Wayne Rooney | 2012-14 Performances

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Well he wouldn't, would he? He'd ask the 'other bloke', whoever that may be -to play on the wing instead.

As good as Rooney is, it is partly due to him not establishing himself as the Ibrahimovic of the team, if you like, that he is an option to be moved wide. Messi can play wide too, but he'll be played where he is best. For obvious reasons.

He's an option to be moved wide because he would rarely complain about it and just get on with the job at hand. Messi plays as a false number 9 and roams free, so your point about him being played where he's best is horseshite seeing as he is floating all over the pitch with no actual defined position.

You seem to have a gripe about Rooney. Whats the story there?
 
We do have some 'fans' who are absolutely nuts.

Imagine Ancelotti asking Ibrahimovic to play on the wing. He'd get kicked in the face and Zlatan would leave.

It's not been a vintage season for Rooney, but when we've asked him to do a job he's gone out and done it with a great work ethic. That alone deserves credit. From going from the nucleus of the team scoring 30 odd goals to being asked to play in every position other than GK or defence, takes a real man to do it without making a fuss.

Really? Do you paddy and throw a tantrum if your boss asks you to cover something in an emergency? Its what normal people do and fair play to Rooney for being down to earth enough to do it. The players that DONT are monumental primma donna twats.
 
Really? Do you paddy and throw a tantrum if your boss asks you to cover something in an emergency? Its what normal people do and fair play to Rooney for being down to earth enough to do it. The players that DONT are monumental primma donna twats.

I think there's a difference in the topic in hand. We're talking about self-righteous twats earning obscene amounts of money who tend to have a lot of self-thought. Not average joe checkout operator in ASDA.

It takes more from a high-profile top-class footballer to do a completely different job than it does for Barry on the tills in Asda to move over to the soup aisle to stack the shelves.

Though I completely agree with the prima donna twats comment, the ones who throw a hissy fit are completely deserving of such titles, however considering these people have received praise from the ages of 6 or 7 for having coordinated feet and good physical attributes, they don't really have much sense of real life do they?
 
Well he wouldn't, would he? He'd ask the 'other bloke', whoever that may be -to play on the wing instead.

As good as Rooney is, it is partly due to him not establishing himself as the Ibrahimovic of the team, if you like, that he is an option to be moved wide. Messi can play wide too, but he'll be played where he is best. For obvious reasons.

Rooney more than established himself as the main man for the the team since Ronaldo's departure but, it's because he has the ability to contribute very effectively in other positions so that players that are more specialized take up the more focal point role that this season once again he has made way to allow for RVP to do so.
 
I think there's a difference in the topic in hand. We're talking about self-righteous twats earning obscene amounts of money who tend to have a lot of self-thought. Not average joe checkout operator in ASDA.

It takes more from a high-profile top-class footballer to do a completely different job than it does for Barry on the tills in Asda to move over to the soup aisle to stack the shelves.

Though I completely agree with the prima donna twats comment, the ones who throw a hissy fit are completely deserving of such titles, however considering these people have received praise from the ages of 6 or 7 for having coordinated feet and good physical attributes, they don't really have much sense of real life do they?

Absolutely which makes them even harder to like. Good points mate.
 
People on the Caf are almost as defensive over Rooney as they are about De Gea...

It's quite funny.
 
Rooney more than established himself as the main man for the the team since Ronaldo's departure but, it's because he has the ability to contribute very effectively in other positions so that players that are more specialized take up the more focal point role that this season once again he has made way to allow for RVP to do so.

Well sort of. He didn't play wide before Persie came here, and that was because you'd never see him moved around to accomodate Hernandez, for example. Hernandez is more suited to playing through the middle, but we didn't play Rooney on the left to do so. If we did decide to go one up-front, we'd simply drop Hernandez and play Rooney as the main striker. Now, because Persie is better, we'll play him in his position and drop someone else that Rooney IS better than ( a winger) and put him there. If he was better than Persie, he would simply bench him, or if anything, make HIM play out wide (which he can). If RVP joined Barcelona, he would likely play wide than through the middle.
 
He's an option to be moved wide because he would rarely complain about it and just get on with the job at hand. Messi plays as a false number 9 and roams free, so your point about him being played where he's best is horseshite seeing as he is floating all over the pitch with no actual defined position.

You seem to have a gripe about Rooney. Whats the story there?

