Date: 8th December 2011 at 11:11am
Written by:

Mark Bosnich could very well be on the gear again.

Following United’s shock exit from the Champions League the former United keeper took to TalkSport to discuss the current state of affairs at Old Trafford.

He cited lack of attacking prowess and defensive frailty as the primary reason as to why United now find themselves in the Europa League, nothing wrong with expressing that opinion.

But for some reason he seems to think that as well as losing Ronaldo, somewhere along the line we’ve sold Rooney too:

“The Manchester United side of the last four or five years has been built on a solid defence.

“Ronaldo and Rooney were the x-factor but they haven’t got that type of quality anymore.

“One of the biggest problems is their lack of goals and a number 10, they haven’t really got one.”

As far as I’m aware Rooney is still at United and played last night so I will take it that he means Rooney has lost ‘it’ and the use of anymore means something more permanent rather than a current issue.

Rooney has been in poor form in front of goal of late but still to make such a spurious claim is laughable. Rooney has always been a player that operates in patches and I’d bet that he will hit a purple patch again this season.

Bosnich also added his voice to the claim that United lack a world class midfielder and like Roy Keane found fault in the fact that a 38 year old Ryan Giggs was our best performer,

“They haven’t got a world class midfielder. Giggs did well on Wednesday night but that’s not his natural position. He’s doing a fantastic job considering his age but they need someone who plays between the opposition’s defence and midfield.

“That’s their go-to man, someone who can create things, especially when your defence is not what it was.”

 

8 responses to ““Ronaldo and Rooney were the x-factor but they haven’t got that type of quality anymore.””

  1. dan says:

    The problem is that we dont have that player that strikes fear into the opposition since ronaldo left. we have everything else but lack that type of player. unfortunately bosnich is right rooney has lost it and when we need him the most he lets us down with that horrific miss.

  2. Colin says:

    Our main problem is our lack of a midfield. Anderson, carrick, cleverley, park and even nani and Valencia would struggle to get into any of the top 6 starting 11. And evans! Enough said about him. Even the brazil bros are pretty ordinary. Don’t get me wrong I love fergie but in the 90s he would have shipped that lot out. Sentiment has no place at the top. Just ask clough!

  3. MUdslinger606 says:

    Chudi, as far as I’m concerned, that’s not necessarily the most natural construction of what he’s saying.

    Who here would dispute that our attack was incredibly strong with Rooney together with Ronaldo in it? Clearly that isn’t the case any more and unless something meteoric happens then it will remain that way permanently. And yes, we’ve lost whatever qualities that those two player together brought to the team.

    Keano was spot on in his criticism of the make up and performance of Utd as it currently stands. I’ve written elsewhere on this forum as to why I think Sir Alex’s response was incoherent as well as our midfield problems.

    As for Rooney, he has always made it clear that he considers the second/playmaking striker role as his best. He has neither the poaching instincts or the height to make the lone target man position his own and as we saw yesterday as well as in the past, he just ends up frustrated. Added to that a limp central midfield that cannot seem to penetrate the opposing back-line to any great effect and instead having to go wide too frequently, then you’ll just end isolating your forward.

  4. karlomu says:

    thats true but i still don,t see fergie buyin a big name player. ronaldo became the player he is today after alot of criticism in his early utd years.And in the 2005/06 we were worryed about where the team was going and we all know what happened there.i,m gonna trust fergie on this one and wait and see what happens.

  5. Adam says:

    I can kind of see his view point, but Rooney is a fantastic player. He has lost form in front of goal but he is still a top player. However when we won the CL in 2008 we had Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez. That spark and magic is missing now, although its mainly down to losing Ronaldo.

    Berbatov has not been the success or the player that we had hoped for. Owen was never going to be a replacement for anyone. Macheda and Diouf need to be sold as soon as possible. The plus is Hernandez and Welbeck because they are still developing and they will both be top players in the future.

    The disappointment for me has been Young and Nani. I know Nani played well yesterday, but overall this season I don’t think the two of them have done enough. I expected a lot more goals and assist from the pair, but they have been a let down to be honest. Young started very well but he hasn’t maintained it and isn’t scoring enough.

    The midfield is definitely not good enough and will require at least two new signings. We need a creative spark, dare I say someone like Xherdan Shaqiri, who was the best player on the pitch last night. We also need a ball winner in midfield and I wouldn’t be surprised if Ferguson went for Jack Rodwell to solve that role.

    In terms of the exit door, we need to offload Kuschak, Gibson, Diouf and Macheda in January. In the summer it will be time for Carrick, Ferdinand, Evra, Anderson, Berbatov and Owen to leave.

  6. osman says:

    the problem is the manager and money he’s wasted the past few years on players like berbatov valancia and young as well as letting pique and possebon go whiles promoting crapers like gibson and evans. when berbatov came united had tevez roo and ronaldo his arrival pushed tevez on the side and thats one of the reason why tevez dint signe but the funny things is ferguson dint even know how to utilise berba as he admited couple season ago. and its a mistery to me how can you bye anderson an attacking midfield and spend four years trying to turn him into a defensive mid

    • Phil says:

      Give over at the start of the season you weren’t calling Young a waste of money, last season when Valencia was running Ashley Cole ragged you weren’t calling him a waste, Berbatov’s hatty against Liverpool? Yeah don’t think so either

  7. Nati says:

    The wingers are letting us down. Our game is based on the wings and ashley and nani have been off form for a while.