Just to provide a focus on a topic that has reared it's ugly head (no pun intended) in several posts of late. Moyes loved him, LvG loved him, but it has to be said that Rooney hasn't been on his best form for a while. With all of the attacking and midfield talent that has developed or been brought in, should an under-par Rooney still play ? These are the only stats I can find and highlight his poor contribution going into December last year ....
It's pretty simple to me. He plays. I'm fairly certain he'll start Sunday's game at 10 behind Zlat, if he's fit. If he is in poor form then he gets dropped.
We are still lacking in CF's. In 4 competitions, we have 3 players likely to be rotated/played up front by Mourinho. Those are Ibrah, Rooney, Rashford. As well as that there are likely 2/3 players rotated/played as the number 10. One of those will be Rooney. When you consider that, we don't have many options. Rooney deserves his place at the moment under a new manager. If he underperforms and we struggle to score goals then we should also ask why we didn't buy another proven CF? BUT, Rooney should not be playing in midfield. Especially not to try and prolong his career, that's just plain nuts imo.
To complete your stats, from January to May last year he played 16 games, scored six goals and got six assists. Despite LVG playing him in midfield half the time, he still finished the season with a goal or assist every other game - 14 goals and assists from 28 games. By comparison Martial got 15 goals and assists from 32 games. Rooney still delivers, he still plays. If he stops delivering, he stops playing, same as any other player. Tbh the obsession some of our fans have with him is quite unhealthy. Any guesses who won the 50:50 right before Lingard's goal? Or who switched the play left to right before Valencia's cross?
Fitness wise he seems old for a man of his age. Too much over eating, drinking and smoking catching up with him.
Or could be he played first team football full time from just past 15 years of age. He would always age quicker. No doubt smoking doesn't help but he started early. It's not like he's not had a full career, a quick look at his appearances and goals tells you that.
Rooney lifestyle means that he has developed the sort of physique that needs constant hard work to keep his fitness levels up. Any lay-off, holidays, injury, suspensions etc where he can't/doesn't apply himself to maintaining fitness results in an immediate drop in form and there is no doubt it takes him longer each time to recover his form. Up to last season he has been an essential part of the team, but now we have several players in the squad who can play his position which means that playing Rooney simply because we had no other option is no longer the case. I don't want to see Rooney's name on the team-sheet at the expense of Rashford who provided a far better return on goals per minutes played.
Thought Pogba was brought in as a Rooney replacement - Mouriniho plays with 2 DMs and he was rather rubbish when he played there in the Euros. Can see him being played on the right like Mata was last season.
I very much doubt that mate. Pogba is definitely not a Rooney replacement. And no way he'll be played on the right either.
I meant Rooney on the right. Looking at your formation vs us in the Charity Shield, you had Zlaten as a lone striker with Rooney behind as an AM - can see Pogba playing there as he is not really a DM.
Pogba's more likely to replace Fellaini as the attacking one in the CM pairing. Similar to Matic and Fabregas at Chelsea - Carrick / Schneiderlin will sit in whilst Pogba plays more up the park. Would be surprised if Pogba was played at 10, which is where Rooney was in the CS, as he never played there for Juve.
It was obvious from when he first appeared that his genes (look at his auld fella) were going to dictate that he was always likely to struggle a bit with his weight, and never been the most athletic looking specimen you'll ever see in the game. His subsequent lifestyle choices have exacerbated that, and he's patently on the downslope physically. I don't see him being a player who will still be playing at the highest level in his mid thirties, my guess is that he'll probably head off to the States for a couple of years, maybe as soon as next summer.
Quite possibly. Given his love of wages, I reckon he might also end up in China on half a mill a week like Ramires, Cisse, Ba and co. With the addition of Micky and Pogba, the aim may be to phase out Rooney and move towards a 433 in the long term. But the would be replacements still have a lot to prove and deliver before any manager will be comfortable shunting Rooney out the door.
I can't see him being the type to do 'foreign' tbh. I think it'll be an English speaking destination for our Wayne personally.
