[iKeano]

What that game really needed tonight was a number of predictable, speculative, long-range, diagonal passes and someone constantly crying in the referees ear.
Yea right.

The Rooney love-in gang couldn't wait for full time tonight!

We won games with Schweinsteiger before... What that game needed was Bastian in centre mid?!

Shaw was the missing link!?

Just because Rooney wasn't there doesn't mean it was the SINGLE reason we lost. He's one turdsicle in a chest freezer riddled with poo-pops and shit-cream cones.

Jose separating the men from the boys.

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

Who the hell celebrates when Rooney plays badly? What sort of nonsense is that? Everyone here would love Rooney to roll back the years and become a world beater. People are fed up of years of poor performances and vent their frustration about it, so stop trying to twist things in to something they're not.

Excuse me? The amount of stick Rooney receives on this forum is beyond a joke. You clearly have not been around enough to see it. Rooney started the season being our most productive player, and he still received more stick than any other player The Caf vendetta against Rooney is real. It's no real secret that many United fans want him to retire/be sold.

 

[Vashu]

Excuse me? The amount of stick Rooney receives on this forum is beyond a joke. You clearly have not been around enough to see it. Rooney started the season being our most productive player, and he still received more stick than any other player The Caf vendetta against Rooney is real. It's no real secret that many United fans want him to retire/be sold.

That has to be Ibrahimovic.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Excuse me? The amount of stick Rooney receives on this forum is beyond a joke. You clearly have not been around enough to see it. Rooney started the season being our most productive player, and he still received more stick than any other player The Caf vendetta against Rooney is real. It's no real secret that many United fans want him to retire/be sold.

I want Rooney out the starting 11, but I would never celebrate today if we won just because Rooney was out. People aren't anti Rooney because of him personally, they just feel the team could be better without him. Rooney fan boys are the opposite though, clearly they were itching with the smileys and grins the minute the Final whistle went.

All I want for us is to win games and look good doing it. If Rooney is helping then great, if he isn't then get rid. No player is bigger than the club.

 

[PepsiCola]

Surely the discussion currently raging in here is better had when we play out first 11 without Rooney.

A lot of our good play this season so far has come from Valencia and Shaw overlapping the wingers and allowing them to drift inside. Darmian and Rojo didn't provide this support thus when Martial and Mata drifted inside the game became very narrow. Our play wasn't helped by the number of fouls committed by Feyenoord today.

A bad game without Rooney isn't enough to completely dismiss the idea we'd look in better knack without him starting. However, as it stands, it would be silly to drop Rooney considering he is popping up with goals and assists despite the overall performance.

However, looking forward, when Pogba and Mkhitaryan are better settled and Martial regains form I believe it is inevitable Rooney will give way for better players. However, I repeat, now isn't the time to drop Wayne. He was one of the better performers against city (not saying much) and won us the game against Hull. Coming off the back of two defeats I'd start him this weekend.

 

[shamans]

The thing is that very a considerable amount of people here never said Rooney was playing bad but that Rooney was the problem and held the whole team back. If you thought Rooney had been playing poor then yeah whatever you can argue your point but if you had the opinion of Rooney being the sole reason this team was struggling then you just saw that's not true.

Rooney poor != everyone is poor because of Rooney

 

[Sky1981]

Did you watch how bad we were without him?

But Rooney is equally as bad as everyone around him.
But most of them aren't match fitness, give them time to pick up form
But most of them have served United, LEGEND LA! They deserve to start!
But it must have been the manager's fault.
But look we're dominating posession, what more could you ask from our players, they weren't great but they perform. What more could you ask from them?

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

Rooney had the last 2 seasons to get in some form.

Time for others to be given a fair chance at breaking in to the first xi.

 

[Raees]

Instead of thinking.. hmm even without Rooney we have other issues within the squad/first team, somehow the idiots on the Caf think.. wait the problem is that Rooney was missing. Most of you are no better than Woy Hodgson or Gary Neville.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

Rooney haters in hiding now

Or alternatively discussing the players that actually played as opposed to obsessing over someone who wasn't in the same country as the team?

 

[Bobcat]

Rooney haters in hiding now

You do realize he did not play, right? We can only speculate, but i really doubt it would be any different with him on the pitch. Nothing worked yesterday, and the current Rooney very rarely wins matches on his own

 

[Adam-Utd]

Nothing has changed until we see him out of the first choice 11 really. Last night's game was pretty awful, but Mourinho needs to take responsibility for that. He left Rashford way too isolated, and the pairing of Herrera/Scheiderlin was too deep for my liking.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

But Rooney is equally as bad as everyone around him.
But most of them aren't match fitness, give them time to pick up form
But most of them have served United, LEGEND LA! They deserve to start!
But it must have been the manager's fault.
But look we're dominating posession, what more could you ask from our players, they weren't great but they perform. What more could you ask from them?

