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Manchester United: Rooney In Midfield Proves Fergie Has Lost It
Wayne Rooney took centre stage for Manchester United, but is the victim of Sir Alex Ferguson's square-pegs-in-round-holes tomfoolery.
Wayne Rooney’s performance for Manchester United against Oțelul Galați should not be mistaken for a long-term solution in the team’s midfield.
Sometimes Manchester United’s line up appears to have been drawn out of a raffle. Wayne Rooney started in midfield last night in what was a painful advertisement of the team’s chronic midfield malaise. The Croxteth man was adequate enough, but his enthusiasm would make him a competent goalkeeper or defender; the crux of his selection in a deeper role is that he is wasted.
On what was another stultifying Champions League evening watching United, Sir Alex Ferguson had evidently fired up the Delorean and gone back to 2006 to for a solution to cure his midfield ills. Yes, it was even a problem position as far back as five-and-a-half-years ago when Alan Smith, John O’Shea, Rio Ferdinand and Rooney occupied the middle two slots after Roy Keane’s departure. And to quote Doc Brown, we saw some ‘serious s**t’.
Notably, away at Blackburn when United were 4-1 down at one point and Ferdinand was sent off, the fish out of water cluelessly running around gasping for air. At Middlesbrough in October they did lose 4-1 with Smith in midfield, which provoked analyst Keane to query, ‘What is he doing there?’ on the infamously unaired MUTV ‘Play the Pundit’ show.
The cons outweigh the pros with Rooney in midfield. Okay, he offers silk, steel and a passable impression of Paul Scholes (as opposed to the club-footed Brazilian Anderson), but he’s only playing there because Manchester United’s midfield is so dire.
As someone who refuses to serenade him since he flirted with Manchester City, it’s difficult not to feel sympathy with just how much he has been messed around with by Ferguson. He has played as a lone striker, a winger and a midfielder when he was born to play in the number 10 role – the trequartista in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1. He has inhabited the role brilliantly alongside Louis Saha, Javier Hernández and Danny Welbeck, yet is often the sacrificial lamb whose talent is subordinated in favour of graft.
Warming up prior to matches now, he will drill 50-yard passes to a coach positioned on the halfway line. This is a prerequisite for a number 10, because the onus is on them to link up the play and occasionally drop into the regista’s domain for a variety of reasons; eg. a different angle, opening up space for a team-mate or drawing an opponent out of position. Rooney is so eager to constantly be on the ball though that it is ironically his downfall. Occasionally frustrated, he will drop as far back as into his own half just to get a couple of touches when he hasn’t been instructed to. And consequently Ferguson has capitalised on this.
It’s no good having the ammunition if someone can’t pull the trigger. Rooney has 11 goals already this season.
Mercifully the Scot confirmed that the role is on an interim basis due to injuries to Tom Cleverley and Michael Carrick, but his candour also let the cat out of the bag. Incredulously he said that Darren Fletcher ‘doesn’t play every four days for us now. Seven days is fine for him’. So if Fletcher’s fitness was such an issue, why didn’t he bring in a midfielder – even as a stop-gap – to compensate?
United’s mentality – one shared by a number of deluded supporters – is so arrogant that you have to be world-class to play for them, that the absolute best is what should only be considered. At this juncture, there are perhaps two players in the current squad who can be bracketed as ‘great’. The grim reality is that Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers and Everton all boast midfielders who would comfortably improve the Reds.
Furthermore, Anderson – another victim of Ferguson’s square-pegs-in-round-holes tomfoolery – re-affirmed that his time to make it at United has passed. His ‘potential’ has been missing for over four years now and invariably he imitates a Sunday League impression of Scholes as he spoons the ball 20 yards ahead of his ‘target’. Evidently disgruntled at his substitution last night, he was fortunate enough to have started after his weekend exclusion from the squad at Everton. But his return was such a cataclysmic disaster that he appeared not to have left the turf after the City debacle.
Even Ferguson, a great poker player in the face of the media, is struggling to hide how severe a problem he has with his team’s middle spine. You can even smell the fear of desperation with dropping Rooney that far back, since yesteryear he would fearlessly have played a promising youngster in the middle rather than someone out of position.
Has he even contemplated the ramifications of not playing him further afield? Welbeck and Hernández are terrific foils for Rooney, but as a pair do not naturally complement one another and are naïve in comparison to the canny number 10. Dimitar Berbatov meanwhile again looked insecure as he was shackled with ease by the Oțelul rear-guard while Michael Owen picked up his obligatory autumn injury. It’s no good having the ammunition if someone can’t pull the trigger. Rooney has 11 goals already this season.
The conclusion is that Ferguson has been so taken aback by his porous midfield that he will now flood it as an insurance policy. The area deserves to be scrutinised as much as Arsenal’s defence was earlier in the campaign (and still is), while there are a pile of questions which contradict his ‘comfortable’ prerogative with the squad and assertion that there is ‘no value’. How much was Scott Parker? Yann M’Vila and Javier Martínez are plying their trade in the Europa League. Value.
