Who can / cannot play in a 2 with Pogba

Carrick, Pogba and Rooney screams positional issues. Rooney might nominally be starting as a 10, but as ever in that role he will end up dropping deeper and deeper, might end up playing alongside Carrick while Pogba advances.

2016 and we will probably still be trying to play Rooney in that 10 role How many times do we have to see him struggle there before it is finally accepted that it is not for him?

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Carrick, Pogba and Rooney screams positional issues. Rooney might nominally be starting as a 10, but as ever in that role he will end up dropping deeper and deeper, might end up playing alongside Carrick while Pogba advances.

2016 and we will probably still be trying to play Rooney in that 10 role How many times do we have to see him struggle there before it is finally accepted that it is not for him?

Widely accepted as his best role too he's £#%&!ing shit. You want him in the box getting on the end of things or nowhere, and he doesn't have the discipline or the physical prowess to lead the line.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Carrick, Pogba and Rooney screams positional issues. Rooney might nominally be starting as a 10, but as ever in that role he will end up dropping deeper and deeper, might end up playing alongside Carrick while Pogba advances.

2016 and we will probably still be trying to play Rooney in that 10 role How many times do we have to see him struggle there before it is finally accepted that it is not for him?

You could forgive Mourinho giving it a go for a couple of months, but unless he improves dramatically if he's still stinking up our play at Christmas god help us.

The record doesn't mean much to me but the ideal might be that he breaks it in the first half of the season and then £#%&!s off to Everton in January.

Originally Posted by dunk

Widely accepted as his best role too he's £#%&!ing shit. You want him in the box getting on the end of things or nowhere, and he doesn't have the discipline or the physical prowess to lead the line.

Shows how lazy the punditry and analysis has been.

His best for Utd came as either an out and out no 9 or playing from the left. People wanted to see him as a new Eric or the English answer to the likes of Zidane. Led to this misunderstanding of his strengths.

Rooney will continue to be a huge problem with regards to the shape/balance of the team as he has done for the last (at least) 3 years, unless he makes way.

Mourinho, along with LVG and #@&%!-heres-a-five-year-contract-Moyes however obviously see his influence on the playing staff as captain worth shoehorning him in for. Mourinho claims he won't play him in midfield but the problem is he simply no longer has the aggression, pace or creativity to be a number 10 and play that role consistently for a club with aspirations of winning the league. It's quite frankly utterly depressing to see him get a free pass as Captain (he has to play if he's captain, obviously) at the expense of players who are far more suitable for that role. A front 6 of

Carrick/Blind
Pogba
Martial
Mkhitaryan (as the '10')
Lingard
Ibra/Rashers

Is, for me, astonishingly strong but I suspect Mickey T will see less game time because of the need to play Rooney.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Shows how lazy the punditry and analysis has been.

His best for Utd came as either an out and out no 9 or playing from the left. People wanted to see him as a new Eric or the English answer to the likes of Zidane. Led to this misunderstanding of his strengths.

Remember how they all used to bitch that he was wasted from the left?

Originally Posted by jem

rooney has only ever played deeper than 9 (or out of the front 3) due to the paucity of our squad.

just no.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Shows how lazy the punditry and analysis has been.

His best for Utd came as either an out and out no 9 or playing from the left. People wanted to see him as a new Eric or the English answer to the likes of Zidane. Led to this misunderstanding of his strengths.

Football is still a closed shop, the narrative is all.

Rooney is untouchable.
Gerrard was untouchable.
John Terry played himself, but seems to have had a resurrection in these stakes.

Baffling. Their agents must bung sports writers duffel bags of £50's to write something nice about them

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

just no.

no to rooney playing deeper than centre forward?

Originally Posted by bigMikeA

Rooney will continue to be a huge problem with regards to the shape/balance of the team as he has done for the last (at least) 3 years, unless he makes way.

Mourinho, along with LVG and #@&%!-heres-a-five-year-contract-Moyes however obviously see his influence on the playing staff as captain worth shoehorning him in for. Mourinho claims he won't play him in midfield but the problem is he simply no longer has the aggression, pace or creativity to be a number 10 and play that role consistently for a club with aspirations of winning the league. It's quite frankly utterly depressing to see him get a free pass as Captain (he has to play if he's captain, obviously) at the expense of players who are far more suitable for that role. A front 6 of

Carrick/Blind
Pogba
Martial
Mkhitaryan (as the '10')
Lingard
Ibra/Rashers

Is, for me, astonishingly strong but I suspect Mickey T will see less game time because of the need to play Rooney.

exactly. maybe if he ever played defence-splitting passes it'd be vaguely worth having him in the side, but he doesn't even seem to see them never mind try and play them 9 times out of 10.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

exactly. maybe if he ever played defence-splitting passes it'd be vaguely worth having him in the side, but he doesn't even seem to see them never mind try and play them 9 times out of 10.

Before he plays any passes he has to trap the ball first and the fat @#%&! can't even do that some of the time...

Originally Posted by jem

no to rooney playing deeper than centre forward?

no to him being the best 9 we had from the moment van persie signed.

no to united advancing as a team when it's ever been built around him.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

no to him being the best 9 we had from the moment van persie signed.

no to united advancing as a team when it's ever been built around him.

so either rooney played up front (with van persie) or he didn't play. that has always been the case. never saw cole, sheringham, solksjaer or yorke (seriously) playing in midfield. because we had a midfield.

Originally Posted by jem

so either rooney played up front (with van persie) or he didn't play. that has always been the case. never saw cole, sheringham, solksjaer or yorke (seriously) playing in midfield. because we had a midfield.

ferguson's preferred tactic was always one up one off. always.

Originally Posted by Bunker Buster

Blind is essentially Perfect....as he is for most roles..

Assured, calm, selfless and neat...he needs someone he can 'next phase' with and give and go...blind creates space, can shift the ball, hold it drop deep...

Daley Blind.

Agreed. £#%&!ing madness if we let the magnificent @#%&! go.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

ferguson's preferred tactic was always one up one off. always.

try telling ruud that. unless you are going to suggest fergie spent most of his time deliberately not playing his preferred system.

one up, one off is two up front. it is not one playing in midfield. we played 4-4-2, not 4-2-3-1.

Herrera
Carrick/Schneiderlin (if he stops being as shit as he was last season)
Poggers

Originally Posted by jem

try telling ruud that. unless you are going to suggest fergie spent most of his time deliberately not playing his preferred system.

one up, one off is two up front. it is not one playing in midfield. we played 4-4-2, not 4-2-3-1.

and ruud was here for how long

even then rvn often had forlan or ole next to him...

we played 442 (up & off) dropping to 451 throughout the rest of ferguson's time by and large

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

and ruud was here for how long

how long is always?

The best football(to watch) we have played this millennium came in 06/07*, at times that season we did not even play with a defined striker, it was all about the interchanging of position between Rooney, Ronaldo and Giggs. Not to go all Zonal Marking, but that was one of the most interesting and perhaps influential sides in recent years, Europe wide.

The point was that Fergie, especially later in his career with the influence of Querioz and co was comfortable setting up in many different ways. Hope Mourinho has similar variation in mind.



*Unless you count the Ando inspired footballing debauchery from the opening weeks of the 11/12 season. Too beautiful for this world.