Bit weird how the crowd cheered when Zlatan took the ball...
10
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 39
- Goals
- 8
- Assists
- 10
- Yellow cards
- 8
- Status
Bit weird how the crowd cheered when Zlatan took the ball...
All this "overall play" stuff is stupid, bottom line is that an attacking player must be involved in goals, everything else it does not matter really. Rooney is that why Mourinho plays him. For example Ibra, his partner in the attack, did not had a good game in terms of this "overall play" as well, he lost the ball quite a bit, his mistake led to a very dangerous counter etc. But the kicker is that a team loses the ball, what maybe 50 time a in a game. So even if you lose it 4-5 times more and make i don't know 8 wayward passes - it's no big deal. But how many goals are scored? In a reasonably decent game only 2. 3 is a good game, everything above it is very good or even exceptional. So basically a goal scored or assisted make a huge difference. Much more that a 10 balls lost or played badly or whatever.
Right now Rooney started the season reasonably good, he is still raw, but so are almost every player who was involved in Euro. He is getting fitter and on the current level he is already involved in the goals for the team.
Right now Rooney started the season reasonably good, he is still raw, but so are almost every player who was involved in Euro. He is getting fitter and on the current level he is already involved in the goals for the team.
Another not terrible performance. I'd give it a 6. Likewise, I'd say the same about Martial. Difference is, Martial will get better. Maybe Jose could drop them both, give Memphis and Mkhitaryan a start next game. That would be less dramatic and Martial would win back his place anyhow.
Like Gary Neville said, if we keep buying world class players to build a team around him, Rooney will improve.
As long as the team is not built around him, he should be fine.
Scoring and assisting goals, very happy and no complaints
You'd be hard done to find a number 10 who doesn't improve with better players around him.
Right on, I don't think there is anything more to add to this. We haven't been afforded the chance to see how this team would perform with another player in his role, I'm thinking Pogba pushed up and Mkhitaryan/Rashford on the right because let's face it a stronger team will be able to shut us out and give us a number of problems defensively. If they are two things we can improve upon they are a bit more creativity and more defensive intensity off the ball.
Rooney is basically living off reputation at the minute and once or twice in a game he will do something where you think yeah hes still got it but I can't see that being enough to satisfy Mourinho in the longer term.
feck is going on with his hair again?
Yeah, scoring and assisting regularly is going to get him benched.
Agree he looked like the odd man out last night he needs to improve quickly or he will be out imo
I thought he was alright and better than he was at Bournemouth, however without checking the stats he seemed less involved in the game.
He wasn't decent, he wasn't OK, he was less atrocious that's all.
At this rate he'll be at Premier League level by November. Then again, I said that last year too.
At this rate he'll be at Premier League level by November. Then again, I said that last year too.
Care to expand?
Rooney fans should compare him to Pogba--if they haven't already--and see the huge gap in class. Maybe, just maybe, they could understand then why he has been perceived as a hindrance over the last seasons.
We have enough quality now to see off teams in the bottom half even with Rooney in the team. Not so sure vs the top teams though. Could cost us big time if the link between midfield and attack is the weakest in the whole team.
We have enough quality now to see off teams in the bottom half even with Rooney in the team. Not so sure vs the top teams though. Could cost us big time if the link between midfield and attack is the weakest in the whole team.
True, I think the derby will open up a few eyes.
Good performance from Rooney in a decent team showing, future is looking bright.
Him still being our worst player in these last two games maybe(at least from midfielders and forwards)? Or you think someone else was worse.
Reading this thread is mind boggling. How anybody can watch him and think he's up to the standard we are trying to set is funny.
Perhaps because other people took the spotlight off him hiding away, and doing sod all for 90 mins made him look better.
Yes his touch was more normal last night, but by about 50 minutes he was completely gassed. He's such a hindrance these days. Would much rather Ibra drop deeper and have rashford upfront.
He needs to look long and hard at himself and get in shape - or sit it out on the bench.
Perhaps because other people took the spotlight off him hiding away, and doing sod all for 90 mins made him look better.
Yes his touch was more normal last night, but by about 50 minutes he was completely gassed. He's such a hindrance these days. Would much rather Ibra drop deeper and have rashford upfront.
He needs to look long and hard at himself and get in shape - or sit it out on the bench.