Other recent stories you might like:
Sir Alex ferguson’s 25 Years: A Tainted Legacy at Manchester United
Javier Martínez: Manchester United’s Long-awaited Answer to Roy Keane
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COMMENTS
Spot on. I am so tired of people thinking that Rooney is a perfect replacement for Scholes just because he can make a 50 yard pass. Scholes was far more than just a long passer and to act as if that was the main part of his game would be to insult one of the very few "World Class" players England has had in the last 20 years. You should always try to play players in their natural position, Rooney is a free spirit who shouldn't be confined to a role. Fergie is clearly showing us that our midfield is far too weak, why not play Pogba or Morrison? I disagreed with Smith moving into midfield, again this seemed to be only because he could tackle but we soon found out he was out of his depth , had no passing range and couldn't influence a team/game like a certain fiery Irishman.....I realised this when I was 17, why can't Fergie see it!
so Samuel...I have read the article and at first I thought you were joking but unfortunately it appears that you are actually being serious. As you've successfully proven that you know nothing about football I see no point putting my views across, as such I will just say I will never be visiting this site again and hopefully won't stumble on anymore of your deluded articles. Enjoy your life trying to figure out where you've gone wrong.
utter, utter claptrap, you should be ashamed of yourself for writing this drivel. i couldnt disagree more with this article. rooney can play anywhere, any position, he is that good. seen as he spends most of his time when played as a striker in midfield anyway it makes sense to play him there, so many times this season he drops off and plays in midfield to spark something that anderson cant seem to be able to do. rooney has the all round game to play in midfield. that frees up out and out strikers like chico, wellbeck and berba/owen to play up front. all we need now is someone to sit deep and protect the back 4 as no one in our team can do that at the moment, maybe jones in the future but that would limit his runs forward and he sees himself as a centre back anyway, he is too naive positionally at the moment to do that. give it 2 years and rooney will be doing the scholes roll week in week out and will still be scoring bags of goals because of his pace and movement. this team would be electric: de gea fabio vidic smalling/jones rafael/evra jones/ need to buy a midfield destroyer valencia rooney cleverly nani/young chico
rooneys ability to play in midfield has very little to do with him kaing 50 yard passes, its to do with the fact he has an excllent footballing brain, brilliant positional awareness and can recieve and give the ball staright away in tights paces- reminds me of teddy sheringham in that respect, he also has pace to burn and the self discipline, drilled into him by ferguson to stay and go at the right times. anyone who says rooney can play in that posistion week in and week out a) hasnt seen rooney play left wing a few seasons ago b) has no idea about rooneys all round game c) clearly know nothing about football. but coming from a writer who clearly doesnt support the team, jumps on the bandwagon at every opportunity and criticizes arguably the greatest manager to manage a football team in the last 30 years every chance he gets, i wouldnt expect anything less than absolute rubbish.
More anti-United junk (like yesterday's where the comments were disabled). Move on.
We saw some serious shit! lmao.
FFS! This is spot on. Rooney looked ok because the opposition were galati. If we want to win trophies we need him up front...which means that a good central midfielder or two is a priority. At times Anderson looks good, but it's few and far between. If there's no problem why are we eagerly awaiting the return of a man who was on loan last season? Cleverly is promising, but we shouldn't be this desperate to see him return...
Ferguson has ruined Rooney. To me he looked like a perfect number 9 at 17/18, with strength and pace to burn playing off the last man. A natural finisher and goalscorer. Rooneys talents are wasted dropping deeper, he could have been one of the greatest of all time, but now he is merealy Fergusons utility man, his lack of footballing brain and positional sense are hidden by his work rate.
One only needs to look at Samuel's profile pic to understand. Nothing to read here, move on.
The article is spot on! Why is SAF & most man u fans deluding themselves? We are in dire lack of creative m/fielders in the central position. Man city exposed this so well. Do we wait till we get a demolition from another great team to do sth? Simple to SAF: buy talent or 4get abt winning anything this season! !!!!
Why nowadays more people talking crab. When you are at their position you done worst that i can guarantee. As a manager you work with your resource available to you with limited resources. They are a Club(Company) with some money(not unlimited as everyone see when they are a top club) so the club can maintain for long term. They know who can play there with that resource. All the regular player also is a headache as they all want to play more game so again the manager want to utilize most of them while others are injure. With all to manage(not FIFA computer game) how are you expert manage that?????
@Duncan- nope, man city exposed the lack of any defensive cover in midfield, united actually created loads in that game and pretty much every other game this season, we have creative midfielders in the team, creating chances isnt our problem and there is nothing creative midfielders can do to help the defence.. we need steal in midfield to protect the defence, win the ball and provide cover for the creative types to do what they do best.
Spot On!! Ferguson is handicapped, i do think if he had the money he would go ahead and buy creative midfielder.
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