If Rooney didn't play we would have won 4-0 instead more than likely.
How is Rooney still in our first 11?
- Thread starter BringNaniBack
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Yeah but that's my point. Those are things which have nothing to do with today's performance. Players are being celebrated and bashed based on popularity, not contribution.
Better today than Bournemouth. But less shitty than last week is still shit. He's slowly being phased out, though, so I ain't even mad. And we'll find a way to get him that goal scoring record he wants without him getting in the way of our title aspirations. Then he's off next summer. And we all live happily ever after.
I have heard it all now, please close my account.
Apart from his goals he tracked back and won the ball back and tackled in very important moments when Southampton were in the ascendancy.
What does he have to do on top of scoring and winning the ball back on multiple occasions?
He had 2 maybe 3 passes cut out but you can't seriously expect for every pass he attempts into the box to come off??
And to top it all you say that he "made it hard for rooney" well yes... playing well and scoring does make Rooney's life and place in the team more difficult.
What do you expect? Zlatan is new to the league and has done the minimum expected of a player who has been consistently world class for a number of years. He will get the benefit of any doubt, because he has credit in the bank. Like wise Martial, who exceeded all expectation last season. Rooney who is not remotely world-class but has the status and privileges of a world-class player (i.e. wages, undroppable status apparently) has been on the decline for at least 3 seasons. Most here think United have better players in the position plays in. It's only natural people are going to be more critical of Rooney's performance then Zlatan or Martial even if you think they were worse. Especially considering the position he plays in.
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No, football clearly works like that. If you don't contribute directly to goals you're useless. Why play with a goalkeeper or a defence? If we play 6 Zlatans and 5 Rooneys we win 12-0 with the Rooneys getting 5 assists. Better yet, why not play 11 Zlatans and win 22-0?
Simple mathematics.
I love Wazza and appreciate what he's achieved with us, but it's painfully frustrating to watch him play nowadays. Now and then he does something that remotely reminds us what he used to be all about, but it's just too rare. Today's assist is a decent example, superb delivery.
I just can't stop wondering how much faster and more direct we'd be with Mkhi in that #10 role instead, interchanging with Mata. Hopefully that late substitution is a sign of Mou phasing him out. His captaincy makes him a bit like the elephant in the room, sadly.
I just can't stop wondering how much faster and more direct we'd be with Mkhi in that #10 role instead, interchanging with Mata. Hopefully that late substitution is a sign of Mou phasing him out. His captaincy makes him a bit like the elephant in the room, sadly.
Not a big fan of Rooney anymore but 1 goal and 1 assist in 2 games. Cant really complain now.. Can we?
He doesn't have to do a hell of a lot more than that tbh, other than being influental in the final third I think that pretty much covers it for a CF. He did score and he did track back, but he didn't win the ball on multiple occasions unless you count 1 or 2 as multiple. He did stop a couple of runs/passes while tracking back without winning the ball though.
I don't have any stats but I would be surprised if anyone on the team lost the ball more times than Zlatan tonight. He was incredibly wasteful with his passes, especially in the first half and he dribbled into a group of players more than once and lost the ball. The goals mask the performance as always in football, but he didn't really do much except a great header, a half missed overhead kick, one pass/cross to Martial and slot home a penalty.
He had more than 2,3 passes cut, and none of them were going into the box + the dribbling fails.
I definitely didn't see the Zlatan you portray here that's for sure, and you can take one guess at which player I focus on the most on that pitch.
My point still stands, if Rooney had played the exact same game as Zlatan did he would absolutely not get an average rating of 8.3 from the caf. Not even fecking close.
and I didn't say he made it hard for Rooney, try again.
I expect people to judge a players performance on their actual performance, not what they did two years ago or what they might do in April.
Are people actually thinking "oh he was shit tonight but I'll give him a 9/10 because he was great last season"?
If so (and it bloody well looks like it) I think the rating system is deeply flawed. Also any thread discussing a players performance for one specific match, which are quite a few last time I checked.
Yes we can. There were a few times in the match where I thought something special would happen, then the ball went to Rooney and he lost it unnecessarily. The one that sticks in my mind the most is when Mikh picked up a lose ball, made a nifty move, use the outside of the foot to pass to Rooney.......and Rooney lost it. I just pictured a good break developing. I would really like to see Mikh as the no. 10 with everyone else the same. Would be fun to watch.
Please tell me this post is satire...
I mean just WATCHING the game you'll see pogba contributed much more to the match from attack to defence. I don't like using stats but I'm sure they'd back this up. Glimpsed Pogbas heat map and if was all over the pitch.
He was not as bad as Bournemouth, but honestly he was shit again.
We may as well play with 10 on the pitch because attacks grind to a halt when he gets involved.
If mikki started instead of him, we would have won 4 or 5 nil.
Problem is we expect the perfect play and perfect move and perfect player. Even we win people want to see mikhi and rashford in the team. Most important is 3pts and when it comes to individuals as i said 1 goal and 1 assist. He is involved in 40% of goals this season. Good ratio for a no. 10.
If he plays the way he does and gets us 1 goal a game I think those are impressive stats for a no. 10.
Really how do you predict that? Mikhi came twice on the pitch and we haven't scored a single goal in that period.
How much time was Mikhi on the pitch and how much time was Rooney on the pitch?
