RuuDie:

Perhaps it'd help if the manager knew that if he outrightly dropped or played out of position certain "senior" players, the FANS will not get on his case so much. This may be a possible reason holding DM back from making bold, radical changes on the field - it is one thing to do that to a backroom staff, not many of us know and appreciate them as against the players we see regularly in the spotlight. It is very important that pressure isn't heaped on the manager unnecessarily; especially from the folks that ought to be supporting him.

This man has a very difficult job and we have to appreciate first and foremost. That said, the onus is on him to win your trust and respect (he already has mine regardless)... and I believe he will come good eventually - these travails only make the triumph at the end much sweeter!

StarBoard:
He cannot sacrifice Rooney for the good of the team and is already dancing to his tune and courting his attention by making him captain unnecessarily. A$$ kissing so early in the season to an over-rated player.
Instead he's shafting Kagawa to the left when its obvious we won't get he best out of him from that position. Rooney who could be suited to playing there cannot be talked into it because he (Moyes) has no spine.
Sigh

Mr_TA: Here's hoping for more success in October.

coogar:

this bit is the reason we won't be scoring in a while. rooney is not as technically gifted as kagawa to play in the hole. one could argue kagawa isn't as strong as rooney to track back & make recoveries but rooney has not been doing that this season either....

moyes has no spinal cord to put rooney on the bench or play him on the flank & let kagawa float in the hole. the creativity from open play is suffering & it's eroding the confidence of the fans. kagawa playing from the left denies us width from the left channel & in the absence of evra, the defeat was inevitable.

IS WAYNE ROONEY CENTRAL TO UNITED’S WOES?

Since Wayne Rooney returned to the starting line-up following the 4-1 win against Swansea, Manchester United failed to registered an open play goal in the Premier League, with this unwanted record continuing in the 2-1 defeat against West Brom Albion this weekend.

In a country where power is appreciated over technique, running over positioning, tackling over tactical intelligence and directness over possession, Rooney has been hyped up for possessing these ‘ideal’ qualities. In last 5 matches, Rooney has been hailed by pundits, journalists and fans for his good performances due to his non-stop running, determination and work rate. With Rooney scoring 3 goals via free kick in last 3 matches, all this has served as a smokescreen, for Rooney struggles the #10 role .

If we analyse Rooney’s stats from the past 5 Premier League matches, he has made 34 long passes and only 4 through balls with an average pass accuracy rate of only 74%, very poor for someone playing as a playmaker.

Rooney has been unable to provide any threat in between the lines as he does not have the quick feet and quick thinking to play in most congested area.When there were opposition players around him, he’s been poor holding up the ball and finds himself unable to escape with the ball to create openings.

Due to his limitation, Rooney’s frequently drops deep to find himself a little bit of space, thus playing long diagonal ball to the wingers hence the whopping 34 long passes, not good enough for a player whose primary role is to inflict damage higher up the pitch.

With Rooney unable to offer any options and threat through the middle, United have opt to attack through horribly out of form wingers. Unfortunately something easily dealt with by defending deep and limiting the space at the byline so that our wingers and fullbacks have difficulty providing quality crosses.

As a result, United have looked short of ideas and penetration in the final third of the pitch, with opposition teams easily stifling United’s predictable attacking play.

Following United’s 2-1 defeat to West Brom, David Moyes admitted:

“We lacked an intensity and spark to our game, and in the end they deserved the win, I can’t argue with that. In the first half we had a lot of the ball and tried to move it – we probably controlled a lot of the game – but I thought for all our possession we didn’t create a lot of opportunities. And when we did, we didn’t take them.”

“Possession without cutting edge” is a recurring theme for his side since taking over the helm from Sir Alex and with the 2-1 defeat to West Brom, Moyes has said that he needed to evaluate the players at his disposal. The problem is that he has been chopping and changing all the outfield players… except Wayne Rooney.

He made a number of changes in the second half but left Rooney on, even though he had one of his poorer games so far and seemed short of ideas playing in the hole. The decision to sub off Shinji Kagawa at half time instead of moving him inside and pushing Rooney to the left or higher up was confusing, especially as Kagawa was one of the players likely to create something, with Nani.

During the 4-1 defeat against Manchester City, Moyes played Rooney in the hole with Welbeck ahead of him. It proved to be disaster as Van Persie has been compensating for Wayne Rooney’s shortcomings in that area with his technical abilities. If Welbeck was played behind Wayne Rooney against City, I believe it will make a whole lot of different in that match with Welbeck better equipped to beat opponents in that area.

The problem with Wayne Rooney is that he is not a #9 type of striker who playing high up the pitch looking to make a run behind the opposition back four as he likes to drop deep nor he is a playmaker or ”trequartista”with the guile, craft and technical abilities to impose damage in between the line as he lacks the touch, the hold up play or the quick feet to skip past defenders in the most crowded area on the pitch.

Wayne Rooney is still a very good all around player but I don’t think he is suited to be playing as a playmaker, David Moyes needs to find the best position for Rooney and the best way to utilise his strengths but clearly, his strengths are not made for the role of #10.

As an alternative, perhaps David Moyes should start utilising Shinji Kagawa more in the #10 role.

Sir Alex had been trying hard to bring in a playmaker toward the end of his tenure, as can be seen in his pursuit of Wesley Sneijder, the best #10 at that time. Missing out on him, in the end managed to bring in Shinji Kagawa who was named the best player in Bundesliga for the past 2 seasons.

Sir Alex’s transfer activity clearly showed that he was aware of the weakness in that area for United, and he thus attempted to rectify it.

