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Originally Posted by Pogue Mahone
He has plenty of players to thread a pass through, especially when he has players around him, making intelligent runs from deep (e.g. when he played Carrick in on Saturday) but this maybe hasn't happened quite as much as we would have hoped. A lack of goals from central midfield has been a problem all season, when you compare us with our nearest rivals.
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There are passes available, of course, however not as many as when he had RvN or Saha looking to get behind their defence alot, which in turn led to Rooney having more space to play with. At the moment Rooney will often have to hold the ball up, waiting for midfielders or Tevez to run past. In doing this he has his back to goal. He does well at it, but it means he's not facing goal and getting in more situations where he can create something.
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As for knock-downs, Tevez is brilliant at holding the ball up and playing it short to feet. He's not gonna win many headers to send Rooney running off the shoulder of the last defender but there seems to be a consensus on here that this isn't his natural game anyway.
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I dont mean them knocking it on for Rooney to run in behind, I mean knocking it back to Rooney to pick up in that gap between midfield and defence. Likewise, with Saha or RvN doing the job of holding up the ball at their feet, or running at defenders through the middle, stretching their defence and creating more space for Rooney.