*Official Match Thread* - Aston Villa v Manchester United 14/08/15

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

this team has LVG's choice as 1st pick striker

he's chosen a player ferguson rejected for the role 3 years ago ffs

If you're only going to keep one of Rooney, van Persie or falcao based on last season, I don't see choosing Rooney as an unreasonable decision. That doesn't mean van gaal is fully content with Rooney. It's just the least bad choice.

I suspect van gaal would happily have got rid of all 3, but other needs were more pressing for the funds he has available. Maybe the first two games have made the striker position more pressing than van gaal initially thought though. Unless van gaal thinks it's just a matter of Rooney playing himself into full fitness, rooney's performances so far must be as alarming to him as the Leicester defeat last season.

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

this team has LVG's choice as 1st pick striker

he's chosen a player ferguson rejected for the role 3 years ago ffs

true, but... 3 years ago, it was only fergie that was washed up.

Originally Posted by Ethers

What utter shite

I like big Sunners, but I agree. Rooney was dreadful, woeful - maybe the Sun giving Rooney MOTM () has had an effect on Kev.

Originally Posted by Jammy Dodger

The point was if this team had that team's van Persie it would be better than that team.

Well if that is the game, if that team had Messi it would be better than this team with that teams Van Persie.

Wonder how those 2 teams would stack up in the par league?

Van Persie made a fantastic impact that year, of course there are intangibles that can not be statistically quantified. He dropped off in the Spring, had he maintained his form that useless side would probably have knocked Madrid out of the CL, well it is a theory at least.

There aren't a lot of available, top class options to replace Rooney with at the moment though.

Originally Posted by Jammy Dodger

If you're only going to keep one of Rooney, van Persie or falcao based on last season, I don't see choosing Rooney as an unreasonable decision. That doesn't mean van gaal is fully content with Rooney. It's just the least bad choice.

I suspect van gaal would happily have got rid of all 3, but other needs were more pressing for the funds he has available. Maybe the first two games have made the striker position more pressing than van gaal initially thought though. Unless van gaal thinks it's just a matter of Rooney playing himself into full fitness, rooney's performances so far must be as alarming to him as the Leicester defeat last season.

Don't know about him wanting rid and I maintain that Rooney has at least one top season in him yet. But he's not good enough to be the main player so he needs help, including from the manager. i suspect they're trying to get him facing the right way a lot more than his technique allows (within the constraints of the role he has been given) and that is why his technique looks horrible so often. Good luck with that Louis, although tbf it's only taken him a year to get Mike passing the ball straight of play along the floor instead of in the air, so there's still a chance...