22 Oct 2015 18:12:35
One thing we all have to realise is that a very small minority of our fans will never find anything good in what rooney does. If he plays well, they will find something to bang him about. If he does well they hit him hard like he was an opposition player disguised in a united jersey. Its ridiculous. I say because minority because Rooney is been cheered by our home and away fans in the stadium. He is the 3rd or 4th highest shirt sales player in the EPL so by that millions of our fans world wide must love him to buy his shirt. We all know he isn't the player he once was but he isn't that bad like some fans makes him out to be. If I am correct rooney has 7 goals this season more than aguero giroud hazard kane bony and still some fans think he is rubbish. The only problem I have about rooney is that if he is playing badly then he should be dropped or rotated and not the abuse and names he is been singled out for week in week out. I'm sure within the team players, dressing room rooney's worth is immense. He gives is us and he is an inspiration to the younger and older players. I rather have rooney in our beloved club than in the opposition player. When other foreign players, fans and managers rave so much about him as he deserves then you begin to wonder why some of our fans your belittle and ridicle him every time. Rooney deserves our support and respect irrespective of his poor or good performances. I am not against rooney being dropped if he isn't giving is all or put first in attack in detriment of Martial but what i am against the constant bash and abuse of our captain and soon to become all time goal scorer and a legend for our great club.

Andy Piece.

1.) 22 Oct 2015
22 Oct 2015 19:10:20
All these are valid points I suppose but all I can say in reply is have you watched him play this season? Think he has had maybe 1 good game, the rest of the time he is holding the team back so he should be dropped.

2.) 22 Oct 2015
22 Oct 2015 19:13:06
Andy

I love your passion but I have a simple question for you. Other than Bruges away, has Rooney had a good game this season? If we were ranking contribution so far this year would he be in the top 8? The answer to both is no.

Yes he is a legend, yes he has broken records, yes he is captain, but right now his form is at best average and has been all season. Some people are just too blind to accept it.

3.) 22 Oct 2015
22 Oct 2015 20:10:17
AJH if you read my post well i said i am not against rooney being dropped or Martial being sacrificed to the wings to accommodate him. I know he hasn't been performing to all our expectations. Yes, my issue is the constant name calling and bashing of him. Some terms being used to single him out in every argument and post is uncalled or and shouldn't even be considered by our own fans. We should support every player while they wear the red jersey. Criticising a player is fair enough and acceptable but taking it personal abusive shouldn't be the way for us fans.

Andy Piece.

4.) 22 Oct 2015
22 Oct 2015 20:19:57
Absolutely spot on in my opinion. I keep reading this and I just can't understand it. I simply can't imagine the top scorer for country and, probably club in the near future, getting bashed like this anywhere else in the world. Not only that he's our top scorer this season, scoring a hat-trick already.

Imagine him at Chelsea or City or Liverpool. They would all be singing his praises. I think we have become spoiled over the years with a constant stream of success, thanks to the best manager of all time, and we need to remember those days of watching some of the best football ever played are, for now, behind us.

But back to Rooney, I have seen a lot of people saying he stands still in and around the box, but that's just his style. He loves to get the ball into feet and turn the defender. He has never really been one for making piercing runs through the defence. A player who plays a similar style in my mind is Zlatan, and in my opinion back in his mid-twenties he was easily as good if not, better than Zlatan. He seems to have lost that first yard of pace, and/or LVGS tactics are possibly hindering him.
I agree Martial is probably the more dangerous forward as his pace and skill are sublime, but LVG sees him in training everyday, so maybe he thinks tactically he's not quite ready yet for the Lone striker position.

We need to give Rooney a break, he plays his heart out week in week out and never moans or complains if he's played in different positions and ultimately he's one of our legends.

5.) 22 Oct 2015
22 Oct 2015 20:54:40
He's playing crap, but runs a lot and doesn't moan, first on the team sheet then!

6.) 23 Oct 2015
23 Oct 2015 00:52:22
I deliberately avoid the Rooney debates, for fear that my personal dislike of him will make my contribution just sound like bias.

But I have to say it. The guy has been non-existent pretty much all season. People say he's feeding off scraps, which might be true up to a point. But with the scraps he does get, he's making absolutely nothing of them, either down to a poor first touch, a sloppy pass, or being muscled off the ball. He has to make the ball stick, to allow the other forwards to make ground, and he's just not doing it right now.

He's always going to be held to higher standards because of his reputation and his wage, whether he likes it or not - and some of the reputation is down to his own 'big man is here' hype. You make your bed, you lie in it.

How long is he going to be protected by LVG, at the expense of other more in-form, or hungry players?