Save it. Just think it was rude and immature of you to specifically mention mine and @shamans name to try and prove a silly point, so I thought I'd give you a taste of your own medicine.

 

[Sky1981]

Save it. Just think it was rude and immature of you to specifically mention mine and @shamans name to try and prove a silly point, so I thought I'd give you a taste of your own medicine.

You're the landlord in this thread, but you're always pretending not seeing him having a bad game.

 

[shamans]

You do realize he did not play, right? We can only speculate, but i really doubt it would be any different with him on the pitch. Nothing worked yesterday, and the current Rooney very rarely wins matches on his own

Or alternatively discussing the players that actually played as opposed to obsessing over someone who wasn't in the same country as the team?

Again I'm not even arguing he would have saved the day or not but so many on here blamed him for everything. In the Pogba thread, they said he played poorly because of him. According to many on here he holds the whole team back

Of course now everyone will change their tone and say they just said he played poor.

 

[Treble]

Again I'm not even arguing he would have saved the day or not but so many on here blamed him for everything. In the Pogba thread, they said he played poorly because of him. According to many on here he holds the whole team back

Of course now everyone will change their tone and say they just said he played poor.

And they are right, he is holding the team back because he is a has been who plays as a No 10 for a team that wants to win the title.

That said, he is not the only problem, of course, and taking him out of the team wouldn't make us play the best football in the league or something. The immediate effect may be small at first or even negative. But we shall build the team around younger players with future at United. Rooney is past it. I know that you and many others still don't believe it but you'll get plenty of evidence this season. Even if he scores a hat-trick vs Watford, this won't change anything long term: he's declining and is a hindrance as a regular starter. Because of him younger players stay out of the team and do not get a proper run in his position. We have to move on. His fans too. But it won't be easy because his fans and the media will be all over Mourinho if he decides the phase him out.

 

[shamans]

And they are right, he is holding the team back because he is a has been who plays as a No 10 for a team that wants to win the title.

That said, he is not the only problem, of course, and taking him out of the team wouldn't make us play the best football in the league or something. The immediate effect may be small at first or even negative. But we shall build the team around younger players with future at United. Rooney is past it. I know that you and many others still don't believe it but you'll get plenty of evidence this season. Even if he scores a hat-trick vs Watford, this won't change anything long term: he's declining and is a hindrance as a regular starter. Because of him younger players stay out of the team and do not get a proper run in his position. We have to move on. His fans too. But it won't be easy because his fans and the media will be all over Mourinho if he decides the phase him out.

And who would you rather play?

 

[Treble]

And who would you rather play?

The first thing to do is to sign a top player who can play there. I haven't watched enough of Mhki but he might be the solution this season. He had a tremendous season for Dortmund and was voted the best player in the Bundesliga ahead of all Bayern stars all of whom are currently far better than Rooney.

I think that Mata could do a better job than Rooney as a No 10, too, but he has to play there for months, 1-2 games show nothing. And there is Pogba. He's not a No 10 but we don't exactly need a typical No 10 if we play 4-3-3. We can try Zlatan as a second striker vs weaker opposition and play up front Rashford, etc etc. There are many options. But these variants should have been prepared and tested already in pre-season. Now, we'll be conservative and will continue with Rooney. And will be out of the battle for the title before December, IMO. We may even struggle for the top 4 after our trips to Chelsea and Liverpool in October.

 

[shamans]

[QUOTE="Treble, post: 19805276, member: 38697"]The first thing to do is to sign a top player who can play there. I haven't watched enough of Mhki but he might be the solution this season. He had a tremendous season for Dortmund and was voted the best player in the Bundesliga ahead of all Bayern stars all of whom are currently far better than Rooney.

I think that Mata could do a better job than Rooney as a No 10, too, but he has to play there for months, 1-2 games show nothing. And there is Pogba. He's not a No 10 but we don't exactly need a typical No 10 if we play 4-3-3. We can try Zlatan as a second striker vs weaker opposition and play up front Rashford, etc etc. There are many options. But these variants should have been prepared and tested already in pre-season. Now, we'll be conservative and will continue with Rooney. And will be out of the battle for the title before December, IMO. We may even struggle for the top 4 after our trips to Chelsea and Liverpool in October.