Messi has a role. He plays as a flase 9, like you said, just like when Rooney plays behind the striker, he also floats around. That is their role. He (Messi) didn't always play centrally though, he used to play wide - but now the team let's him play where he wants and is best.

And how do you work out that I have a 'gripe'? Sorry, just that one of my pet hates on the forum is that you cannot even give a reasoned critique of a United player without being accused of 'hating' him. There are reasons behind every point I have made, whether anyone agrees or not. It doesn't go further than that. I support the team, but I also say what I see. I love Rooney as much as the next fan, I just recognise his limitations I think.
 
People on the Caf are almost as defensive over Rooney as they are about De Gea...

It's quite funny.

Defensive about our own player? Not just some ordinary player but one who's going to be our all time top scorer? Yes very funny
 
Defensive about our own player? Not just some ordinary player but one who's going to be our all time top scorer? Yes very funny

Why do you need to be defensive about our own player, to United fans? Every player thread is like this now: a random idiot says something predictably stupid like "I wouldn't mind if X player was sold", then you get the entrenched supporters of of X player railing against the injustice the player they like gets with over-the-top platitudes.

It's got to the point where you can't even offer any small amount of constructive criticism on any player without being shouted down for 'hating' someone who is apparently the best thing since sliced bread.

It is rather funny, as you say.
 
Talk about OTT. Small or even reasoned constructive criticism is hardly shouted down.

As for posters defending a player they like against what they seem as unfair/undue/inaccurate criticism is hardly something new here. Heck it happens on discussion boards of all kinds, not just here. When people are passionate about a certain topic, they'll get involved.

As to comments regarding selling Rooney or even being fine with him sold if that is the suggestion other than actually not liking the player - are there any reasonable explanations as to why someone might think that way?
 
Talk about OTT. Small or even reasoned constructive criticism is hardly shouted down.

As for posters defending a player they like against what they seem as unfair/undue/inaccurate criticism is hardly something new here. Heck it happens on discussion boards of all kinds, not just here. When people are passionate about a certain topic, they'll get involved.

As to comments regarding selling Rooney or even being fine with him sold if that is the suggestion other than actually not liking the player - are there any reasonable explanations as to why someone might think that way?

He disrespected Fergie. But people are fine with what Ronaldo did in 2008 where he absolutely did not disrespect Fergie. No sireee, Bob!
 
Disrespecting Fergie/Club goes to not liking him as a person. As a player though, especially one that is reaching his peak, can't think of a reasonable footballing reason why anyone would want him sold.
 
Talk about OTT. Small or even reasoned constructive criticism is hardly shouted down.

As for posters defending a player they like against what they seem as unfair/undue/inaccurate criticism is hardly something new here. Heck it happens on discussion boards of all kinds, not just here. When people are passionate about a certain topic, they'll get involved.

As to comments regarding selling Rooney or even being fine with him sold if that is the suggestion other than actually not liking the player - are there any reasonable explanations as to why someone might think that way?

I don't think there's ever a particularly good reason to actively want a player to be sold; well, at least I don't get it anyway. But you are right, people do get emotional, doesn't make it any less annoying though! :smirk:
 
I dont know what people expect from Rooney. Even this season, where he has been shuffled around all over the place and had to live with being pushed from "main man" spot into a deeper role, he has still been amongst our best players. Only Carrick, RVP and Evra have been more important and influencial than him.

And this is "his worst season" apparantly. I think he was a lot worse that season with the transfer bollocks. He was shite for large spells of the season but masked it with goals that came out of nowhere. This season he has been working extremely hard almost every game. His defensive work for such a creative and attacking player is out of this world.

The 2nd half of that season with his transfer shite was the best Rooney has ever been. But it followed the worst. It was a strange season
 
Didn't look particularly interested in the attack. Probably because he knew the job was almost done. His alertness was down. Was more interested in just keeping possession which probably was his job
 
Anyone else think his touch and passing are getting back up towards their best now?

I thought he was excellent today and yes his touch was fine today. The issue is not whether Rooney possesses a good first touch, its just that when he is out of form or not having a great game.. his touch is shocking whereas with most top players, its due to them being marked out of the game etc - with him its really noticeable when he's having a mare.
 
Thankfuly what I hoped for came true, Rooney got a run out.
This was he isn't knackered by any means, but he did get a good run out which should help him of all people in the sense of not staying away from game action for too long.

Now it's just time for the news that RvP is going to be fine and fit to play against Madrid and we can head into that game full steam ahead.
 