Kagawa debut season was interrupted by injury, this year he is keen to make up for lost ground. Perhaps Moyes should give him the chance to.

http://www.prideofalleurope.com/2013/10/is-wayne-rooney-central-to-uniteds-woes/

El Guapo: Ukraine is not the safest of grounds to play footie.

Facing a team of brazilians can be punishment.

To be warned...

SailorXY:
Hmm I think you made a valid observation here, especially the width thing having Kagawa on the wings with great tendency to drift inward.
However, do you think playing Rooney on the wings won't have same effects? I hope Moyes gives it a trial cuz Rooney is dynamic enough & keeping him on the bench is something that is not plausible for now, our out & out wingers are offering very little going forward

adebayo201: this is where we needed Kagawa,Nani and Rafael most. Let us see what they can do.!
United! We can stil do it!

Bernard and Teixeira...

Those names would have to be ur nitemare till the week runs out

n0m0705: I just can'T stop laughing at some people here, so it is now because rooney is playing in the hole that makes us stop scoring from open play, if my memory serves me right, it was welbeck that started behind rvp against swansea and we scored from open play, is welbeck more creative than rooney? The case of kagawa is now becoming the more he is benched the better he becomes in the eyes of many fans. The fact is that the guy has not shown any form to convince that he can play better than rooney in the hole, there are countless no of play maker that play from the wing and are still creative, afterall it is not as if he is stationed on the flank. silver, mata, iniesta, nasri, ozil, cazorla and so on are playmaker that play from both flank and middle and their creativity does not suffer one bit. So it is either kagawa is not good enough or he is yet to adapt to united style of play. He is slow, not strong on the ball and loses possession too much. In short he has not impressed at all

n0m0705: I just can'T stop laughing at some people here, so it is now because rooney is playing in the hole that makes us stop scoring from open play, if my memory serves me right, it was welbeck that started behind rvp against swansea and we scored from open play, is welbeck more creative than rooney? The case of kagawa is now becoming the more he is benched the better he becomes in the eyes of many fans. The fact is that the guy has not shown any form to convince that he can play better than rooney in the hole, there are countless no of play maker that play from the wing and are still creative, afterall it is not as if he is stationed on the flank. silver, mata, iniesta, nasri, ozil, cazorla and so on are playmaker that play from both flank and middle and their creativity does not suffer one bit. So it is either kagawa is not good enough or he is yet to adapt to united style of play. He is slow, not strong on the ball and loses possession too much. In short he has not impressed at all

dademola: spot on, bro! I'm a fan of kagawa, and i'd rili like him to rediscover d form dt made us sign him, bt d truth is dt he hasnt put in convincing performances dt will make him command a regular place in d starting lineup. D issue of him losing possession too much, is d most annoying

chrisley024:

The truth also remains d@ Rooney is not a play maker.

chrisley024:

The truth also remains d@ Rooney is not a play maker.

dademola: spot on, bro! I'm a fan of kagawa, and i'd rili like him to rediscover d form dt made us sign him, bt d truth is dt he hasnt put in convincing performances dt will make him command a regular place in d starting lineup. D issue of him losing possession too much, is d most annoying

n0m0705: I just can'T stop laughing at some people here, so it is now because rooney is playing in the hole that makes us stop scoring from open play, if my memory serves me right, it was welbeck that started behind rvp against swansea and we scored from open play, is welbeck more creative than rooney? The case of kagawa is now becoming the more he is benched the better he becomes in the eyes of many fans. The fact is that the guy has not shown any form to convince that he can play better than rooney in the hole, there are countless no of play maker that play from the wing and are still creative, afterall it is not as if he is stationed on the flank. silver, mata, iniesta, nasri, ozil, cazorla and so on are playmaker that play from both flank and middle and their creativity does not suffer one bit. So it is either kagawa is not good enough or he is yet to adapt to united style of play. He is slow, not strong on the ball and loses possession too much. In short he has not impressed at all

chrisley024: The fact is d@ it looked like we were going to score until Kagawa left.

dademola: .
same way kagawa hasnt shown us he can replace rooney effectively so far.

dademola: same way kagawa hasnt shown us he can replace rooney effectively for now

chrisley024:

The truth also remains d@ Rooney is not a play maker.

SailorXY:
You guys are missing the issue still
Since Kagawa is "not strong enough to withstand bully & losses the ball as a result" why can't he play just behind the striker where even if he gets bullied of the ball, there are still @ least 8 players behind him to retrieve the ball as compared to the wings where the assult is directly against the full back behind?

SailorXY:
You guys are missing the issue still
Since Kagawa is "not strong enough to withstand bully & losses the ball as a result" why can't he play just behind the striker where even if he gets bullied of the ball, there are still @ least 8 players behind him to retrieve the ball as compared to the wings where the assult is directly against the full back behind?

dademola: same way kagawa hasnt shown us he can replace rooney effectively for now

Fussbot: we should just sell kagawa back to dortmund....

Play kagawa!play kagawa!naw kagawa has played and was clueless as usual...mtscheew

Fussbot: we should just sell kagawa back to dortmund....

Play kagawa!play kagawa!naw kagawa has played and was clueless as usual...mtscheew....i jst no wan talk since

SailorXY:
Yea
Give Giggs a renewd 5-year contract, re-assign Phil Neville as player coach to give the midfield the much needed stability & recall Paul Scholes too
This midfield will surely rule Europe once more

dademola: same way kagawa hasnt shown us he can replace rooney effectively for now

StarBoard:
He's been shafted to the left yet you expect miracles from him.
I agree that we should deal him back to Dortmund if we don't know how best to deploy him.