The day we sign KDB or Neymar I will also advocate dropping Rooney for them. As of now, we don't have them or any inform number 10 yet you still want us to drop Rooney?

 

[Rajeev]

Its time to tell Rooney to find another club next summer. If Mou remains manager we can't have Rooney playing at No.10 anymore. I feel like we are really missing someone at that position who can dominate games. All other top teams have players who can really dominate in that position except us. Rooney is just not good enough anymore. He's still a decent passer, maybe he can be a No. 6 and Pogba could be pushed to No. 10 but I doubt Mou would do that.

 

[Rajeev]

Rooney had the last 2 seasons to get in some form.

Time for others to be given a fair chance at breaking in to the first xi.

Absolutely, its like he gets in the playing 11 regardless of how poor he plays.

 

[Treble]

The day we sign KDB or Neymar I will also advocate dropping Rooney for them. As of now, we don't have them or any inform number 10 yet you still want us to drop Rooney?

How could we have any in form player in Rooney's position when the likes of Mkhi, Mata, Pogba have barely played there?

 

[Rajeev]

I want Rooney out the starting 11, but I would never celebrate today if we won just because Rooney was out. People aren't anti Rooney because of him personally, they just feel the team could be better without him. Rooney fan boys are the opposite though, clearly they were itching with the smileys and grins the minute the Final whistle went.

All I want for us is to win games and look good doing it. If Rooney is helping then great, if he isn't then get rid. No player is bigger than the club.

It's not always about the stats. Even though they are good, he has been literally playing shit the whole season. He has lost his pace and extra bit thats required in the final 3rd. He cannot run past a defender. He still is a decent passer of the ball if he's not being closed down quickly, I'll give him that. But tbf, He just isn't good enough as a No. 10 for a team looking to win the PL this season.

 

[Adam-Utd]

It's not always about the stats. Even though they are good, he has been literally playing shit the whole season. He has lost his pace and extra bit thats required in the final 3rd. He cannot run past a defender. He still is a decent passer of the ball if he's not being closed down quickly, I'll give him that. But tbf, He just isn't good enough as a No. 10 for a team looking to win the PL this season.

Unfortunately I agree entirely Rajeev. I think he could do a good job of an impact sub at the 60th/70th minute, if he came on fresh he wouldn't look so slow.

 

[Devil may care]

Instead of thinking.. hmm even without Rooney we have other issues within the squad/first team, somehow the idiots on the Caf think.. wait the problem is that Rooney was missing. Most of you are no better than Woy Hodgson or Gary Neville.

This is spot on, it highlighted that we have no one that can pass through the lines without Blind, not that Rooney was a miss.

 

[Devil may care]

Rooney had the last 2 seasons to get in some form.

Time for others to be given a fair chance at breaking in to the first xi.

Another valid point, we were terrible against Feyenord, no arguments, but most of those players have not played together in that system before and 4 of them were having their first competitive match this season. Rooney was and is allowed to be shit game after game and then have a good moment and we hear "Playing into form"....well lets see the other players get the same fair shake.

 

[Vashu]

The day we sign KDB or Neymar I will also advocate dropping Rooney for them. As of now, we don't have them or any inform number 10 yet you still want us to drop Rooney?

On 8 August 2016 we happened to sign that player for world record fee.

 

[anant]

On 8 August 2016 we happened to sign that player for world record fee.

And that certain player has been worse than Rooney at least so far this season

 

[Vashu]

And that certain player has been worse than Rooney at least so far this season

Rooney with his performances against Bournemouth, Hull and City would keep any kind of world class competitors on the bench. That's how utterly brilliant he is.

 

[anant]

Rooney with his performances against Bournemouth, Hull and City would keep any kind of world class competitors on the bench. That's how utterly brilliant he is.

Out of the 3 the 2 have played together, Rooney has been better in 2!

 

[Treble]

Out of the 3 the 2 have played together, Rooney has been better in 2!

Comparing them in this way doesn't make any sense. The one has been at United for 12 years, the other is much younger and coming from a completely different team in a completely different league.

Far more reasonable is to compare their form over the last 4 years. The one is a declining star and hasn't had a great season since 2012. And the other is a rising star and has had several great seasons in a row, reaching a CL final in the process after contributing to a win vs Madrid.

It is a no-brainer, unless one is a massive Rooney fan.

 

[Vashu]

Out of the 3 the 2 have played together, Rooney has been better in 2!

