city played us off the park, they are far more fluid then us with there attacking movement and they press much more effectively then we do, they are also a lot more comfortable in posession then we are. it was a bad day at the office for mourinho, guardiola got the better of him tactically today. if there was any doubt remaining about the fact that rooney is being picked for non football reasons those doubts were dispelled in the second half, rather then take off a totally ineffective number 10 that was having no impact on the game mourinho instead decided to shift him over to the right wing.

mourinho was a mess today tactically, shifting rooney all over the place just to keep him in the team, changing formation multiple times and getting his starting 11 badly wrong. fellaini is simply not a defensive midfielder, we need someone better in that position in the big games. pogba needs more freedom to run forward, he is too restricted in a 2 man centre mid, we need to switch to 4-3-3 to get the best out of him.

Lets be fair today, Zlatan, Pogba, Lingard, Miki, Fellaini, Blind and Shaw were far worse than Rooney was. At least he showed some passion and fight for the game unlike the majority of the team. Out of the above can you possibly score any of them over 4 out of 10? Rooney may only have got a 5 or 6, but on today's showing he wasn't our worse player.

Mourinho admitted that he got the team selection wrong. He'll have learnt a few things about a few of our players today.

No big deal.

I hope he doesn't do a LVG and hold it against Lingard or Miki after that. Neither played well, but both got slung into the deep end having not started for us this season yet. They will both bounce back and contribute during the rest of the season.

ah the old ''passion and fight'' kop out that the rooney apologists like to wheel out when they are struggling to think of an actual tangible contribution that he made to the game. he ran around a lot with a frustrated angry look on his face and shouted at the referee agressively a few times, that must be what you are misinterpreting as passion and fight. i would rather have the silky skills of de bruyne or silva in the number 10 position than rooney's ''passion''.

Nobody said that we needed a traditional winger in the transfer window, well that decision will hurt us now.

His skills were far better than that of a player we've just spent £89m on, his skills were better than that of the self proclaimed god. Apart from a couple of Blind passes, Rooney was the only trying to be imaginative for us today, he was the one driving us forward. He may not be the player he once was, but we have to accept that today he was one of our better players, and slating him for the sake of slating him rather than pointing fingers at those that deserve it, is as bad as those that claim he can't be dropped.

Would a traditional winger get any possession, to do any damage for us? Anyway our traditional winger is currently playing very well at full back. Plus I've not seen a player akin to Kan Kan or Coppell recently, whom we could use.

number 10 is the most important attacking position in a team, most attacking moves go through that player so if he's not playing well it hurts our build up play far more then any other position. pogba was playing a far more restricted and disciplined role so its normal that he didn't see as much of the ball as rooney. pogba would of seen a lot more of the ball if he was playing in rooney's position. i have already said that we won't see the best of pogba in a 2 man midfield, he didn't play that role at juventus and has been unconvincing in that role for france.

your argument seems to be ''well other players were even worse then rooney so lets give rooney a pass for today''. are you saying we are only allowed to criticise rooney's performance when he is the worst player on the pitch? the focus is more on rooney then other players because his performances have been consistently below the level that is required for 2 years now, and because he plays in such an important position.

It was no more to do with Rooney than anyone else! Lingard and Mika didn't turn up and should never have started (whatever happened to not changing a winning team?) but the team certainly turned up in the 2nd half and with one cast iron penalty and one probable one declined, the final result could easily have been 3-2 or 3-3.

We also fought to the end, yes even Rooney, there was much to be satisfied with in the 2nd half (missed chances aside). But Mourinho needs to actually get the starting selection right for the next match.

other players being just as bad does not excuse rooney's performance, i have already explained why i focus more on rooney then other players so i don't think i need to repeat myself again. why can't rooney stand out above the other players and lead by example, that is what a captain is supposed to do instead of disappearing into obscurity when the rest of the team is not playing well enough to carry him.

I had to go out on an errand after the De Bruyne goal and missed the rest of the match. Came on here for analysis and the above is the most positive comment I've seen which suggests that little changed from after the goal. Up till then, we weren't in it at all. Miki and Lingard couldn't keep the ball and City looked likely every time they went forward. And Rooney.... there was this lovely little triangle we played out of defence, sorry, were playing out of defence - between Bailly, Fellani and Rooney and then Roo out of the three of them went and gave the ball away....

