Someone is wrong.
Manchester United are struggling. As Fergie would put it, there’s no doubt about that. After being flattered by the 2-1 scoreline against a far-superior Manchester City side, their supporters demanded an immediate response.
They lost again at Feyenoord on Thursday, but at least that could be put down to wholesale changes and a number of players lacking adequate match fitness. The next Premier League game, against Watford, was the time to show up.
And in fairness, they did. They showed up the ceaselessly vocal away support with a quite pitiful display. There were echoes of Louis van Gaal’s deathly dull era in the witless display. No urgency, no invention, and no second gear.
Of course, Jose Mourinho is most culpable, and rival fans will mock the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and especially Paul Pogba for immense hype and expense outweighing weak return. But one name in particular is the focus of most ire.
Wayne Rooney had a stinker. He was hardly the only one, and it was far from his worst performance in recent times, but it was poor – very poor. So poor in fact that he was probably the biggest turd in a toilet-load of shite-fragranced displays.
He gave away cheap possession far too often, slowed down the play by taking numerous touches to properly control the ball, and basically got in the way. He offered nothing much positive and was very noticeably off-form.
Except the pundits in the studio didn’t seem to notice, and they rarely do. It has been the same for a while now: the majority of fans call out Rooney for his often sub-standard displays, and yet this is not reflected in televised opinions.
Of course, some fans have blinkered views and won’t have a bad word said about any of their players ever, but there are plenty of Manchester United supporters that are shouting from the rooftops that the captain needs to be dropped.
It is partly because they can see with their own eyes that he’s not playing well, and partly because they look at the team as a whole, and specifically at potential match-winners, and decry the fact that Rooney is hindering them.
Paul Pogba is being used deep in midfield when his talents demand a more advanced role; Zlatan Ibrahimovic desperately requires movement and pace around him, but instead both have Rooney to accommodate.
It would be maddening enough to see a player in piss-poor form retaining his place in the side no matter what, but when those charged with providing expert opinion fail to call it out, it only exacerbates the sense of frustration.
United fans start to feel like a chain-smoking Winona Ryder in Stranger Things, growing increasingly panicked that no one is listening to them and secretly worrying that it is they who have lost their grasp on reality.
Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Steve McManaman, Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, etc – such names are not afraid of voicing strong opinions or criticising poor displays. Yet they’re collectively mute on calling out their mate Wayne.
You do start to wonder whether they can see something that us mere mortals cannot. Perhaps Rooney is working on a higher level of comprehension, that only ex-pros can decipher. After all, consecutive managers continue picking him.
Or perhaps Rooney wields such influence at Old Trafford that managers are almost duty-bound to include him. He is the alpha-male in the changing room (barring Zlatan of course) and is still very important to the commercial side of things.
Alas the fans are losing patience. They witness a player, who has been in constant decline for years now, getting a free pass. His achievements must be respected and he is not without his moments, but he is patently not deserving of a guaranteed spot.
They also see a very pally studio contingent wilfully ignoring his numerous failings, and exaggerating anything remotely competent to a ridiculous degree. The number of MOTM awards the players has won for not being that shit is bizarre.
The irony is that such kid gloves treatment does the player few favours. It just magnifies a growing resentment from a tiring support. If the lack of criticism is some form of in-joke between Rooney and his chums, it’s not very funny.
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