Came on at an important time and helped us keep possession well and drive us forward so yes played quite a crucial role. Hopefully he can get some goals vs Norwich too now.
 
Made a big difference to our play when he came on. He's coming into form at the right time.

Everything is falling butter side up for us this year. It's like some kind of reverse curse. :D
 
It was a good quick workout for Rooney, but it's a stretch to say he dramatically improved our play today. Still, you want to get Roo back into top form as quickly as possible. His reunion with Ronaldo isn't that far away and we're going to need Rooney in the highest form to get through.
 
You just know we are going to need to defend for our lives against madrid. Rooney will be crucial to how successful we are in doing that. It would be nice to see him score a few more goals but you can't fault him for being so unselfish and playing oddjob roles for the betterment of the team.
 
Good to see him run out today, kept possessin well and that was about it, just looked to be playing himself back into it, hopefully he's raring to o come the Madrid tie.
 
We often hear about how Rooney used to score a lot of wonder goals from outside the box when he was younger and how he doesn't do that anymore so I watched a video of around 55 goals that he scored for us from 2005 to the 2007-08 and out of those 55, just 4 were from outside the box and 3 of those were just at the edge of the box and very well placed shots with just enough power while the 4th was that incredible volley vs Newcastle. Now this video didn't have some goals like the 2 chips, the volley vs Boro and his debut goal but still he really never scored as many amazing goals from outside the box as it's made out to be and if anything his 4 or so long rangers last year must have been more than what he's scored in a single season in his early years. But yes he's definitely lost some of the explosive acceleration he had
 
Rooney's ability to partner other world-leading players - and to not only maintain his own excellence in doing so, but often to perform even better - is one of the qualities that makes him stand out even amongst other world class players. It's also surprisingly little-mentioned.

In every top team there is a regular issue with combining several of those 'best in the world'-bracket players without compromising any of them. Benzema has never quite been as consistently brilliant at Madrid as he might have had he not always played in Ronaldo's shadow. Ibrahimovic is just one of a number of players who Barca have never really got the best out of because of the importance of making Messi the focus of all their football. Throughout history, putting two of the best players in the world in one team has been hugely problematic. Making it work often leads that team to huge success, but struggling with it can also hamstring them for years.

Rooney, on the other hand, actively benefits from partnership with an equally brilliant player. It increasingly looks like it doesn't matter what sort of player they are, either - the requirement for understanding, sacrifice and codependance just seems to suit him.

He forged a stunning and prolific partnership with Van Nistelrooy. He was the foil to Ronaldo when he was the best player in the world. Now he and Van Persie look a good bet to retake the PL trophy for us. It's such a rare ability amongst top players to be able to gel with other top players regardless of their style and position, and it's hard to overstate how important that ability has been to the last eight years of United's success.
 
Rooney's ability to partner other world-leading players - and to not only maintain his own excellence in doing so, but often to perform even better - is one of the qualities that makes him stand out even amongst other world class players. It's also surprisingly little-mentioned.

In every top team there is a regular issue with combining several of those 'best in the world'-bracket players without compromising any of them. Benzema has never quite been as consistently brilliant at Madrid as he might have had he not always played in Ronaldo's shadow. Ibrahimovic is just one of a number of players who Barca have never really got the best out of because of the importance of making Messi the focus of all their football. Throughout history, putting two of the best players in the world in one team has been hugely problematic. Making it work often leads that team to huge success, but struggling with it can also hamstring them for years.

Rooney, on the other hand, actively benefits from partnership with an equally brilliant player. It increasingly looks like it doesn't matter what sort of player they are, either - the requirement for understanding, sacrifice and codependance just seems to suit him.

He forged a stunning and prolific partnership with Van Nistelrooy. He was the foil to Ronaldo when he was the best player in the world. Now he and Van Persie look a good bet to retake the PL trophy for us. It's such a rare ability amongst top players to be able to gel with other top players regardless of their style and position, and it's hard to overstate how important that ability has been to the last eight years of United's success.

Very good point.
 
Rooney's ability to partner other world-leading players - and to not only maintain his own excellence in doing so, but often to perform even better - is one of the qualities that makes him stand out even amongst other world class players. It's also surprisingly little-mentioned.