Much, much improved for the last match, but we need more from him. The cross for the goal was class, but was fairly anonymous for the rest of the game imo.
Didn't really notice him for most of the game but the cross for Zlatan was good. He's just kind of there not doing much at the moment.
Imagine if he didn't put that cross in? We can improve our squad by simply dropping Rooney and it would have to cost us a bob.
Yep. Don't forget we will sometimes have to sacrifice players for Rooney to look good and we need to make it our absolute priority to get the best out of Rooney.
Because of how utterly dreadful he was last season, any not terrible performance this season will get lauded as very good or great, when if it was any other player playing at the same level - some Stephen Ireland '11 or anyone like that - it would have been merely an average. We need to get used to it, there will be a lot of it this season.
As long as he keeps coming up with important goals or assists I'm not too bothered about him. If Mourinho insists on playing him he'll probably find a way to improve his overall performances a little too. I just hope Mkitharyan will be given a fair chance.
Pogba played his first game after a long holiday for a team he for the most part has never played with and delivered a performance that comfortably outclasses anything Rooney has done in the past five years.
Mkhitaryan has only had two small cameos before today, also in a completely new team, and showed more ability, drive and creativity going forward than we've seen from Rooney in a long time.
Mata has been comfortably better with his general play than Rooney against both Bournemouth and Southampton.
Rooney's put the stats on the board with a good instinctive goal and a great cross to Zlatan, but in terms of his contribution to our play throughout the 90 minutes he's just not up for it. I'd much rather have any of Pogba, Mkhitaryan, Mata, Lingard, Martial and Rashford in the attacking midfield than Rooney. He's so far from being a deserved starter for us, and the other lads deserve a chance to show what they can do together, because I'm confident there's more goals in the team if Rooney is dropped.
Mkhitaryan has only had two small cameos before today, also in a completely new team, and showed more ability, drive and creativity going forward than we've seen from Rooney in a long time.
Mata has been comfortably better with his general play than Rooney against both Bournemouth and Southampton.
Rooney's put the stats on the board with a good instinctive goal and a great cross to Zlatan, but in terms of his contribution to our play throughout the 90 minutes he's just not up for it. I'd much rather have any of Pogba, Mkhitaryan, Mata, Lingard, Martial and Rashford in the attacking midfield than Rooney. He's so far from being a deserved starter for us, and the other lads deserve a chance to show what they can do together, because I'm confident there's more goals in the team if Rooney is dropped.
Yeah I have to agree with @Sarni to some degree. He wasn't poor last night but he wasn't anyway near the best player on the pitch and he's playing in an important area in the team. I'm glad he's hot stinking the place up like last season but I'm still expecting more from our #10 and captain.
Happy for him to play as long as he plays well but no way, we should be building a team around him.
To be fair to Wayne, he's picked up a goal and two assists which isn't so bad.
It depends on what is Mourinho's main objective, is it to make the team the best it can be or just to massage Rooney's ego. The truth of the matter is that he can be improved on, by players within the squad, which allows us to play any of Lingard, Rashford or Young on the right to give us balance whilst Mkhitaryan or Mata replace him in the hole. The team as a whole will score significantly more as a result because I doubt very much if teams would double up on Martial if we have Rashford on the other wing, for example.
Last night we didn't look solid enough on the ball which enabled Southampton to open us up on several occasions, an extra midfield player in there would make us difficult to break down whilst Pogba playing as the furthest forward midfielder will do everything Rooney does and more.
So yeah Rooney being 'not that bad' shouldn't be enough to keep him in the team, our acceptance of such mediocre standards is much more a statement of real intent than spending £150m on three players. Allowing sentimentality and/or dressing room politics to determine this issue will ensure that we will always total much less than the sum of our parts, imo.
Looked a passenger for me last night and shouldn't be starting next week ahead of Mhki who will offer us much more.
Again he wasn't as bad as he has been, but still not good enough to be preventing others from getting a chance.
Goals and assists win you games. Currently, Rooney is doing that, having picked up 1 goal and 2 assists in 3 games. His overall play, I can imagine, will improve with time, but he is contributing to the team.
Hold on.. you still think Martial was better than Rooney last game?
Last night? Quite clearly, especially in the second half.
All I can do is disagree. Martial was very poor last night.
Agree, Martial was poor. Rooney was better.
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