Manchester United’s nil-nil draws are starting to become a bit of a trademark of the team. The more experienced fan can now look at the first five minutes of any Manchester United game and be able to foresee if the team will struggle. The characteristics of these games are unmistakable; the players cannot string two passes together, Rio and Vidic see more of the ball than Ronaldo and there is a huge void in the supposed palace of the midfielders.
However, Manchester United is not held in every game in which the team struggles. Actually, most of the time, there is a spark somewhere in the team, as if there is one player who managed to keep himself off the missus the night before the match. There is usually a player who can provide the moment of brilliance needed to win a game. If that fails, then some constant pressure will undo most teams as it undid Sunderland last week. But sometimes there is no constant pressure, no stroke of luck and no moment of brilliance.
It was that way when United drew at Tottenham on Saturday. Ronaldo and co had most of the possession, played large parts of the game in the opposition half and managed to ask Goalkeeper Calamity II, Heurelho Gomes, to put in one reasonable save — from a free kick in injury time.
As I was watching the game, the one thing that was painfully clear was that there was absolutely no cohesion in Manchester United’s attacks. There was no go-to man, there was nobody to take the ball from an ineffective Michael Carrick and distribute it wisely, there was very little pressure on the Tottenham defenders and there was no ingeniousness in attack. Every single move broke down in the same way — incomplete passes trying to feed the runs of midfielders or a disturbingly ineffective Carlos Tevez.
Looking at the above, it is plain to see what was missing from Manchester United’s team on the day: quality. No. Beside that. They needed Wayne Rooney — absent through his own folly — to string the attacks together, to create more opportunities and to put pressure on the Tottenham back-four.
History does tell us that Rooney is usually the solution to these games. The perfect example of this is the game against Aston Villa in the FA Cup at the beginning of this calendar year. On that occasion, Rooney came off the bench — with the score tied at zero and United looking much as they looked on Saturday — and the team started to click instantly.
Other occasions when his presence made a significant difference can include the game against Bolton this season and the one against Portsmouth in the FA Cup two seasons ago (the one where he did his Cantona impression). Of course, occasions when Rooney comes off the bench are not common given that he almost always starts (if available), but goal-less draws tend to avoid him, on the domestic scene, at least.
The point I am trying to make is that Rooney adds to the team what it was looking for in the frustration that was the encounter against Tottenham. In games in which United do lose or are held to a nil-nil draw, if Rooney takes part, it is usually due to great misfortune that United did not score (Aston Villa a few weeks ago, Portsmouth in the FA Cup last season). If he does not play, the team generally looks impotent (Manchester City in February, Tottenham on Saturday).
In other words he is the link in the team; the person that makes it click and the one to whom United fans and players owe much of their team’s recent success to. He might not be seen by the average fan as a player in the class of Cristiano Ronaldo, but we must consider that Ronaldo (as well as most of the rest of the attacking force on that team) would not be half the player that he is without Rooney to support him.
So, for all the missed passes, the bad tackles, the hot-headedness, the lack of control, the Liverpoolian accent, inability to finish and all of his innumerable vices, we must consider that Wayne Rooney, though not the most glorified player on that team, is the most important one as far as Manchester United’s offensive department is concerned. He might not win FIFA Player of the Year or Ballon D’Or, but if you have been following United closely, you know: he’d deserve them.
Excellent article Andrei.Couldn’t agree more with everything you’ve written.Rooney is really the spark of the team,in fact he’s the most important player of United.
rooney is all we need.berbatov?no.ronaldo?hell no.tevez?not so much.rooney is our talisman,he is our magician,he is the heartbeat of our team.as you said in the article,it just doesnt work as well when he isnt on the pitch
Fact article, Rooney stays low profile and maybe not have the limelight or be the poster boy of OT, but is one of(if not the) most hardworking players on the team.
Carrick cant be said that uneffective, i mean he has always tried to pass forward, crack a shot and make an assist.
Tevez, uneffective? to a cetain extent, there are more players being uneffective in certain situations.
Great Article. I’m hoping Rooney stays for a long time. He’s a legend in the making already.
I think that it is not just his scoring rate but his passing and attacking play!!!
I agree with dave… But his pairing with Bervatov isn’t as fruitful as we would have wanted. I’d like to see afain the Tevez-Rooney pair, if they were so effective las season, why wouldn’t it work this one? They ripped through defences, inch perfect passes between the two… it was beautiful. That’s something we haven’t seen since las may, sadly…
Maik – because you remember only the highlight reels. There were a lot of problems and quite often it didn’t work out for United last season as well.
excellent article..would like to know what you mean by rooney’s vices though?
Well for starters, he does not try hard enough in training (that is according to one of the United players, Rio or Evra, I am not sure which), he does get useless suspensions sometimes, he constantly drifts out of position on the pitch (some of which is good, some of which is not) and other minutiae like that…
@Hamburg: What I meant is that Carrick was ineffective against Tottenham… Tevez was off this planet – don’t know what was going on with him.
Ahmed: Let me reframe Maik’s argument. With Rooney and Tevez drifting all over the attacking third last year, it opened up alot of space for Ronaldo to score and do his thing. This year, with Berba in the team, we see Ronaldo being asked to stick to the wings where he gets frustrated.
Not to mention the fact that Berba really really slows up our counters which were a treat to watch last year ala UCL Finals: Tevez and Carrick double chance.
Good article! I agree completely Wayne is our most important player. Even last season, Ronaldo may have got the stats but Rooney’s intelligent movement and passing made it possible. Carrick and Rooney link well together as well, often providing that killer passage of play resulting in Goals
Iam an arsenal supporter but my best player is rooney.
i totally agree wz you rooney is the man 4 united in every single game..if he didn’t score he helps his team mates to score or he does both!!!his moves and passes are nothing short of brilliant….i’m actually a girl so it’s obviously not his looks that makes me love him so damn much….they might say he look like shrek but i don’t care if he’s actually green i’ll always think he’s the best!!!!