Originally Posted by Tribec:
“I'll give you Lingard, but I have to say that Martial hasn't had a great game since early this year. Like Rooney he's shown flashes, but hasn't been consistent, but at least last night Rooney didn't hold the play up, was looking to be involved and did his defensive work. The majority of problems that Southampton caused us was due to both wide midfielders being awol from defensive duties. I'd like to see Rashford brought in with Martial being dropped for the next few games at the very least.
I do disagree that Rooney's form won't improve any further, I think Jose hit the nail on the head when he talked about these players playing under LVG's tactics for the last 2 years, it's going to take a little while to break them and turn them into his players. I have seen small changes in Rooney's play over the last 2 weeks or so, that are encouraging signs of a return to the player he once was, as well as adapting to the loss of pace he's experienced.
As of right now, Rooney's form isn't the most worrying thing in the team, it's that of the wide midfielders. We are winning, and scoring goals, we've already got a 10th of last seasons goals in the first 2 games of the season. What we are talking about is fine tuning the team and right now the front two have scored 4 of our 5 league goals between them.”
“I'll give you Lingard, but I have to say that Martial hasn't had a great game since early this year. Like Rooney he's shown flashes, but hasn't been consistent, but at least last night Rooney didn't hold the play up, was looking to be involved and did his defensive work. The majority of problems that Southampton caused us was due to both wide midfielders being awol from defensive duties. I'd like to see Rashford brought in with Martial being dropped for the next few games at the very least.
I do disagree that Rooney's form won't improve any further, I think Jose hit the nail on the head when he talked about these players playing under LVG's tactics for the last 2 years, it's going to take a little while to break them and turn them into his players. I have seen small changes in Rooney's play over the last 2 weeks or so, that are encouraging signs of a return to the player he once was, as well as adapting to the loss of pace he's experienced.
As of right now, Rooney's form isn't the most worrying thing in the team, it's that of the wide midfielders. We are winning, and scoring goals, we've already got a 10th of last seasons goals in the first 2 games of the season. What we are talking about is fine tuning the team and right now the front two have scored 4 of our 5 league goals between them.”
As MichPlat said i thought martial improved in the second half, he got into goalscoring positions a couple of times in the second half and was only prevented from scoring by last ditch tackles. he seems to be lacking a bit of confidence and he just needs to play through it, i am sure a goal or two will make a world of difference to him. even when not in his best form he still has the pace and dribbling ability that none of our other players have other then maybe rashford.
lvg is not to blame for rooney's decline, he just can't do what he used to be able to do due to his declining physical atttributes. his pace, stamina and work rate are gone, those are the things that masked his technical deficiencies. he has become an extremely safe and cautious passer, almost all his passes are sideways or backwards to the nearest man, he never tries anything ambitious or creative unless its a long ball pinged out to the right wing, and he is even overhitting those these days and watching them sail out for a throw. he brings nothing to the table as a number 10, he can't dribble past anyone, he can't make creative passes, he can't play intricately in tight passes because of his awful touch and short passing. what does he do other then pop up with a goal once in a while?
