Following United’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle the knives have been out.
Despite Newcastle wrongly being awarded a penalty that secured them a point at Old Trafford, there as been much focus on United’s midfield.
Michael Carrick put in a decent performance in the middle of the park, as he did against Benfica too, but that hasn’t been enough to quell fans talk of United’s failure to buy quality in the middle of the park.
Something that has been highlighted with injuries to both Anderson and Tom Cleverley.
Mark Lawrenson feels the same.
The pundit has waded in claiming our failure to strengthen central midfield means we are lacking a creative spark,
“Manchester United desperately need a spark from midfield. They look stronger with Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick but they also need a special creative force in midfield. It’s little wonder that Wayne Rooney has been dropped back into that area.
“United should have bought more quality in the summer. Wesley Sneijder would have been a perfect fit.”
Amount the top 4 united are the only side with average and mediocre CMFs,united are more a team to be afraid of now,just of saf ignorance to buy a mf player like scholsy,and the wheel will come off the track.buy or forget about the league.
Exactly what kind of creative spark are they supposed to get from Rooney in midfield when the guy can’t even provide adequate service to his strike partner while playing in the deeper role that he prefers? Why do you think Hernandez is having such a lousy season so far – he’s being completely starved of possession by a partner who can’t break a defensive line to save his life, can’t beat anyone one-on-one, doesn’t have the visual or spatial awareness to consistently try and link with other players further forward, nor does he have the kind of short or mid range passing ability to thread through the kind of telling passes that can split open defenses.
It’s now been seven games since Rooney last scored but of course the silence is as ever deafening where his penchant for going on hot and cold streaks is concerned – yet people are always ready to howl out their claims regarding Berbatov’s supposed inconsistency. Rooney has been getting games consistently, and United has consistently shown itself to be incapable, since the win over Chelsea, of scoring adequately enough to stamp its authority on opponents game after game. Yet as ever, no one points the finger at Rooney for his lack of scoring or inability to bring others into the game. Great players make others better – Rooney is the ultimate leech, feeding off the endeavour of others to look good while as a whole bringing down the rest of the team. Nothing better exemplified the imbalance of catering to Rooney’s needs than the CL final, where England’s wonder boy managed to net himself a goal while his side got thoroughly outplayed by a team who smacked their lips in delight at the lineup United used in order to slot Rooney into his favoured deep-lying role. An extra body was needed in midfield to offer at least some resistance to the dominance of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. Instead United committed football suicide by playing the woefully inadequate pairing of Carrick and Giggs, slotting the extra body up front (Herhandez) so that Rooney could drop back. Chicharito went through the game totally unsighted, and contributed next to nothing other than acting as a decoy to open up play for Rooney, who as ever proved incapable of even adequately linking up to a forward-lying strike partner. Rooney got his goal, glory be, but United got played off the park in the meantime and were left looking like rank amateurs as they barely managed to escape a heavier loss than the 3-1 result that was handed to them.
It was an embarrassing result, but nowhere near as embarrassing as the manner in which Rooney continually wanders through his career at United utterly untainted by the extraordinarily negative impact he has on the team via the numerous limitations to his game and the influences they bring to bear on the play as a whole and results in general. How many more strike partners at club and international level will bear the brunt of the blame for his inadequacies from people who don’t want to accept the severe limitations of England’s golden boy? Hernandez is just the latest in a long line of strike partners paying the price for Rooney – Berbatov knows only too well what the price is, and doubtless Wellbeck will be given his chance to be nailed to the cross for Rooney’s sins as well.
Timbo,
I Could not agree more with your assesment
of Rooney,I to believe he is getting
far too much money for what he is putting back
into the club, if Real Madrid want to offer
United 55million for him as what was
reported in one newspaper i would salivating
at the prospect of putting him on the plane
Without Delay.
7 games since he scored last? You need to go and check your facts before spouting off!
is quite unfortunate that man united have a coach who believes he knows everything in football and in that sense he doesnt care whatsoever your opinion is ragardin the team.
Timbo, i will boldly say that you know nothing about Wayne Rooney, he’s proven what a player he is, no doubt about that. He plays well even with the calibre of players at utd. He will be competing with the likes of Messi or Ronaldo, if he was playing at Madrid or Barca. You cant expect Rooney to single handedly take utd, though he has done that sometimes though the grass is not always greener. Who knows if you are just an anti-Rooney ready to give him the stick for whatever happens in united. United dont have players madrid and barce have, if only if Ferguson would listen and shift flecther out and buy a decent player.
Messi or Ronaldo,You are having a laugh.Rooney was poor.Caught in possesion,poor decision making,Unlucky not to get booked or sent off(He would have done in Europe)The worry is he’s playing like he did before all he’s problems last season.
Let’s not forget that Rooney is a striker and he is supposed to get service from the midfield. The less service he gets the more he will drop into midfield to get the ball.
There is a lack of creativity in the central midfield and not enough service to the strikers from the middle of the park. Take the wingers out of the equation and where is the service coming from?