Rooney's form - improving?

[skidmark]

Clearly Rooney has been in dreadful form for a long time - to the extent that he looked like a spent force. Unfortunately I didn't see either of the last two games in full, but from the highlights he looked like he was getting back towards his best - often involved in build up play, and playing with more confidence again. Am I just deluded, or is he on a return to form?

 

[SteveW]

Clearly Rooney has been in dreadful form for a long time - to the extent that he looked like a spent force. Unfortunately I didn't see either of the last two games in full, but from the highlights he looked like he was getting back towards his best - often involved in build up play, and playing with more confidence again. Am I just deluded, or is he on a return to form?

He's been better for a few games now

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Yeah, looks like it. (Long may it continue)

EDIT: Wonder what our plans with him are after this season. If he's to be a squad option then it's only right he gets a wage cut like Young. Difficult to see the club making a move for another starting calibre striker.

 

[Raw]

He no longer looks sluggish which is great. Not exactly back to his best, but he's been very good.

Still think we could do with a replacement striker though.

 

[izzydiggler]

Definitely better but far from a 'top' player. But he's at least contributing which he wasn't really doing before. Overall, at this level he's a good squad player but shouldn't be automatic first choice...no shame in that, just need to push forward and look to gradually phase him out.

 

[Escobar]

Better form yes but for how long? And will it take him always 5 months to find it? For me, he is one of the players that needs to be properly replaced

 

[ADJUDICATOR]

He's playing for that China move.

 

[Devil may care]

Last night was his best game of the season, don't think we can rely on him though, he's always been patchy with his goal scoring, even at his best and he's no longer close to his best days.

 

[Rood]

he's been better but thats coming from a low base of being horrifically shite for months - lets not forget that he was pretty crap just 10 days ago against Soton so we'll see if he can sustain any run of form

 

[RedStarUnited]

What annoys me is, his form seems to always go hand in hand with another player playing well.

Right now Martial is destroying defences, if Martial wasn't playing as well how good would Rooney's form be?

 

[...aka Las Cortinas]

He's fecking shite these days...or so I thought until the last couple of games. He was very good against Stoke, hopefully he can build on that.

 

[snk123]

He was shit for the last 2 years or so but has completely turned around in 2016. Scored terrific goals as well. Don't know what people want from him now when they say he's marginally better.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

What annoys me is, his form seems to always go hand in hand with another player playing well.

Right now Martial is destroying defences, if Martial wasn't playing as well how good would Rooney's form be?

Rooney's upturn in form started when Martial went missing for a while. Rooney has been scoring important goals for the past couple of months.

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

What annoys me is, his form seems to always go hand in hand with another player playing well.

Right now Martial is destroying defences, if Martial wasn't playing as well how good would Rooney's form be?

Martial has been playing well throughout the season though. True Martial may be hitting new territory of form now though, still I think it's harsh to just label Rooney's form down to fortune.

Rooney and Martial have both linked awesomely together lately. Both assisted each other yesterday against Stoke. Rooney teed Martial up at least three time against Derby too - on another day, Martial would have scored.

Martial may be putting chances on a plate for Rooney, but Rooney is creating a good amount for Martial too.

 

[Revan]

He has been good for the entire last month, and was excellent yesterday.

 

[ottosec]

His form improved since he got dropped against Stoke. Make you wonder where would we be if LVG would have dropped him sooner and wouldn't make us play with 10 players every game...

 

[JPRouve]

Give him the ball in the box and he will score goals. He won't beat Time but he still can give us something.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

People need to seriously stop bringing up that Southampton game, I've never seen a striker receive so little support and be expected to live of scraps. We were completely shit as a team yet people keep bringing up that game as if that's what he's really like. Truth is since the turn of the year he's on par with the top striker around and I hope for our sake he can keep that up.

 

[Snow]

What annoys me is, his form seems to always go hand in hand with another player playing well.

Right now Martial is destroying defences, if Martial wasn't playing as well how good would Rooney's form be?

