work is a bit of a cop out, any manager would do better with outstanding talent

 

[itso 7]

The English media will turn against him after the Euros, especially with him likely to stink up another major tournament, and this time as captain. They dont really care about his United performances, and will stick up for him and blame everyone else for his problems.

All foreign and younger players will take the fall for his shitness like the line that Scholes and his cast of comedians introduced on the CL night which was reiterated today when Scholes pretty much blamed everything under the sun than our thirty year old boy wonder. It's on Van Gaal to make the big call and let the team move forward.

 

[Rozay]

Longing for a Neymar/Bale to make your philosophy work is a bit of a cop out, any manager would do better with outstanding talent

True, but just as any manager including Enrique at Barcelona would struggle to play great attacking football with Rooney and Memphis in attack.

He does appear to like control, but I suspect that this is because he accepts he doesn't have the firepower to outgun teams, and he would be right. His method is the best method to win with this group I think. We are very hard to score against, yet we can't score for fun ourselves.

 

[The-Natural]

Oh I do think it's his own fault. Don't get me wrong. I just wonder whether he'd be quite so abject under another manager, playing for a different team. We've developed into a fantastically boring and conservative team. I can't imagine any attacking player looking at our games and thinking yes, I'll do well there. I'm just floating the idea that whatever is causing Rooney's to play so badly is exacerbated by Van Gaal's influence on our team.

You are a brilliant and highly respected poster on here so i'm genuinely interested to know what part of rooney's game do you think is still of the standard required of a literally undroppable captain on the highest salary in the entire club? From your viewing what way can he still be an influential player in this team? What i see is a player who, through playing flat out since he was 16 and through having a physique not made for sporting longevity has reached the end of his time at the top level to the point where pretty much every aspect of his game has rapidly deteriorated. The body just cannot execute what the mind wants it to. You seem to see a still great player who is instead just struggling with bad form- what is it that makes u think he's worth persevering with?

 

[khoazany]

I do agree a bit with the opinion above.I did predict that he will be done at top level sooner than normal players but seems LVG's philosophy and tactics accelerated that "process".

 

[Pogue Mahone]

You are a brilliant and highly respected poster on here so i'm genuinely interested to know what part of rooney's game do you think is still of the standard required of a literally undroppable captain on the highest salary in the entire club? From your viewing what way can he still be an influential player in this team? What i see is a player who, through playing flat out since he was 16 and through having a physique not made for sporting longevity has reached the end of his time at the top level to the point where pretty much every aspect of his game has rapidly deteriorated. The body just cannot execute what the mind wants it to. You seem to see a still great player who is instead just struggling with bad form- what is it that makes u think he's worth persevering with?

His age and the fact it's pretty much unheard of for any footballer to be finished this young, in the absence of serious injury problems. Plus he's never been a striker reliant on pace to hurt teams, so should age reasonably well.

 

[clarkydaz]

His age and the fact it's pretty much unheard of for any footballer to be finished this young, in the absence of serious injury problems. Plus he's never been a striker reliant on pace to hurt teams, so should age reasonably well.

its not his own pace as such, more everything around him has quickened. The pace and power of the premier league seems to be rapidly gaining on him. he wont forget how to score goals, but his body isn't doing what his mind wants anymore

 

[Acole9]

Maybe Xavi is right perhaps his future from now on is as a deep lying midfielder, he has offered next to nothing this season as a striker and is potentially stopping Martial's development by him playing there.

 

[K2K]

All foreign and younger players will take the fall for his shitness like the line that Scholes and his cast of comedians introduced on the CL night which was reiterated today when Scholes pretty much blamed everything under the sun than our thirty year old boy wonder. It's on Van Gaal to make the big call and let the team move forward.

That is pathetic..but I am not confident of him being dropped. I think Mata and Martial have to step up a level to compensate for Rooney, or we will be in big trouble.

 

[K2K]

Maybe Xavi is right perhaps his future from now on is as a deep lying midfielder, he has offered next to nothing this season as a striker and is potentially stopping Martial's development by him playing there.

Played him there last season, wasnt very good.

 

[MoskvaRed]

His age and the fact it's pretty much unheard of for any footballer to be finished this young, in the absence of serious injury problems. Plus he's never been a striker reliant on pace to hurt teams, so should age reasonably well.

Wasn't Shevchenko finished at this level when relatively young despite the absence of serious injury? Anyway, I don't think it's age so much as playing time and, by those standards, Rooney is more like 33/34 than 30.

I admit it is mystifying and, until recently, I still had hopes of a revival but it is starting to look terminal.

