"Ha ha - Sky's the limit for you, Gary!"
"I'm Wayne, boss."
Wayne Rooney, The Midfield General? Mourinho Says No.
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"Ha ha - Sky's the limit for you, Gary!"
"I'm Wayne, boss."
The only bullet left to dodge is the captaincy one.
Yeah, there should be plenty of workrate from M&M on the wings as well. 4231 with Pogba in midfield should be safe and productive enough for most of the games we play.
No, not really. I would rather rate Zlatan, Martial, Rashford ahead of him. Rooney has been guilty of missing many chances, over the years, even last season. Also, he isn't fast or strong enough to lead the line, as has been seen with the number of times he is muscled off the ball, wherever he plays.
No he didn't.
Lampard at his peak was the furthest forward in a 4-3-3 with Makalele and Essien behind him. I can't recall him playing in a 4-2-3-1 consistently for Chelsea and if he did, it wasn't out of choice. Secondly if you are an England fan and you saw Lampard and Gerrard playing as a 2 for England, you would realise Lampard could never play in a 2 and looked like a duck out of water. Completely unsuited to that role as he lacked the understanding and discipline to play that role.
Fabregas did play in a two man mid under Jose and was shite in that role. His best form came when he played behind Costa. Fabregas as a young man for Arsenal was well suited to playing in a two man midfield, the current version anything but.
Pogba is very similar to modern day Fabregas and peak Lampard, that is why if Jose has any sense and he does in my opinion, he will never play Pogba in a two man midfield unless it is against a weak team with zero attacking threat.
That is why Rooney should be very concerned about Pogba's arrival in addition to Jose ruling him out as a 6.
"Ha ha - Sky's the limit for you, Gary!"
"I'm Wayne, boss."
I agree with that, I wouldn't surprised to see Mourinho try the Schmidfield and like the on-paper balance that they provide, particularly with Pogba infront of them.
I don't know, I still think he's up there. A reminder of some of the goals he scored last season in his worst ever season. I never said he was fast enough to lead the line, just making a point that he's still a good finisher if he gets a chance.
Agree with this.
Jose Mourinho is not going to buy Pogba for £80m and put him in a midfield two behind Rooney.
If we buy Pogba, Rooney wil be in direct competition with him and Ibrahimovic.
Another thing is, I don't understand how Rooney behind Ibrahimovic can work.
Anyone that has watched Ibrahimovic over the past few years would know he likes dropping deep into the areas Rooney would occupy.
Rooney doesn't have the dynamism or pace to run ahead of Ibrahimovic anymore.
You will get an extremely slow paced attack down the middle.
Anyone that has watched Ibrahimovic over the past few years would know he likes dropping deep into the areas Rooney would occupy.
Rooney doesn't have the dynamism or pace to run ahead of Ibrahimovic anymore.
You will get an extremely slow paced attack down the middle.
(Assuming we get Pogba - big assumption!)
But then if, as you say, Pogba plays as the "10", and as Jose says he has no other major targets, who are our two CMs behind Pogba going to be - one will be defensive (Matic) and the other creative (Fabregas)? Isn't Pogba more effective as the no.8?
"Wayne, don't leave your wig glue lyin' about, there's a good lad."
If we sign Pogba, I think Mourinho will go for a 433. There will be no No. 10.
It seems to me Mourinho has laid down that gauntlet and challenged Rooney to score goals to earn his place. If he doesnt score there will be nowhere for him to hide and he will end up being dropped. Or, of course, he might do well and score lots of goals. Either way I think this is a positive development, there will be no more vague sense that "he brings more to the team than just the football", this seems like an altogether more meritocratic arrangement.
I don't agree with that
We tried Rooney upfront for the first part of the season, it wasn't until the second part when we put him in the midfield and had Rashford as striker upfront that things started to improve a little. Our attacking play was laughable when Rooney was our unproductive striker. I want to see him gone asap but when he plays in the team, then the midfield is the position he causes the least amount of problems.
A striker who doesn't score goals is in my opinion a much greater pain to have in the team than a suboptimal midfield player.
Schneiderlin / Carrick - Schweinsteiger / Herrera
His days are numbered. Last season showed he can't hack it upfront.
The best, albeit poor, case for him being in the team was as a midfielder. Glad to see the myth dispelled.
The best, albeit poor, case for him being in the team was as a midfielder. Glad to see the myth dispelled.
Thankyou Jose, what a marker to lay down. Common sense, who'd have thought
No he will be shoe-horned as a lead striker or n10 that keeps waisting good chances upfront instead.