Obviously Martial will play better if he's got better players around him. That's been the problem most of the season, only 1-2 attackers max with a good game at the same time.

 

[Scarecrow]

We've literally got a thread named "Wayne Rooney | 2015/16 Performances". How is this one any different?

 

[Andy_Cole]

He's fecking shite these days...or so I thought until the last couple of games. He was very good against Stoke, hopefully he can build on that.

This.

Before I hated the board I hated LVG. Before him it was Rooney. So this is from someone who blamed Rooney for the reason we were terrible.

But he really is turning it around. Possibly our player of the month January.

 

[J-Stander]

His confidence is so much higher than it was a few months ago, he's even completing the odd 5 yard pass which he couldn't do before Christmas. He'll need to keep it up if we have any chance of top 4.

 

[Treble]

Rooney's upturn in form started when Martial went missing for a while. Rooney has been scoring important goals for the past couple of months.

Not really. He scored first in January after Martial destroyed Swansea's defence and assited that goal.

It's too early to say whether and to what extent Rooney has turned it around. In terms of goals, he has done brilliantly over the last 5 weeks. But most of those goals came against teams from lower leagues (SU, Derby) or teams involved in the relegtion battle (Newcastle, Swansea). He was poor against Soton and Liverpool. All in all, he has put in two excellent performances (Newcastle, Stoke), 2-3 decent ones and 2-3 poor since the start of the calendar year.

I said before the game vs Newcastle that even if he scored three hat-tricks in the next three games, he would still be finsihed as a top player. And I stay by this. By "finished" I mean that he cannot maintain excellent perfomances for longer than 2-3 months and will inevitably slump into mediocrity for prolonged periods.

He looks lively and quality when he is given acres of space. But the real top players can control the ball in tight spaces and create something out of nothing (e.g. Martial). Rooney can't do this and as soon as we face a team like, say, Soton that leveas little space for the forwards, he will look out of his depth.

In order to thrive as a main striker at a top top club you have to be very good in tight spaces with an excellent first touch (unless your team neglects possession and relies on counter attacks), quick and physically very strong. Rooney's close control in tight situations isn't special, he isn't particularly strong or quick either. So, I don't see the tools that would help him to be consistently good for us over at least 2/3 of the season. He might go through some purple patches now and then but we need consistency in order to compete for the big tropheys. I'd be nicely and extremely surprised if he is still capable of such consistency. One month isn't enough, he has to deliver many months in a row.

 

[buckooo1978]

Has been good ever since he was dropped vrs Stoke....

Should have done it long before

With a bit of physical decline he's become a good to very good player with some moments of class

 

[SalfordRed1960]

Clearly Rooney has been in dreadful form for a long time - to the extent that he looked like a spent force. Unfortunately I didn't see either of the last two games in full, but from the highlights he looked like he was getting back towards his best - often involved in build up play, and playing with more confidence again. Am I just deluded, or is he on a return to form?

He has been better since he got dropped for Stoke away, however, still had an absolute shocker against Southampton.

 

[clarkydaz]

as mentioned it is divided up as absolute dog wank up to being dropped at Stoke away, then a gradual climb to respectable and expected levels of performance again. Cue a few more games in this form that gives him enough credit till he then plateaus for a while

 

[RamblingRebel]

He is pacing himself for summer. In his mind his season started around christmas, round about the time Hodgson said he's not guaranteed a place in the England squad.

I think all he cares about these days is creating a legacy for himself.

 

[JPRouve]

He is pacing himself for summer. In his mind his season started around christmas, round about the time Hodgson said he's not guaranteed a place in the England squad.

I think all he cares about these days is creating a legacy for himself.

That's a bit unfair, he wants to be good for his country.

 

[Ventura]

If he's going to need half a year next season to find some semblance of form, then it simply isn't worth it anymore. Being terrible for such long periods just doesn't work.