In every top team there is a regular issue with combining several of those 'best in the world'-bracket players without compromising any of them. Benzema has never quite been as consistently brilliant at Madrid as he might have had he not always played in Ronaldo's shadow. Ibrahimovic is just one of a number of players who Barca have never really got the best out of because of the importance of making Messi the focus of all their football. Throughout history, putting two of the best players in the world in one team has been hugely problematic. Making it work often leads that team to huge success, but struggling with it can also hamstring them for years.

Rooney, on the other hand, actively benefits from partnership with an equally brilliant player. It increasingly looks like it doesn't matter what sort of player they are, either - the requirement for understanding, sacrifice and codependance just seems to suit him.

He forged a stunning and prolific partnership with Van Nistelrooy. He was the foil to Ronaldo when he was the best player in the world. Now he and Van Persie look a good bet to retake the PL trophy for us. It's such a rare ability amongst top players to be able to gel with other top players regardless of their style and position, and it's hard to overstate how important that ability has been to the last eight years of United's success.

He doesn't get enough respect, especially considering the dynamism he has lost is probably related to the numerous occasions he was rushed back from injuries in his younger years.
 
Rooney's ability to partner other world-leading players - and to not only maintain his own excellence in doing so, but often to perform even better - is one of the qualities that makes him stand out even amongst other world class players. It's also surprisingly little-mentioned.

In every top team there is a regular issue with combining several of those 'best in the world'-bracket players without compromising any of them. Benzema has never quite been as consistently brilliant at Madrid as he might have had he not always played in Ronaldo's shadow. Ibrahimovic is just one of a number of players who Barca have never really got the best out of because of the importance of making Messi the focus of all their football. Throughout history, putting two of the best players in the world in one team has been hugely problematic. Making it work often leads that team to huge success, but struggling with it can also hamstring them for years.

Rooney, on the other hand, actively benefits from partnership with an equally brilliant player. It increasingly looks like it doesn't matter what sort of player they are, either - the requirement for understanding, sacrifice and codependance just seems to suit him.

He forged a stunning and prolific partnership with Van Nistelrooy. He was the foil to Ronaldo when he was the best player in the world. Now he and Van Persie look a good bet to retake the PL trophy for us. It's such a rare ability amongst top players to be able to gel with other top players regardless of their style and position, and it's hard to overstate how important that ability has been to the last eight years of United's success.

Rooney is one of the most unselfish players I've ever come across. He's shown that he can take on the role of the main player himself, like he did last season, or he can adapt himself to play with another main player like he's doing now with Robin and he has done previously with Ronaldo or RVN. He never gets his nose out of joint. He does the unglamorous parts of the job without complaint too. A lot was made in the foreign press about how Cristiano was free to do what he does best and attack the game yet we had Rooney who they considered our main threat, covering Rafael at RB, he also ran more kms than any other player on the pitch (despite being subbed off early).

Imo he's ridiculously under appreciated. There are very few players of Rooney's level who are as unselfish and willing to sacrifice parts of themselves for the good of the team as Rooney is.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about Wayne Rooney. He's one streaky dude, to be sure, but he's got incredible heart for and intelligence about the game. We all know this but I'll state the obvious anyway:

The man goes above and beyond the call of duty in defending, even very deep in his last third.
His IQ for the game is incredible -- he rarely puts in a horrible ball to a teammate or makes the wrong decision.
He's a legitimate threat on goal, sometimes going on crazy scoring streaks.
He gets up for big games.
He's a sensational "second striker", often providing great final balls even where he had a legitimate case to take the defender on himself.

Every team on earth, perhaps even Barcelona too, would be a better team with Rooney in the starting XI. There's a very small number of footballers about whom that can be said.
 
Rooney's ability to partner other world-leading players - and to not only maintain his own excellence in doing so, but often to perform even better - is one of the qualities that makes him stand out even amongst other world class players. It's also surprisingly little-mentioned.

In every top team there is a regular issue with combining several of those 'best in the world'-bracket players without compromising any of them. Benzema has never quite been as consistently brilliant at Madrid as he might have had he not always played in Ronaldo's shadow. Ibrahimovic is just one of a number of players who Barca have never really got the best out of because of the importance of making Messi the focus of all their football. Throughout history, putting two of the best players in the world in one team has been hugely problematic. Making it work often leads that team to huge success, but struggling with it can also hamstring them for years.

Rooney, on the other hand, actively benefits from partnership with an equally brilliant player. It increasingly looks like it doesn't matter what sort of player they are, either - the requirement for understanding, sacrifice and codependance just seems to suit him.

