Even though Valencia won the club's player of the year, Rooney was clearly the most effective player for the club this year, but is the over reliance on Rooney the biggest problem for Utd? Usually Utd play 442 which is usually where Rooney is clearly at his best, as he is the player who usually links the attack together but the biggest problem with this formation is that as time has moved on, most other teams play an extra midfielder and as a result control possession, whereas utd do not get any effective offensive contribution from central midfield, instead they keep the ball moving always looking to release the wingers, but the problem this causes is that so many teams have figured it out especially in Europe and once the wingers are double teamed the midfielders have no other option but to go backwards or sometimes they try to link up with the forwards and this usually results in a wasted possession because chicharito's hold up play is below average, rooney's is maybe average, in fact the best strikers at holding the ball up is berbatov and possibly welbeck after him. Rooney is a striker who loves to go deep to pick up the ball but on so many occasion he tries to play the killer ball when it is not necessary, thereby giving the ball away or he turns in to trouble and gives the ball away which is something he has been doing a lot of recently. As a lone striker its even worse because he hardly ever gets involved in the game, he always seems to be isolated, as he is not really good at holding up the ball as his ball control is not the best, or running in to the channels to make space for others and he hardly ever wins the ball in the air either, and out of frustration drops very deep to get the ball, leaving the opposing central defenders with no one to cover and the opportunity to bring the ball out a long way just like in the game against city, Teams especially do this when utd play a 442. If for instance utd had bought Sneijder, you have to wonder where he would have played because he can not play in a 442 unless you put him out wide and that would be negating his effectiveness and if you play him in a 451 or 433 then you have to play rooney as the lone striker and like i said earlier, this is not his best role, and this would be the problem Utd will have to deal with even if they buy Kagawa, or Gaitan, or Hazard, or even Sneijder because none of these players can play in a 442 unless you put them out wide and if not then rooney has to be the lone striker. Until this issue can be solved, utd might be able to win the premier league in the future as they only lost out on goal difference so there is no cause for alarm there, but the big problem will be in the champions league where most teams have figured out utds style of play and unless they change or modify it, they will not be going beyond the quarter finals
Valencia won because he has been brilliant this season Rooney has (despite the goals see valencia maybe?) been average bar a few games. I think there is a conundrum with rooney, as when he was played as a number 9 he got a shed load of goals but was clearly unhappy This season he got played in a dual role striker/midfielder and has been poor in terms of touch/pace/trickery etc The conundrum is what is his best position and one he is happy with? If midfield gets sorted then he needs to be a '9'. If he plays behind the front man the we need a new striker as welbeck and hernandez havent cut it in terms of goals scored Capello used to have a 'go' at rooney for not staying in position and spending too much time in midfield, Forcing him to stay up top yielded good results for capello Fact is as a midfielder rooney doesnt cut it full time, and him being there has saf not buying. As a striker he doesnt seem happy and seems to be missing sitters at times or going through phases where he simply doesnt score I dont think he likes being the 'main man' as evidenced by when ronaldo left so maybe the way forward is to build the team around another? and give him a bit of freedom or even look at moving him on? I know most will shout me down here, but surely the team comes first?
The big issue is that rooney is best as a second striker in a 442 but that formation is outdated as it does not favour midfield control against the better/ stronger teams and he is always dropping deep to look for the ball and either turning in to trouble or giving it away and his short passing is not as good as his long range passing and to be succesful in Europe you need to be able to keep the ball better in the midfield and a lot of that will depend on how good you are passing out of small spaces and keeping the ball with simple passes, not all passes have to be killer passes and rooney does not do simple passes.
If we started playing 433/451 could Rooney not play in midfield, as a forward thinking midfield player?
But do we have the other players to play in a 433? Valenica wouldn't do well in a 433 as he'd have to play a bit narrower at times and his strength is bursting down the touchline. Ashley Young is a good player, but I'm not sure he's good enough to be a permanent fixture in our starting 11. Nani could very well play in the forward 3, as could Welbeck, albeit in a wide position. We'd then need to sign a defensive midfielder to pair with Carrick, and a top class CF like Llorrente from Bilbao.
You've got your back 4, 2 CDMs sitting in front to protect when fullbacks overlap, 2AMs (LAM and RAM), a CF, and 2GKs
Rooney can play in midfield as he has done on occasion, but the problem is his tendency to try an do too much when he comes deep he is always going for the 40-60 yard diagonal pass or trying to play a through ball most of the time, if he gets it right its okay but if he does not, he gives away possession and against a good team it will enable them to counter or at the very least try to build up play but if rooney was able to do the simple thing such as just keeping the ball moving then options will open up because the defence has to keep moving whilst the ball is moving around and spaces open up, and these are the things the likes of kagawa, sneijder, gaitan, david silva, iniesta, ozil, mata, ribery, kroos, gotze, messi, fabregas and even hamsik who is more of a box to box man are able to do very comfortably. The one thing you can say about the mentioned players is that the one thing they do very well is keep possession and hardly ever give it away but you can not say the same about rooney which is the reason why rooney is more of a striker/forward playmaker than a midfielder/ attacking midfielder or a midfield playmaker or if you remember them more rivaldo than rui costa