 

[togg]

Even when he's playing badly he tries. He's a pure football guy. Just adores playing the game and yes even I, a huge Rooney advocate thought earlier he perhaps was moving down a notch. But how many times has he come back? I'd rather he was here now than sold before, that is for sure.

 

[dichinero]

He's been Ok for the last couple of games, not great or excellent. I would not say he has improved as much other than he just found some form, a purple patch which most players go through regardless of ability. For the sake of the team, I hope we happy people scoring.
I was so annoyed this season that we started with just one striker in decline AND with no competition. Rooney is the only player that has no competition in the squad (I don't think LvG even considers Martial or Wilson as viable options), probably in the whole league. Hardly can a player in decline improve when their is no immediate competition.

 

[Cletus]

I didn't realise Colleen was up the duff all these months, surely knowing his baby and missus are fine would have had an effect.

 

[Cheesy]

There's definitely been a general improvement in him since around New Year. He's lost a lot of pace and nowhere near good enough to be our main man (players like Aguero shit on him from a distance), but he's shown that he's still got some ability there and he hasn't really been a hindrance to our overall game, which is a lot more positive.

 

[Rood]

People need to seriously stop bringing up that Southampton game, I've never seen a striker receive so little support and be expected to live of scraps. We were completely shit as a team yet people keep bringing up that game as if that's what he's really like. Truth is since the turn of the year he's on par with the top striker around and I hope for our sake he can keep that up.

Hes been better, but on par with the top strikers for 2016 ? not even close IMO

and yes the team were poor against Soton but he was a big part of that - he didnt have that many less touches than he did last night (43 vs 50) but his pass completion was lower and he had the same number of shots (3) but didnt get any on target - he only has himself to blame for that.

 

[acrebo]

Loved the barge he did on Johnson for the disallowed goal. He was proper keen last night.

 

[dichinero]

People need to seriously stop bringing up that Southampton game, I've never seen a striker receive so little support and be expected to live of scraps. We were completely shit as a team yet people keep bringing up that game as if that's what he's really like. Truth is since the turn of the year he's on par with the top striker around and I hope for our sake he can keep that up.

On par with who exactly? Aguero, Giroud, Costa, Vardy, Kane, Lukaku, Bojan have totally outperformed Rooney this season.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

Hes been better, but on par with the top strikers for 2016 ? not even close IMO

and yes the team were poor against Soton but he was a big part of that - he didnt have that many less touches than he did last night (43 vs 50) but his pass completion was lower and he had the same number of shots (3) but didnt get any on target - he only has himself to blame for that.

You can look at all the stats you want but I know what I've seen and having played football upfront I know how difficult it is when your feeding off scraps. In the Stoke game, Mata, lingard and martial were right up there in support, against Southampton we we camped 20 yards deeper extending the gap between the striker and midfield. There's no other position ins football where you more reliant on your team than upfront because without quality ball you can do feck all.
In terms of being a tip striker in 2016 he's up there with Aguero as one of the top scorers in 2016 and they have been goals of absolute top quality and at huge moments in games. I'm all for giving Rooney the criticsim he deserves for his atrocious season start, but it's annoying to see people fuel an agenda by not giving Rooney the credit he deserves. Regardless of what people think, Rooney is the key to turning our game around and he has to keep up this top form to give us any chance of top 4!

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

On par with who exactly? Aguero, Giroud, Costa, Vardy, Kane, Lukaku, Bojan have totally outperformed Rooney this season.

Yeh 100% agree but since the turn of the year absolutely not!

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

He is still very good. I don't think he should start regularly as the main striker though.

We need a world class striker in his young or mid 20's.

But Rooney's career here is far from over. He will still get games. He will be an unbelievable squad player that will still start regularly in the front 3 or AM. Or if Jose comes I can see Rooney playing the Lampard role.

 

[bosnian_red]

On par with who exactly? Aguero, Giroud, Costa, Vardy, Kane, Lukaku, Bojan have totally outperformed Rooney this season.

Costa? Come on