 

[The-Natural]

His age and the fact it's pretty much unheard of for any footballer to be finished this young, in the absence of serious injury problems. Plus he's never been a striker reliant on pace to hurt teams, so should age reasonably

Really? I always thought that his explosiveness over ten yards or so was a huge weapon of his in his peak years. Definitely read years ago that he was one of if not the quickest players in a sprint too.
You're right it is generally unheard of for players to be finished at 30 but not many 30 year old players have been playing top level football relentlessly for 14 years. He's basically 5 years ahead of where he should be. And again, it comes back to his body and the fact he's been playing in such a physically demanding role throughout that time.

 

[Ash_G]

I think it's hard to defend Rooney when so much of the problems in his game are hard to put down on to our style/the players around him. I agree with the general view that we're an overly conservative team where the build up play is too slow which makes it harder to effectively lead the line however when you look at Rooney a lot of his problems are very separate from that.

As most have pointed out numerous times when the ball is played to feet to Rooney if he manages to actually control it he is almost never able to turn his man and typically ends up facing our goal and a lot of the time he loses it or tries a switch outwide that comes of as much as it doesn't these days plus it's fairly ineffective when we can't cross particularly well. He's more often that not ineffective in wide areas, not able to take on a full back and when he does get the ball his passing is often backwards. He seems to always want to come to the ball when we really need him running behind and opening space either for a pass to him or for someone else to move in to. He struggles significantly to create a chance for himself. I don't really see these problems with other top strikers and it's nothing to do with the team, look at the contrast in Martial's brief spell up top yesterday.

Like I said there is some truth that the way we set up would make it somewhat harder for most good strikers. Similarly someone like Mata might be more influential in a central role with wingers who run of the flanks/ a striker running in behind. Truth be told I'm not sure who it is our approach is meant to suit as far as I can tell the main game plan is to bank on the other team making a mistake as opposed to really carving opportunities ourselves and playing to the attacking strengths of the players. That said though there's plenty wrong with Rooney's individual play and more wrong there in my opinion than potential flaws in the team set up.

If Rooney does need to start every game, although I'm sure internally LVG must be thinking about this- (I don't really believe too much in us feeling obliged to play him, end of the day Rooney has few options, there's not another top team who will pay him what we do imo and I can't see him opting to move to the middle east or something to maintain his pay level and personally I don't see him someone who will be happy to just turn up for his money)- then I'd prefer him to stay up the pitch and be more of a poacher. At least then he'd push the defenders back a bit and not slow down as many moves . I don't even want rid, in the right circumstances he can be at least a good option, right now though he's inhibiting us, although we are somewhat limited for options given Depays bad form. But with Lingard doing alright it's hard to justify not putting Martial up top and dropping Rooney for a few games. He definitely needs a wake up call.

 

[NinjaZombie]

Iirc Fergie wanted Lewandowski, Hazard, Kagawa in that summer. So yes, I would say SAF had planned to push Rooney out of the team, He clearly saw this coming. Any manager post-Fergie era would struggle with Rooney whenever he's off form.

Yeah the pursuit of Lewandowski made sense back then even when people were wondering why we were after a striker with Van Persie and Rooney in the squad. When you look back, Rooney getting dropped for the Real Madrid games were a big tell sign.

The thing was, Rooney getting phased out by Fergie was business as usual. Ince, Kanchelskis, Hughes, Beckham, Keane, Van Nistelrooy, Stam (although Fergie's gone on to say that was a mistake) all left the club to be replaced by other players who'd stepped up. Scholes and Giggs were the exception, rather than the rule. Gary Neville would've been given chances to do similar to those two, but unlike Rooney, he knew himself when his time was up.

In 2006 when Van Nistelrooy left, Rooney and Ronaldo stepped up. I see parallels when I look at Rooney now, and players like Martial, Memphis or maybe even Pereira. It's on Van Gaal to grow a set of balls and take a risk.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Just posted this in another thread but looking at the poll I'm not the only one who thinks this is an issue of woeful form, rather than him suddenly being physically incapable of playing anywhere close to his usual level in the weeks running up to his 30th birthday. Which begs the question, why is he playing so badly?

I would put this down to three things:

1. Massive crisis in confidence.
2. Not getting enough chances. Which, in turn, puts more pressure on him and adds to 1.
3. The captaincy thing. Van Gaal loves to make football seem incredibly complicated. Rooney has always been an instinctive footballer. Now he's being asked to be the embodiment of his manager on the pitch, with all the chat about phases of possession and micro-management of the position of every player on the pitch. Is it any wonder if the whole thing has blown Rooney's (simple) mind? And a blown mind brings us back to point 1.

So yeah, he's been shit all season but you have to wonder if the player himself is able to turn things round, without the other issues being addressed...