But you do know they haven't occupied same position that they're both fighting for in those games, right?! Rooney gets preferential treatment so others have to fall into line. Fielding Pogba with Fellaini is just very very wrong in my eyes. Imagine two-men midfield consisting of Özil and Fellaini. It would result in bigger catastrophe but it's a mistake from same managerial page. Pogba is more dynamic than Mesut and is actually able to harass opponents, but he can't do it consistently. He's essentially a proper number 10, a player who can create, score from the box or outside of it, defend and press high up the pitch or even drop back and help central midfielders when needed. Looking 'globally' at the situation inside club one could mistake Rooney for being the world record signing.

 

[Burrow]

We would be even worse without him yesterday, no evidence for the last couple of season how that is not true.

 

[Gentleman Jim]

As an outsider the Rooney situation is pretty clear.
He and his reps have had United over a barrel since Ferguson's last season when he was intended to go as a saleable asset to a team like Chelsea who were probably acceptable to the player and United.
You get to ease him out of the place and he's happy enough to go.
Then in comes Moyes and Rooney is then seen as the icon of the club, given an outrageous new contract and now has huge control of his and United's destiny.
He's still here, calling the shots, expecting to be at United until he says differently. He won't just go because he's been rumbled as a liability. He'll stay as long as long as it pleases him to.
Sorry guys he'll haunt you for some time yet. He'll have the odd good game but nowhere near enough to justify the hold he has over you.

 

[anant]

Comparing them in this way doesn't make any sense. The one has been at United for 12 years, the other is much younger and coming from a completely different team in a completely different league.

Far more reasonable is to compare their form over the last 4 years. The one is a declining star and hasn't had a great season since 2012. And the other is a rising star and has had several great seasons in a row, reaching a CL final in the process after contributing to a win vs Madrid.

It is a no-brainer, unless one is a massive Rooney fan.

But isn't this the way to decide who has been your best player this season? No one denies that rooney is past his peak, and most, including I will readily swap him out for someone better. But Pogba will need to start playing better if he needs to replace Rooney at that position.
Mata on the the other hand can replace him, but with Mkhi and Lingard having played the way they did vs City, it looks like Mata will be deployed there for the near future.

But you do know they haven't occupied same position that they're both fighting for in those games, right?! Rooney gets preferential treatment so others have to fall into line. Fielding Pogba with Fellaini is just very very wrong in my eyes. Imagine two-men midfield consisting of Özil and Fellaini. It would result in bigger catastrophe but it's a mistake from same managerial page. Pogba is more dynamic than Mesut and is actually able to harass opponents, but he can't do it consistently. He's essentially a proper number 10, a player who can create, score from the box or outside of it, defend and press high up the pitch or even drop back and help central midfielders when needed. Looking 'globally' at the situation inside club one could mistake Rooney for being the world record signing.

Pogba has played in a position where he gets more time on the ball, and even then he isn't able to dictate the play! Pogba IMO isn't ready to be a no. 10 for us, not now atleast. Is Pog better than Rooney? Yes. Has he been playing better than Rooney? No. And that's what matters. Rooney has been getting in the numbers to justify his selection.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

We would be even worse without him yesterday, no evidence for the last couple of season how that is not true.

How about him scoring and setting up match winning goals in recent games?

 

[Vashu]

Pogba has played in a position where he gets more time on the ball, and even then he isn't able to dictate the play! Pogba IMO isn't ready to be a no. 10 for us, not now atleast. Is Pog better than Rooney? Yes. Has he been playing better than Rooney? No. And that's what matters. Rooney has been getting in the numbers to justify his selection.

How can you dictate play when you're paired up with Fellaini in central midfield, in front of you there are two immobile strikers in Rooney and Ibra and on the left wing you get either off-colour Martial or Lingard who lost almost every ball in the derby game. You're asking for miracles.

 

[Dobbs]

So all that matters now is what's happened during the last three games. Forget performance over the last two years or simply looking at who is the better player. This is the latest stage of the argument. An argument that just by chance puts Rooney above Pogba.

 

[anant]

So all that matters now is what's happened during the last three games. Forget performance over the last two years or simply looking at who is the better player. This is the latest stage of the argument. An argument that just by chance puts Rooney above Pogba.

Considering this is a thread for Rooney's performances for this season, a season where he has been getting the numbers at the very least(although early stages) and has been pretty decent, it's just bias and hatred that has been responsble for half the views on this thread.
And while I would agree that the Rooney defenders(including me) have been biased as well, any neutral(if any)can surely testify that his performances shouldn't be subject to the kind of abuse he has been getting, especially as our caf favourites have had a minimal impact

 

[stevoc]

4-5 new pages added to the Rooney performance thread in only a day, after a match he didn't even play in.

Jesus Christ