He forged a stunning and prolific partnership with Van Nistelrooy. He was the foil to Ronaldo when he was the best player in the world. Now he and Van Persie look a good bet to retake the PL trophy for us. It's such a rare ability amongst top players to be able to gel with other top players regardless of their style and position, and it's hard to overstate how important that ability has been to the last eight years of United's success.

And who said the newbie promotions of late were shite? :wenger:

Excellent post, mate.
 
Rooney's ability to partner other world-leading players - and to not only maintain his own excellence in doing so, but often to perform even better - is one of the qualities that makes him stand out even amongst other world class players. It's also surprisingly little-mentioned.

In every top team there is a regular issue with combining several of those 'best in the world'-bracket players without compromising any of them. Benzema has never quite been as consistently brilliant at Madrid as he might have had he not always played in Ronaldo's shadow. Ibrahimovic is just one of a number of players who Barca have never really got the best out of because of the importance of making Messi the focus of all their football. Throughout history, putting two of the best players in the world in one team has been hugely problematic. Making it work often leads that team to huge success, but struggling with it can also hamstring them for years.

Rooney, on the other hand, actively benefits from partnership with an equally brilliant player. It increasingly looks like it doesn't matter what sort of player they are, either - the requirement for understanding, sacrifice and codependance just seems to suit him.

He forged a stunning and prolific partnership with Van Nistelrooy. He was the foil to Ronaldo when he was the best player in the world. Now he and Van Persie look a good bet to retake the PL trophy for us. It's such a rare ability amongst top players to be able to gel with other top players regardless of their style and position, and it's hard to overstate how important that ability has been to the last eight years of United's success.

Very good post.

(Brightonian should now quit while he's ahead, and never post again.)
 
Rooney's ability to partner other world-leading players - and to not only maintain his own excellence in doing so, but often to perform even better - is one of the qualities that makes him stand out even amongst other world class players. It's also surprisingly little-mentioned.

In every top team there is a regular issue with combining several of those 'best in the world'-bracket players without compromising any of them. Benzema has never quite been as consistently brilliant at Madrid as he might have had he not always played in Ronaldo's shadow. Ibrahimovic is just one of a number of players who Barca have never really got the best out of because of the importance of making Messi the focus of all their football. Throughout history, putting two of the best players in the world in one team has been hugely problematic. Making it work often leads that team to huge success, but struggling with it can also hamstring them for years.

Rooney, on the other hand, actively benefits from partnership with an equally brilliant player. It increasingly looks like it doesn't matter what sort of player they are, either - the requirement for understanding, sacrifice and codependance just seems to suit him.

He forged a stunning and prolific partnership with Van Nistelrooy. He was the foil to Ronaldo when he was the best player in the world. Now he and Van Persie look a good bet to retake the PL trophy for us. It's such a rare ability amongst top players to be able to gel with other top players regardless of their style and position, and it's hard to overstate how important that ability has been to the last eight years of United's success.

Yet his partnerships with Saha Tevez and Berbs where underwhelming at times. Not blaming Roo Entirely, It takes two to make a partnership work but lets not make him out to be some kind of superhuman who can play with anyone. I DO however agree his selflessness makes a successful partnership more likely.
 
Throughout history, putting two of the best players in the world in one team has been hugely problematic.

Not sure I agree with this at all. In the '56 you had Puskás and Bozsik from Honvéd in 4th and 6th place in the Ballon D'or rankings. In '57 you had Edwards (3rd) and Taylor(8th). In '59 you had Di Stéfano (1st), Puskás (7th) and Gento (8th). On a wider scale you've got the likes of Gre-No-Li, Didi-Garrincha-Pelé, Charlton-Law-Best, Beckenbauer-Muller, Neeskens-Cruyff, Rijkaard-Gullit-van Basten, Xavi-Messi-Iniesta...most great teams had two of the best players in the world in the same team, you've just taken some of the poor examples in recent times. Some of the good examples would be the likes of Deco-Ronaldinho-Eto'o or Pirlo-Kaká-Shevchenko.

I agree with you in that Rooney's selflessness (much like Giggs') has played a big part in our continuous success but I think you're overstating things a bit when you say things like "Rooney's ability to partner other world-leading players - and to not only maintain his own excellence in doing so, but often to perform even better - is one of the qualities that makes him stand out even amongst other world class players. It's also surprisingly little-mentioned." I'd say it's little-mentioned because it's not as unique as you're making it out to be.
 
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