I partly agree with you. And that's why I think he should be benched and not thrown out of the club.
Rooney needs a challenge. Dropping him on bench will create a spark in him (This is more of a belief than based on hard facts)

 

[NK86]

Yeah the pursuit of Lewandowski made sense back then even when people were wondering why we were after a striker with Van Persie and Rooney in the squad. When you look back, Rooney getting dropped for the Real Madrid games were a big tell sign.

The thing was, Rooney getting phased out by Fergie was business as usual. Ince, Kanchelskis, Hughes, Beckham, Keane, Van Nistelrooy, Stam (although Fergie's gone on to say that was a mistake) all left the club to be replaced by other players who'd stepped up. Scholes and Giggs were the exception, rather than the rule. Gary Neville would've been given chances to do similar to those two, but unlike Rooney, he knew himself when his time was up.

In 2006 when Van Nistelrooy left, Rooney and Ronaldo stepped up. I see parallels when I look at Rooney now, and players like Martial, Memphis or maybe even Pereira. It's on Van Gaal to grow a set of balls and take a risk.

I doubt risk is a word present in LVG's dictionary.

 

[Treble]

His age and the fact it's pretty much unheard of for any footballer to be finished this young, in the absence of serious injury problems. Plus he's never been a striker reliant on pace to hurt teams, so should age reasonably well.

Both points don't hold water.

There have been plenty of forwards who were finished as top forwards at 30. Some of them had bad injuries (Owen, van Basten, Falcao), some of them lost motivation (Ronaldinho), some of them became rubbish for no apparent reason (Torres). The King himself retired at 31. Why? Maybe because he didn't want to look like this Rooney?

Rooney hasn't had a career threatening injury but he has accumulated many small injuries and this could be a serious factor for his fitness later into his career. It is a valid point that he has played much more games than your average 30 y. o. forward. Maybe the aging of the body isn't related only to, well, age, but also to overexertion as well? He doesn't look happy on the pitch, maybe he is a bit depressed and this no doubt exacerbates his poor form. But is he depressed because the tactics impedes his self-expression on the pitch or rather because he realises that he can't perform at the level of the best paid players in the world, i.e., because he can't live up to the expectations? The fat contract he's got has set the bar too high for him.

Rooney hasn't been a striker reliant on pace? You mean that he has relied on his outstanding close control and dribbling ability to make space for himself and get into goalscoring positions? Of course he hasn't, he's never been a Bergkamp or Zola or Baggio. His explosiviness has been a crucial factor in his game, i.e., his ability to get the better of defenders by bursts of energy and quick acceleration over short distances. When you lose this advantage, it's normal to lose confidence to an extent. His top speed is still good but the explosiviness isn't there any more.

 

[Lawman]

I partly agree with you. And that's why I think he should be benched and not thrown out of the club.
Rooney needs a challenge. Dropping him on bench will create a spark in him (This is more of a belief than based on hard facts)

Yep I agree, loss of form and been dreadful doesn't equate to you're finished. But the worry is the formation doesn't suit him and I touched on this a season ago. His best chance in this formation is playing off the left and having an interchangeable front three but LVG is proving a little to rigid for this! And for £300 grand a week this might push him out the door as your expected and rightly so to be pulling up trees for this type of money not merely fitting in.

 

[Raees]

Just posted this in another thread but looking at the poll I'm not the only one who thinks this is an issue of woeful form, rather than him suddenly being physically incapable of playing anywhere close to his usual level in the weeks running up to his 30th birthday. Which begs the question, why is he playing so badly?

I would put this down to three things:

1. Massive crisis in confidence.
2. Not getting enough chances. Which, in turn, puts more pressure on him and adds to 1.
3. The captaincy thing. Van Gaal loves to make football seem incredibly complicated. Rooney has always been an instinctive footballer. Now he's being asked to be the embodiment of his manager on the pitch, with all the chat about phases of possession and micro-management of the position of every player on the pitch. Is it any wonder if the whole thing has blown Rooney's (simple) mind? And a blown mind brings us back to point 1.

So yeah, he's been shit all season but you have to wonder if the player himself is able to turn things round, without the other issues being addressed...

Been on a recent run where I agree with your posts but this seems deluded to me and then people wonder whyit's so sursurprising that LVG is taking so long to drop him.

Most of the senior posters on this site can't seem to see that Rooney is past it and LVG is the same, the poll said it all... many still think he has it. He is a goner and has been a hindrance for a fair while for club and country, especially since WC 2014 where his petulance was incredible.

There is no way this is a mere lack of confidence and the captaincy point is a joke, he's not a cricket captain. .. people need to face the clear hard facts about Wayne, its tiring to discuss what is fast becoming a non debate. The evidence before us is overwhelmingly one sided..