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2016-17 Performances

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5.2 Season Average Rating
Appearances
39
Goals
8
Assists
10
Yellow cards
8
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It's a positional issue. Pogba is an attacking player and so is Rooney. Since we already play 3 forwards, you can't have 2 CMs who also attack... one has to stay back. Pogba is ok being a defensive B2B in terms of doing the job. But that's not what he was signed up for and it's not what he wants to do. Rooney, on the other hand, is atrocious when he plays in a low position. So you can't accommodate both players.

Pogba is not a regista. He's a direct-playing and attacking CM. He wants to go at defenders and create chances/score.

It would be the height of stupidity to buy a player like Pogba and play him out of position... not to mention he will rebel in very short order.
 
Cheesy said:
Not really. Plenty of players don't complement each other. It was often said to be the case with Lampard and Gerrard: two brilliant players, but also perhaps quite similar in their attacking nature and therefore not really suited to playing together.

It's quite clear so far that Rooney and Pogba in the same team isn't working, alongside Fellaini too. Neither of the three are really players who can run or dictate a game, and it's shown.
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If the National Team of England had Messi, Neymar, and Souarez, they wouldn't be able to play together and England would still lose. Proves nothing.

Plus, Pogba was also shit in the previous game WITHOUT Rooney.
 
nick2004 said:
If the National Team of England had Messi, Neymar, and Souarez, they wouldn't be able to play together and England would still lose. Proves nothing.

Plus, Pogba played shit in the previous game WITHOUT Rooney.
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No they wouldn't. Messi, Neymar and Suarez function in the same team together because they are, in part, all incredible players who complement each other well. Rooney and Pogba don't. Ideally Pogba should be one of the best midfielders in the world for us, but Rooney isn't one of the world's best attackers and hasn't been for a considerable while.

There are plenty of player combinations that don't work and who can't play alongside each other. It's nothing new. To argue that it doesn't happen is ludicrous, and Pogba playing poorly when Rooney isn't there doesn't prove your point either.
 
The other option is to switch to a 433 and play Rooney on the right with the ability to cut in. You could also play a 4231 where Rooney is also on the right. All you need to do is replace one of the 2 wing forwards with Rooney.

You just can't play Rooney as a CM and Pogba as a defensive B2B.
 
Hands up, I've been a huge Rooney supporter over the years and was hoping that Jose was going to inspire him to rediscover at least a good percentage of the player he was, but it's just not going to happen. Scholes and Ferguson were right all along.

Reading this and other united blogs and their reaction to him, I think if he decided to go to China, the streets of Manchester would be lined with cheering fans all the way to the airport willing his chauffeur to get him on that plane and in the air asap and gone!!
 
nick2004 said:
Rooney was shit.

Pogba was shit.

Smalling was shit.

Martial was shit.

Everyone else was shit.

If you replace shit with shit, you'll get shit - no gain.

We have good players but we haven't found the right combination, yet. The squad became too tall, but we are not Stoke. If I was Mourinho, I'd try to bring Zlatan and/or Rashford from the bench in the second half, to mix things up, as needed. Rooney will start because he is the heart and the captain of the team. Also, perhaps we need Carrick. Yes, he will be replaced eventually, but right now we do need some continuity and some leadership from our senior players.
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:lol:
 
Pogba is playing poorly because his position isn't settled, it's only his 5th game without preseason, he doesn't know his teammates and EPL refereeing is very different than Serie A (you can't foul and tackle in Serie A or anywhere else like this without getting a yellow card)... needs time to adjust. He's frustrated.

He's also a notorious slow starter. He usually doesn't get going until November.

But Rooney has no excuse tbh.
 
nick2004 said:
If the National Team of England had Messi, Neymar, and Souarez, they wouldn't be able to play together and England would still lose. Proves nothing.

Plus, Pogba was also shit in the previous game WITHOUT Rooney.
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I didn't realise this was a Nick post when I first starting reading it and thought this was going to be some kind of joke about how Rooney would be shoehorned into the side and we wouldn't see Suarez, Neymar and Messi play together for England.

Which might actually be possible. :lol:
 
clarkydaz said:
Plenty of bollocking the officials all game and after, is he taking his own issues out on them?
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That's it - never holds his hand up and say we played shit. Always someone else's fault. Hope the FA fine him for his comments
 
I also think that it's close to impossible to be the dominant force that everyone here wants Pogba to be while playing one of the CM roles in a double pivot... by definition in that system, the CMs are there for ball recovery. The attacking responsibility is handled by the front 4.

