Key word is 'if'.
I think there's an argument for playing Rooney as the man up with Valencia wide of him on the right and Young or Nani on the other side and giving Carrick, Scholes and Cleverley a go in the middle. Its not as if either Welbs or Chico are lighting up the turf right now is it?
I just like what I see from Cleverley. When he came on today immediately the team began routing through him. Cleverley received the ball directly from a corner like 2 or 3 times today against QPR as I recall and when Wazza was in possession he did make an effort more than once to find him. His teammates trust him with the ball, they know he'll use it well and that's big.
For someone so relatively inexperienced at the highest level to have that level of faith placed in his ability by experienced multiple title winning players shows Cleverley isn't a flash in the pan to my eyes. I don't think its beyond the pale to suggest had Park or Pogba come on instead of him they wouldn't have been used by the rest of the XI out there in the same way. In less than a season he has earned the implicit trust of world class players. That to me is significant in itself and makes me feel really bright about his and Utd's future.
I don't think the key word is 'if' at all. What are you suggesting? That Welbeck will never be a good finisher, or that he will always be inconsistent? He was off form with his shooting today but apart from that he did fine, he was making decent runs and with a bit more composure would have ended the game with a couple of goals. It's not a big deal if he has a poor game anyway, it's his debut season and overall I think it's been a very promising campaign.
The more he plays the better I think, because with a bit more experience he can easily become world class. You can already see with his movement off the ball that he'll get scoring chances, and as he plays more and develops greater confidence, he should show more composure with his finishing. Welbeck also links up well with Rooney, another few seasons down the line and that will be a great strike partnership.
Playing Rooney up top wastes much of what makes him so effective. It was suggested we should use Cleverly to help control possession, but Rooney is more than capable of playing possession football. I think that 4-5-1 system would dramatically weaken us offensively as well. Carrick sits deep and Scholes doesn't get forward as much either, so it would place a lot of emphasis on Cleverly getting forward to support Wayne, something we don't know he is capable of doing. Even if he's alright getting forward I can't imagine Cleverly feeding Rooney would be nearly as effective as Rooney feeding Welbeck or Hernandez.
Personally I think you might be reading too much into him getting on the ball when he came on. He was out wide a fair bit and because QPR were playing so narrowly it left him in acres of space, so it's not a surprise he recieved a few passes. Carrick and Giggs were in the middle as well, so I don't think the players were intentionally trying to pass to him because they trusted him in particular to use the ball well, like you suggest. Even if they do trust him, which I imagine they do, I think that same level of trust would be present throughout the team, for every player. Nothing unique to Cleverly. When Smalling, Jones and Welbeck broke through they were all trusted by the players, I think that's just what the club is like.
He played decently when he came on, much better than our other players at least. What do you want a 21 year old to do considering the rest of his team was playing like piss. I don't think he has it in him to become a world class player personally, but not everyone can become that. He clearly has potential though, and I have no doubt he will become a very good player if he can overcome his injury problems.
