Manchester United v Barcelona

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

I think Rooney is the biggest problem United have got. You often hear people say No wonder Rooney can't be arsed when he sees the dross around him, when the reality is that most of the players around him at United have at least as good technique and at least as good fitness - they must look at Rooney mis-controlling horribly or tamely giving the ball away or trying a pass even a £#%&!ing novice would ignore or worst of all ignoring the right pass in favour of @#%&!ting it out wide yet again and think What the £#%&! ? This is supposed to be our best player?

Players United are in for must think £#%&! me, no matter how well I do I am not going to get in that side ahead of a player who does that all the time? £#%&! that.

When Rooney was played from wide he grew as a player, his tactical game became far far better and he contributed to a flowing United side that people still eulogise about. And then Ronaldo left, Rooney went into his proper position, scored a shit load of goals and slowly but surely went back to how he was before, roaming off the front like a headless chicken, dominating his team-mates, £#%&!ing up the pattern of play and generally breaking up the rhythm. He did score 27 league goals last season. But the next top scorer was Hernandez with just 10. The season before that we also had a 20 lge goal player but the goals were more evenly spread and we won the league. The year before that when Rooney hit 26, the next top was just 12 and the 3rd top scorer had just 5 - we won nothing...

There's no hard and fast rules about spread of goals or even total goals needed to win the league. But Rooney's 2 high scoring league hauls have each been in seasons when the team didn't function well enough to be successful.

I did think he should be played as a striker and dropped if the team wasn't scoring. Looking at the possibility of RvP signing though, I reckon on the evidence of recent seasons it wouldn't be a bad idea to get Rooney playing from a wider starting position again, rather than as some kind of bastard #10 £#%&!ing everything up time and again.

Course, in an ideal world Rooney will bounce back and be a revelation this coming season if he has competition. If he gets left out a few times I think we're more likely to see mardy whining ramone-esque slapped arseness though, with suspensions and injuries thrown in for good measure.

only a total £#%&!wit would play rooney wide. he'd better than young though.

Originally Posted by jem

only a total £#%&!wit would play rooney wide. he'd better than young though.

i'd play him from out to in tbh.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

i'd play him from out to in tbh.

brave and honest, but still too much info.

I'm tempted to hold back on my "it'll end in tia's" gag now.