For example, Cambiasso/Stankovic, Alonso/Khedira and Matic/Mikel were not there to be attacking presences.

It can work with Rooney because Pogba was absolutely great when paired with Tevez and Dybala at Juve. That's not the issue. I just don't think Mourinho is doing a great job picking a team and setting up the players right now. My point is that, if Mourinho is going to be rigid with his tactics, then he needs to adjust the roles of Pogba and Rooney.
 
nick2004 said:
Rooney was shit.

Pogba was shit.

Smalling was shit.

Martial was shit.

Everyone else was shit.

If you replace shit with shit, you'll get shit - no gain.

We have good players but we haven't found the right combination, yet. The squad became too tall, but we are not Stoke. If I was Mourinho, I'd try to bring Zlatan and/or Rashford from the bench in the second half, to mix things up, as needed. Rooney will start because he is the heart and the captain of the team. Also, perhaps we need Carrick. Yes, he will be replaced eventually, but right now we do need some continuity and some leadership from our senior players.
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Take out your heart and replace it with a potato, then you'll understand the problem with having Rooney as the heart of our team.
 
sportsczy said:
I also think that it's close to impossible to be the dominant force that everyone here wants Pogba to be while playing one of the CM roles in a double pivot... by definition in that system, the CMs are there for ball recovery. The attacking responsibility is handled by the front 4.

For example, Cambiasso/Stankovic, Alonso/Khedira and Matic/Mikel were not there to be attacking presences.

It can work with Rooney because Pogba was absolutely great when paired with Tevez and Dybala at Juve. That's not the issue. I just don't think Mourinho is doing a great job picking a team and setting up the players right now. My point is that, if Mourinho is going to be rigid with his tactics, then he needs to adjust the roles of Pogba and Rooney.
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How you can adjust a player who is good at nothing nowadays? Might as well ask Pogba being twice as good as he has been.
 
Amadaeus said:
It was sarcasm because the argument for selecting Rooney is getting thinner. Such a clause albeit not contractual might exist if he keeps performing poorly and keeps getting selected.
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You can't say it was sarcasm then that it might exist, there is no way I can argue against two different positions at once. Pick a side of the fence.
 
togg said:
Hands up, I've been a huge Rooney supporter over the years and was hoping that Jose was going to inspire him to rediscover at least a good percentage of the player he was, but it's just not going to happen. Scholes and Ferguson were right all along.

Reading this and other united blogs and their reaction to him, I think if he decided to go to China, the streets of Manchester would be lined with cheering fans all the way to the airport willing his chauffeur to get him on that plane and in the air asap and gone!!
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Right about what? Ferguson wanting to sell him has never been proved. Scholes has been full of praise all these years. Anyway, I didn't see the game to be honest. Seems like he was poor.
 
sportsczy said:
The other option is to switch to a 433 and play Rooney on the right with the ability to cut in. You could also play a 4231 where Rooney is also on the right. All you need to do is replace one of the 2 wing forwards with Rooney.

You just can't play Rooney as a CM and Pogba as a defensive B2B.
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Rooney would be awful on the right. No pace to take a player on and 0 ball skills to dribble. All he can do is try to cross it from deep but that's very limited. Just get him out the team for Somebody who can run?
 
LouisDanGaal said:
You can't say it was sarcasm then that it might exist, there is no way I can argue against two different positions at once. Pick a side of the fence.
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I can say it is sarcasm, but state that if in the future he consistently get selected despite playing poor, then such a clause albeit not contractual may exist. Because, there will be no other explanation. Moreover, I believe we have smart manager that will not intentionally do what is bad for the team.
 
Red Stone said:
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This is how I imagine people who still defend Rooney at this point.
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:lol::lol::lol:
 
Amadaeus said:
I can say it is sarcasm, but state that if in the future he consistently get selected despite playing poor, then such a clause albeit not contractual may exist. Because, there will be no other explanation. Moreover, I believe we have smart manager that will not intentionally do what is bad for the team.
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You can say what you want, but it makes no sense. The sarcasm ridicules the position then the rest of it suggests you are of that position. In a sense you are ridiculing yourself.
 
LouisDanGaal said:
You can say what you want, but it makes no sense. The sarcasm ridicules the position then the rest of it suggests you are of that position. In a sense you are ridiculing yourself.
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I am ridiculing any individual who thinks it is productive to keep playing Rooney in his form without a foundation for their argument. I provided a hyperbolic foundation to why he keeps getting selected because the other argument does not seem to be working for him anymore. E.g., he is doing well, he is our captain, we would lose or be lost without him, we play better with him, our manager thinks he is what is best for our team, etc. The latter has seen domestic and international manager get the sack with him as the captain, so unless Mourinho wants to be on that path, he can continue to believe that.
 
