Manchester United just about managed to hang on against a resilient West Ham side last night, but the result could’ve, and should’ve been so much more comfortable than it was. Our club captain and leader Wayne Rooney almost cost us three important points, all from a moment of sheer stupidity.
At 28, you’d have think that Rooney would’ve matured. He is now the most senior member in the Manchester United side, the most experienced player wearing our famous jersey and now he’s supposed to be the leader. At 2-0 up, you simply cannot go studs up right through an opposing players knee, there is always going to be one result and Wayne Rooney was rightly shown a red card.
Louis van Gaal came out and tried to defend his player as you’d expect, and whether or not he did it by accident we’ll never know. It was such a rash, silly, stupid tackle to make at such a critical point in the match, and the worst part is that he’ll now probably miss three games against Everton, Chelsea and West Brom which is hugely disappointing.
I love Rooney the player. When he’s on his A-game there aren’t many better in the Premier League, but the fact is that he doesn’t perform at that world class level anywhere near as consistently as he used to five years ago. He looks bereft of pace, has a horrendous first touch, and seems to try the impossible shot and pass far too often.
He needs to cut out stupid errors, and lead this team like we all know he is fully capable of. We saw the good and bad of Rooney yesterday – look at his exquisite goal in the first half, and look at the way he started up the move for our second, theres still life in the old dog yet – he just needs to show it to us on a more consistent basis. Then the fans will start chanting his name once again.
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