By the way, I nearly fell asleep during the game last night. We can talk about 'a good point', 'tough conditions' etc etc But if we're really going to be honest about things, it's just not good to watch us right now.

7.) 23 Oct 2015
23 Oct 2015 06:05:17
The issue is he is protected. Depay plays poorly and gets dropped, Darmian plays poorly and gets hauled off, Hererra has to do brilliantly just to get 2 games in a row. Rooney plays like a drain all year and still gets picked. I'm wondering if a decline be is setting in. He's been playing since 16, he has a growing family, perhaps in his mind the hunger is no longer there. nnwgatever the reason he currently doesn't deserve his place.

8.) 23 Oct 2015
23 Oct 2015 09:15:11
Stevie,

It was pretty good to watch us on Saturday though wasn't it? We were dreadful to watch away from home under Fergie in Europe but people seem to forget that, we used to play for a 0-0 and try and score in the last 20 minutes, if we did then great, if we didn't then we take a draw and come back satisfied. I don't mind that approach, when we first started out in Europe we tried to play the same way as league away games and lost a few games quite heavily.

9.) 23 Oct 2015
23 Oct 2015 14:43:41
GDS, you've picked out one game, mate. That says it all.

And there were poor games under Fergie. You're right. That doesn't justify poor performances now, though. There were also amazing highs, of football at its most exciting interspersed bountifully among those poor games.

I'd settle for staying awake past half-time right now.

I know you're an optimist, mate. But that doesn't mean you should have to feel you have to constantly defend very average fare.

Or have we really fallen that far, and these types of performances are now the norm? With us hoping for an 'Everton performance' every now and then to lift our hopes.

10.) 23 Oct 2015
23 Oct 2015 18:21:57
He's been well on the decline for 3 seasons, it's just getting more and more obvious, people are finally noticing. I wish we had a 20 year old Rooney again, but what we have is a 30 year old who is no longer up to it, full time. He should now be used like a schweinsteiger, some games in, some games not.

11.) 23 Oct 2015
23 Oct 2015 19:21:51
Noucamp

I agree 100% mate. For every one game i was disappointed under fergie, I and 10 that i was buzzing watching us. People seem to use examples to suit their argument.

People criticise some here being ultra negative well GDS is not any better than them as he can't seem to ever acknowledge anything that is not up a certain standard other fans expect from United. You would think we are some championship team that has won promotion to the league where we should celebrate our victories excessively and anything else is okay and we should just say nothing, because how dare any of us expect more.

79% possession and 3 shots on target is just not good enough and just strange to watch.

12.) 23 Oct 2015
23 Oct 2015 22:02:00
GCU,

I am 'negative' when I need to be about things, i was happy with a draw on Wednesday night, do you want me to come on here and lie so that people agree with me?

I would be pretty happy with a draw on Sunday as well, shoot me now.

13.) 23 Oct 2015
23 Oct 2015 22:26:14
No-one's saying a draw wasn't a good result, mate. It's the nature of the performance that bugs me. If it was a one-off, or one of just a few, it wouldn't be an issue.

The problem is that this type of performance is the norm, and the Everton one is very much the exception.

And that's not good enough, with the players we've got.

14.) 24 Oct 2015
24 Oct 2015 10:55:55
I watched the game at a sports lounge (for the "atmosphere") .

The most painful thing was Rooney's performance, which has become a mainstay feature in all our games for several months now.

The nadir for me came when a diagonal cross was sprayed towards him on the right flank and he surprisingly controlled it, moved forward and tried to cut back for Martial only for his marker to block it out.

Now the painful thing was that our fans screamed like Rooney scored a goal or something. Some even saying "he still got it"
That really hurt because it has gotten to a point that all he has to do is control a cross, make a dash and have his cutback intercepted by the opposition for him to still be celebrated as a top top player. It's a real shame.

Imagine if that was the yardstick for measuring Messi, Ronaldo, Robben, Iniesta or Ibrahimovic etc. Rooney used to be mentioned in the same breath as them a few years ago.

I believe LVG's mistake was making Rooney captain. You just can't drop your captain can you? Look at how beautifully Herrera plays but can't nail a place down; after the Everton game LVG said "Herrera plays so well he's undropable but I can do it"

We need Lingard and Pereira to be given a chance with Mata dropping back in, Martial pushed up front while Mr Rooney should take some time off.

Rooney can't control a pass, can't hold up play, can't make piercing runs, can't score, hell, he gets bullied by all defenders marking him.

I think it's a combination of many factors chief of which are three things:
1. He has played too many games which is taking toll on his body,
2. He didn't look after his body in his prime and
3. That fire that drove him has mellowed.