With hindsight, Rooney should have been fecked off in the summer and another quality striker signed to share the goal-scoring burden. Would have been a huge call, though. Which could have massively soured the atmosphere around the club in the opening weeks. And, to be fair, for all the disappointments we've had under Mourinho the one issue we can't criticise him over is his handling of Rooney.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 53
- Goals
- 11
- Assists
- 7
- Yellow cards
- 3
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He's done it perfectly. Gave him chances to prove himself and once it was clear he was finished, he slowly eased him out.
Yeah. Flawless handling of a potentially nasty problem he'd been handed by the previous manager. Like I said, though, it put a lot of pressure on Ibra plus kids to score all our goals. Zlatan's got very broad shoulders (although all the sitters he misses has cost us) but it's been a tough learning curve for Marcus. I still think/hope he'll be a better player for these struggles in the long run.
Youth development can be frustrating and we need to be very patient. Annoys the hell out of me that we have so many posters slating Mourinho for his inability to work with young players while Rashford is simultaneously getting it in the neck from fans who refuse to take the long term view that you need when bringing through kids.
That could have undermined Mourinho massively right about now. New coach comes in and gets rid of the 2nd (at the time) highest goal scorer in the history of the club straight away. It wouldn't have sat down well many of the fans.
Then imagine if the team still exhibited the same shyness in front of goal they do now, how every pundit in the land would be saying how stupid Mourniho was to get rid of Rooney. The atmosphere in the stands and maybe even in the dressing room, could have been quite toxic.
I think his handling of Rooney has been exemplary.
You're right, of course. I was being wise after the fact. Which is easy.
Good point, he's a bit of a blunt object right now, Giggs was talking about something similar the other day, about him needing to vary up what he does when he's running at the defense, I think the steadfast idea that he can only be a striker needs to be adjusted, his development is still in progress and all aspects of his game can be improved.
I don't think the Championship is to low for him personally, but a low PL club would also be beneficial for his own personal development, maybe the only detriment is that it keeps his profile a lot closer to the club if he stays in the PL.
Like I said though, games, games, games. Confidence and goals are the main thing.
Conditions completely outside the sphere of his development necessity. Plus keeping him in England lets him develop in English conditions, he won't be playing in the La Liga ever hopefully he'll exceed all expectations and play for us his entire career. He's not unsettled and he's not in need of a mental check.
Just games and goals. In England because he will be playing in England for as long as he can with us, like I said above.
Anyway the destination is moot. This is an important stage of his development and I want him scoring loads of goals up front and be full of confidence. Something he isn't really getting here at the moment.
Been meh this season. Runs with the ball with his head down. No variety to his game. Not good enough to start for us.
Some of the best players in PL, came from La Liga.
Fascinating.
And this summer we might buy a striker from that League also. To play in English league.
Really? Since there aren't that many good players in the squad and Mourinho hasn't bought players to compete with him, he is good enough in my opinion. It may not be enough, but he's still done a good job this season. If you'd think on a 'general level' then sure, the expectations in this club are high and only top class players (or players that work really well in the play despite not having 'special features') should be in the starting lineup.
If we wouldn't take in to account his debut season to compare, then I'd say he's had a strong season. But sure, there's room for improvement, but he's still 19 years old so I hope he'll develop really well these next couple of years. I'm expecting a strong season from him after this summer.
Does it require hindsight? Lots of fans who've never got anywhere near managing a team knew Rooney was finished way before last summer. So you'd think guys paid millions for their knowledge of football could have worked this out.
It would have been a big call but Jose has done similar by dropping him so much. Any outrage over his sale would have quickly evaporated had a positive replacement been brought in.
That is wonderful, though it has absolutely nothing to do with Rashfords development as a footballer.
Are you really blaming this on him? Did you see where he made his mark last season? Do you see where he is being played?
Benched today. Right choice for me. Where he should be for the foreseeable future - impact sub.
Sunderland 0:3 Man Utd
His first touch is often terrible.
He should focus on keeping things simple and making some successful passes, rather than trying to knock the ball past every player before he has even received it.
He should focus on keeping things simple and making some successful passes, rather than trying to knock the ball past every player before he has even received it.
He's definitely bought into his own hype this season. Dribbles way too much and he's just really not very good at it. Could use a season-long loan deal next season. Still a long, long way to go for him.
feck knows what he was doing when he received that pass from Ibra just now.
Sometimes he looks like a really good player, other times it looks like he's playing football for the first time.
Low on confidence, nothing working for him.
An important one that!
Get in Rashers. Nice finish.
Will do him a world of good.
Will do him a world of good.
Finally 
Really happy for him.
Good finish, must be a big relief for him.
Great finish.
Happy for him, hope he gets a confidence boost.
It was great of Zlatan to pass him rather than Martial. Confidence back hopefully!
Jose should put him on the pitch earlier. This could end with way more goals than just one.
Hope that gives him confidence to kick on now. He could be pivotal for us in these last 10-13 games or so.
Really happy for the kid. Easy to forget he's only 19.
He worked on his finishing, you can tell!
Could have had 3 if Zlatan's passes were any better.
Could have had 3 if Zlatan's passes were any better.
He needed that.
Great goal, hope he kicks on and goes for a run now, a confident and free scoring rashford can help us squeeze into the top 4
Clearly he's been hit and miss with his finishing but ultimately if you play him left wing his goal tally will drop. Same goes for any striker. Play him centrally, either alongside Zlatan or when he needs a break and the goalscoring will pick up.
So glad he got his goal. Been a long time coming.
Think the way we used him today is how we should be looking to use him between ow and the end of the season. Someone to come on and stretch a tired opposition.
Think the way we used him today is how we should be looking to use him between ow and the end of the season. Someone to come on and stretch a tired opposition.
Needs to work on his touch.
Happy that he scored. He needed this goal.
Really good that he got that goal after botching a copuple of previous chances with overrunning or a poor touch, showed a strong mentality to take the strike on and bury it.
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