And I didn't predict anything, I saw his cumbersome shitplay with my 2 eyes. Surely Jose wouldn't let this persist all season
If he keeps up producing goal a game he will be in the team trust me. Pretty football doesn't always get you 3 pts. (ask arsenal fans)
Do you really think he is going to contribute a goal a game? And let's look at the goals. With his goal he just happened to be in the right place and scored. Good but nothing to get excited about. The assist happened because of two things, one, the defenders were very slow to pressure Rooney and, two, Rooney put it in a floater in the box and Ibra did all the work. Again, nothing great, he just did his job.
Mkhitaryan has come on when we've been seeing out a lead instead of actually needing to score a goal. That affects our play. Look at how deep we sat in the last 10 minutes today, waiting for the counter. Mkhitaryan spent his time defending deep inside his own half. He actually won possession and started a counter attack today, but it was ruined, incidentally by Rooney. Ever since Rooney lost the ability to burst forward and join the counter it seems like he's stopped trying to initiate counter-attacks altogether.
You only need to look at the way Mkhitaryan moved the ball around today to see that he would add so much more speed and fluidity to our attacking moves than Rooney does. Based on today's performance, which by Rooney's standard was quite good, Mkhitaryan deserves a chance ahead of him against Hull. He showed enough to warrant a spot in the team.
You only need to look at the way Mkhitaryan moved the ball around today to see that he would add so much more speed and fluidity to our attacking moves than Rooney does. Based on today's performance, which by Rooney's standard was quite good, Mkhitaryan deserves a chance ahead of him against Hull. He showed enough to warrant a spot in the team.
"In football there are many jobs but the one that is more difficult to find is the guy who puts the ball in the net,” Mourinho
Was okay tonight. No complaints.
A goal a game.....you must have time travelled back to 2010
Nah just saw the stats after tonights gameA goal a game.....you must have time travelled back to 2010
As i said guys. Not a big fan of Rooney. But he is our captain and until he is involved in goals directly he ain't going anywhere.
That makes me sad
Intended for Pogba
Seeing a post like this makes me wanna question: where can I buy some of that pot?
This is the thing though. In a team like ours the 10 should be involved. creating, moving, linking the team together. He randomly has a flicker of his old ability through a match, but 90 mins of that just doesn't warrant him playing.
football isn't a stats game, just getting 1 assist (which isn't a true assist as it was more a lump into the box) but then walking around the pitch neither attacking or defending is just not acceptable. You could see how much higher the tempo lifted once Herrera came on.
If we HAVE to start him then he needs to be subbed at 60. Right now he can't do anything more than that effectively.
It was a great cross, how is that not a true assist?
Guess the majority of David Beckham's career assists weren't true assists either.
We saw the good and bad of Rooney last night. I remember one point he tried to run past a player and he looked like he had a ball and chain on his feet he was running so heavy, also a few times his first touch was poor and he lost the ball. That is the side of Rooneys game that is so bad now. At the same time as someone else has said, there have been decisive moments from him in all the competitive games so far.
I think we have to appreciate Rooney is nowhere near the player he was 5/6 years ago, he does currently though still have plenty to contribute to the side.
I think we have to appreciate Rooney is nowhere near the player he was 5/6 years ago, he does currently though still have plenty to contribute to the side.
To be fair there was some sloppy play and careless passes from him that ROoney would be getting slated for, and for me Shaw and Pogba were way out in from as man of the match as were a couple of others. But the talent is all there to see and so is the attitude and personality, which has been really really impressive, loving him so far and he can only get better performance wise I think whilst still maintaining being such a decisive player that he has been already.
I have inexplicably chewed the leg off my chair. Seems a bit imbalanced now. Don't know why, really.
This it's exactly why our managers keep picking him. He is always in amongst the goals and assists when you look back on our season.
For a manager that wants results, this is great. For us fans that want to be entertained, we'd rather he wasn't in the team (me included).
It was a great header but not a great cross. I go with what Giggs said.It was a great cross, how is that not a true assist?
Guess the majority of David Beckham's career assists weren't true assists either.
He didn't really pick anybody out, he just saw people in the box and decided to toss it in there. Yes he put it at a decent enough height to be attacked, but it wasn't a beckham style "I'm putting this on your head" cross. Without ibras leap and power it would never have gone in.It was a great cross, how is that not a true assist?
Guess the majority of David Beckham's career assists weren't true assists either.
This.
He had that kind of assist several times in his career. The swerve, pace and accuracy was spot on. It was obviously a fantastic header, but also a very good ball into the right area by Rooney. A lot of Beckham's assists were exactly like this because he was capable of swinging crosses with pace and swerve into the right areas. Pogba almost got to the ball too, before Ibrahimovic headed it.
I agree that Rooney was plain average yesterday, but there are very few players in our team who could have delivered that kind of ball into the box.
Come on guys I am Rooneys biggest hater but we don't need to denigrate everything he does.
It was a quality cross, my first instinct when I saw him cross it was this is gonna lead to a goal because it hit it perfectly into the danger area with good whip and curl.
His first touch was miles better yesterday.
Is he United quality? Of course not , yesterday's performance was average for a professional footballer but no need to savage him over yesterday's game.
Am sure he'll give us more material to beat him up with fairly soon.
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