Useless turd, would not bat an eyelid if never seen in a United shirt ever again.
 
I'm bit quite sure how Mourinho is laying out the formation right now, but he should lay out proper 4-2-3-1 and put Rooney as designated #10 and roam around behind Ibrahimovic and feed him all the loose ball that he could get his hands on. There must be a way to utilize the guy as much as possible other than dropping him.
 
Name Changed said:
Rooney was shit. Absolutely shit. So were a lot of others.

However there are a number of players being played out of position to accommodate Rooney. Pogba should be much further forward. Rashford has to be an automatic starter. Zlatan needs to be able to come deep more often because he can create.

Rooney being shit usually influences a lot of others around him being just as shit.
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This. Rooney might not always be the worst one but playing him means Pogba has to play much deeper than he should. When Pogba does get forward now we just have Fellaini centrally to cover defensively and Pogba also has to compete in the same space as Rooney if he wants to make anything happen. He also gets in Ibra's way and offers absolutely zero creativity despite essentially playing as our attacking mid. He genuinely offers nothing positive to the team. The entire midfield and attack is shaped to accommodate Rooney and I can't fathom why at this point.
 
nick2004 said:
He was poor. Pogba was worse. Everyone else was poor too, even De Gea.
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Will you give it a bloody rest already. All you ever do is tell us what players you think are worse than Rooney. We don't care. This is the Rooney performances thread, to discuss Wayne Rooney. If you want to criticise Pogba then go and do it in the Pogba thread.
 
AndyJ1985 said:
Will you give it a bloody rest already. All you ever do is tell us what players you think are worse than Rooney. We don't care. This is the Rooney performances thread, to discuss Wayne Rooney. If you want to criticise Pogba then go and do it in the Pogba thread.
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Performances are always relative. If the whole team stinks, it is impossible that a single player will shine.
 
Amadaeus said:
I am ridiculing any individual who thinks it is productive to keep playing Rooney in his form without a foundation for their argument. I provided a hyperbolic foundation to why he keeps getting selected because the other argument does not seem to be working for him anymore. E.g., he is doing well, he is our captain, we would lose or be lost without him, we play better with him, our manager thinks he is what is best for our team, etc. The latter has seen domestic and international manager get the sack with him as the captain, so unless Mourinho wants to be on that path, he can continue to believe that.
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The foundation being all of our forwards are playing shite, that's the reason, not some secret clause, which is genuinely the most deranged thing I have seen one here. Rooney has been bad, Martial has been bad, Mata has been bad, Pogba in behind has been bad, mkhi has been bad, lingard has been bad. Not hard to see why he is kept in the team when his replacements are out of form and he has been making contributions. Today he was beyond the pale, if he stays in the team next week we could surmise maybe he is showing something in training or that the others aren't showing desire. There are about 70 excuses you could make before we got to the clause.
 
First things first, he is now completely and utterly without positives. We could have left him at home and played with 10 men and been no worse off.
he is utterly utterly wank.
 
I'm all for no to megathreads but surely there is a way of stopping the creation of 12 rooney threads after every single game. Leaves for nothing to actually be talked about.
 
LouisDanGaal said:
I'm all for no to megathreads but surely there is a way of stopping the creation of 12 rooney threads after every single game. Leaves for nothing to actually be talked about.
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There's always something negative to say about Rooney. That's how bad he is.
 
LouisDanGaal said:
The foundation being all of our forwards are playing shite, that's the reason, not some secret clause, which is genuinely the most deranged thing I have seen one here. Rooney has been bad, Martial has been bad, Mata has been bad, Pogba in behind has been bad, mkhi has been bad, lingard has been bad. Not hard to see why he is kept in the team when his replacements are out of form and he has been making contributions. Today he was beyond the pale, if he stays in the team next week we could surmise maybe he is showing something in training or that the others aren't showing desire. There are about 70 excuses you could make before we got to the clause.
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The one common theme in our terrible attacking play the last however many years has been Rooney. It's no coincidence to me. Rooney can't make other players look bad individually but forcing him in the center of the pitch somewhere certainly can and has forced our team to play worse overall. Like many others have said, Rooney playing means: getting less out of Pogba, getting less out of Ibra, not having an extra body in center mid, and playing an attacking mid who offers absolutely no creativity or positivity to the team. And no, one or two moments in 5 games isn't enough to make that statement not true.
 
You know it's peak when the defense of a £300k a week captain, others were worse.
 
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