Anyway, early days and all that.....


Second most positive comment. I trust his Joes's nous of course but wasn't sure if he was ready to shake things up when needed. Zlatan, Pogba, Rooney - it doesn't matter - none of them should be undroppable.

I was going to comment on United's performance, but I can see that there's no point. A certain poster will just lambast anyone who didn't think that Rooney was utter crap (which he wasn't).

Fernandinho was superb, much better than 'man of the match' De Bruyne. The referee had a shocker, and City's 'keeper looks like a dud.

City just deserved the win.

Don't forget Fellaini in that list, I will never see what he brings to the team, especially in the starting line up.
He doesn't score many goals, he's not creative and he gives too many free kicks away.

I'm planning to spend tomorrow making a Fellaini and Rooney voodoo doll and sticking pins in their legs come match days so they can't be selected.
I'm not slating Rooney for today as he was no worse than most, I would just love to see what a starting line up without him would look and play like.

Rooney isn't good enough for full time starting place anymore. He is coming to the end and people should be celebrating his career like they did with Giggs and Scholes, rather than hilariously expecting him to be our main man and pretending he is still in his prime.

He isn't the only one though. Around 80% of the squad isn't United quality. When the smoke is cleared, Ibrahamovic will play like the 53 year old that he is. Too many average, non united quality passengers in midfield (Carrick, Fellaini, Herrera, Schneiderlin). Beckham, Scholes, Keane and Giggs... now that was a United quality midfield.

For all Citys possession if it wasnt for two major errors from Blind they wouldnt have won today. Lingard was non existent and i still dont really see what Fellaini actually brings to the team beyond passing it backwards or sideways. May as well get Ray Wilkins out of retirement.

Wouldnt surprise me if Smalling is back in the defence from now on with Bailly. Mikitaryan will come good but needs games and Rashford needs to be in far more.

Pretty sure that literally nobody thinks that way. That doesn't mean that he's the liability that some people like to paint him as.


We haven't had a midfield of that quality in living memory, before or since.

Be realistic. We have competitive options in midfield.

Bailly was as much at fault for the first goal as Blind to be fair. He didn't challenge for the ball, let it bounce and Blind was on his heels waiting for the ball to come to him, when De Bruyne jumped in and took the ball. A comedy of errors tbh, and I'm not sure if Smalling would have done any better than the two incumbents today.

You dont rate Smalling, Im shocked, youve hid that opinion very well.

All I said was he wouldn't have made much difference today, we've seen him make school boy errors as much as anyone else. However, do I rate him? Well he's certainly isn't the top 10 United centres backs I've seen play for us, so I see no reason to shower praise on someone who has had one decent season as if he's the best in the league when he's clearly not. He improved last year, but still has a lot to learn.

Dont think anyone has said Smalling is the best in the league, well possibly apart from one moron on here whose opinion is as about as knowledgable as mine is on quantum physics, but he is a bloody good defender. You seem to have an irrational hatred of him for some reason. Its the ying to your lingard loving yang.

I said the same about 6 weeks ago, & was shot down in flames on this thread

Well the fact that some people are slagging him off after every match suggests otherwise.


Yeah but i'm not just talking about a good team or competent one. If we wanna be a great team, one of the best, then we need world class players in midfield.

That's hardly a valid argument for someone keeping their place though is it?

He's not awful but his contribution isn't worth a starting place.

I wasn't surprised Martial was dropped but I was surprised Lingard found himself a starting place especially since he's just back from injury.I thought Rashford might have got the nod.

I think that's more to do with him being an easy scapegoat, due to his profile.

It seems that a noticeable percentage of the fanbase can't wait to put the boot into Rooney, regardless of what he actually does.


We've just spent a world record fee on a central midfielder. He's clearly 'world class'. We can't have, and shouldn't expect, the best players in the world, in every position.


Who should replace him? Rooney is hardly ever the worst player in the side, yet he's always the one to be pinpointed. His 'contribution' against Hull won us the game. That was our last game.