I guess Coleen is going to have to do him a YouTube compilation of Bergkamp and Cantona videos now.
Putting him in midfield lets him get away with it for longer. Up front he has nowhere to hide, you score goals and play or you don't score goals and you're dropped. Rooney can no longer arse about deep in midfield doing that pass to Valencia.
It's speeding up his departure.
You just know that the 72.376 diagonal pass would be quickly swapped with the "ROONEY 18 YARD CHIP ".
A lose lose for us anyhow
He is a number 10/ support striker, so there is no question of him being "shoe-horned" into that role. If Jose keeps playing him inspite of him being trash in that position, then Jose will soon find himself sipping pina-colado's in Portugal along with Moyes and VG.
No it just means he will start upfront for the first half of the season until Jose sees it doesn't work out and finishes the season with him in the midfield.
You are delusional if you think in anyway those quotes would mean Rooney is an inch closer to the exit door. The contrary might be true.
Alot of people are setting themselves up for a big disappointment. Rooney will be a United player till the end of his contract, maybay longer after that and he will somehow be shoe-horned into the team. Changing the manager, doesn't change anything about that, it just seems to take awhile for any new manager to get used to the fact that Wayne isn't a striker anymore and they only see that after 6 months, after which they eventually turn around and play him in the midfield anyway.
Hopefully we'll get a clearer idea of Wayne's future under José once the MUTV interview is aired tonight.
Well, Jose has also clarified that goals are expected of strikers.
Jose's MO seems simple: "Wayne, you're a striker. Score goals for me. But don't expect a passenger seat in the midfield department."
Yes this is exactly as I see it.
Though I add the proviso that it is also possible he will thrive and score goals under Mourinho, and that maybe part of the reason he didnt score many goals up front for Van Gaal was he was trying to follow the manager's unfathomable instructions. But I say that in hope more than expectation - the main point is, as you said, there is nowhere for him to hide now. He sinks or swims according to whether he scores or not.
Yup, this is exactly how I see it.
Yup very true, nonetheless I feel it is a risk he will be taking unfortunately and we might be the victims of it as a club. Sacking our third manager in 4 years and not improving at all.
I just can't see Jose dropping Rooney and him playing in the midfield is the lesser of 2 evils. The fact he chose the worst of the 2 evils, isn't making me excited one single bit to be honest.
Coleen is likely already sticking up for him on social media and we just hope Wayne has decided to exercise and isn't comfort eating in the background.
I hope you are right, but I fear you are wrong.
Mourinho gives no fecks. He will tell it how it is even if it is an unpopular opinion. No mincing. Love it. If Rooney performs at the right level then fine play him, but if he won't add much quality and just play to get records then bench.
It's amazed and annoyed me how Rooney has seemingly decided himself that he was going to be a midfielder, without having to prove himself at all - with even the national team accommodating him, changing the formation and personnel whilst at a major tournament...madness.
Nice to see Jose stand up to it and I'd be amazed if he was here at the start of next season, but maybe it'll motivate him to improve his fitness etc, rather than taking the 'easy' option of being able to sit in midfield. Any notion of Rooney being first choice every week, regardless of performance just took a hit.
Nice to see Jose stand up to it and I'd be amazed if he was here at the start of next season, but maybe it'll motivate him to improve his fitness etc, rather than taking the 'easy' option of being able to sit in midfield. Any notion of Rooney being first choice every week, regardless of performance just took a hit.
All great that Rooney won't be playing midfield. That means we'll have specialist midfielders playing midfield.
If Rooney is going to stay at the club, it should only be as a squad option. Zlatan as #9 and Rooney as #10 is going to be the slowest and the most frustrating striker partnership we would have had.
If Rooney is going to stay at the club, it should only be as a squad option. Zlatan as #9 and Rooney as #10 is going to be the slowest and the most frustrating striker partnership we would have had.
Or Zlatan at 10 and Rashford at 9. depends how Rooney does at 10
Unusual for Mourinho then - he has played Oscar as "10" for the last few years and Lampard before that
I am looking forward to seeing Rooney play upfront in a team that is not total crap. To me, that is what will answer if he's finished or just unable to perform well in the team we had.
Rashford played very impressively when playing upfront in a crap team. Attributes can make a difference
Mourinho the hypeslayer. Thank feck.
looking forward seeing rooney as a striker/behind the striker again.
think he still can score around 15 goals.
think he still can score around 15 goals.