Wayne Rooney

It would be unfair to suggest that the path has been cleared of all obstacles for Wayne Rooney ever since he burst into the bigtime as a 16 year old because it has largely been down to his own skill, power, drive and will to succeed that these obstacles have been cleared.

Since joining Manchester United, he has largely found himself playing second fiddle to others – Ruud Van Nistelrooy when he first arrived and then Cristiano Ronaldo in more recent times. That is not to say that he is in any way inferior to those players but such is his attitude towards the team that he has often been asked to sacrifice much of his own game in order to accomodate those players. He has always done this without complaint and to the best of his ability and this is just one of the many reasons why he is such a favourite amongst the fans, his team-mates and his manager.

However, with the departure of Ronaldo, Rooney was finally given centre stage and encouraged by Fergie to get himself into goal-scoring positions and be more “selfish” with his play. The result was typically devastating as Rooney enjoyed his most prolific season as a professional, scoring 34 goals in all competitions. The post-Ronaldo question of “Who will score the goals?” had been answered.

As ever, though, a similar question is never far away and when Rooney picked up an injury in the dying seconds of our match against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, the United attack suddenly looked a bit threadbare.

Michael Owen has himself already picked up an injury earlier in the season, Berbatov was still finding it difficult to score on a regular basis and young Macheda was himself struggling with an injury problem.

When Rooney came back from the injury, it all looked a bit rushed and he never quite seemed “right” to most onlookers but such was our reliance on him that even an 80% fit Rooney was probably better than anyone else at full fitness. If it was a gamble by Fergie then it probably backfired and we haven’t seen the real Wayne Rooney since he hobbled off against Bayern for club or country.

Seeing the problems with attack, Fergie wasted no time in securing the services of a young Mexican called Javier Hernandez for around £7million. An unknown young player for a relatively small fee (for a striker) didn’t give many United supporters much cause for excitement and many wanted us to be splashing uber-millions on the likes of Villa, Torres, Benzema or even, dare I say it, Forlan.

The signing of Hernandez has since begun to look very much like a masterstroke from left-field by Fergie though and even during his brief appearances in our pre-season friendlies, he has managed to score three goals for us (and one goal against us!).

Something else has happened over the summer, too – Berbatov appears to have regained his confidence. Despite showing moments of brilliance during his previous two seasons at United, these have been largely overshadowed by, let’s face it, prolonged periods of crapness. Some were even tipping him to be on the way out this summer and, clearly recognising that his personal legacy is about to be tarnished by the word “flop” (Berbaflop, in some quarters) he has seemingly resolved to give it everything in his power to make up for lost time this season and the result has been pretty spectacular in pre-season as he himself has scored three goals including yesterday’s calm, composed lob against Chelsea to finally put the match to bed.

And then we have Michael Owen who had not kicked a ball since scoring in the Carling Cup Final which ultimately cost him the rest of his season. Whilst likely to only be a bit-part player this season, he has managed to score a goal himself in pre-season (and a brilliant one at that) and continues to remind everyone that while the electric pace might no longer be there, the instincts and the technique of a master marksman are still there in abundance.

Add to this young Macheda who just keeps knocking in the goals to remind everyone who might be forgetting just what a talent he is and we have a five-man strike-force of fantastic variety that I honestly can’t remember such a situation at United. The nearest thing I come to by way of comparison (and forgive me if I’m getting carried away here) is the treble-winning side of 98/99 with Yorke, Cole, Sheringham and Solskjaer.

What all this means is that competition for places is as strong as it has ever been and each player will have to take full advantage of whatever chances Fergie gives them to stake their claim. Chances on the field will also need to be taken and if Fergie perceives a player to be giving anything less than 100% at all times then he might well find himself collecting splinters for a spell.

With all these players seemingly looking fit, ready and in goal-scoring mood as we enter the new season, the only one who has not scored a goal is Rooney himself. In fact, during pre-season, the team has scored a massive 22 goals in seven games with thirteen different players hitting the back of the net (including the loan-bound Welbeck).

We’re clearly not totally reliant on another 30+ season from Rooney but it does beg the question: Are we reliant on Rooney at all?

The prospect of a fit Wayne Rooney not playing is unthinkable but having seen the partnership of Berbatov and Hernandez yesterday, Fergie might just have a slight dilemma on his hands here. It’s a nice dilemma, and one he has been used to having down the years, but it is a dilemma.

Whilst we didn’t see a goal from Rooney yesterday, we did see the other things that he brings to the table, not least of which was the brilliant “blind” pass into Valencia for the opening goal. Not many players in the world would have done that and this only adds to the dilemma.

What is beyond doubt, however, is that Rooney now has a challenge on his hands. It is normally considered that he is one of the first names on the team-sheet but I just wonder if this is going to be the nailed-on case for much of the coming season, especially if the likes of Berbatov and Hernandez can take their pre-season form into the season “proper”.

Another thing that is certain is that Rooney relishes a challenge and he will be as up for it as anyone. What we will see from Rooney if he raises his game to yet another level in response to the challenge is almost too scary to contemplate.

Bring it on!

As always, the Community Shield will be billed as a “friendly” match but there’s not likely to be very much friendship shown on the pitch this afternoon. These two sides will almost certainly be contesting the title again this season and neither will want the other to get one over on them at any stage of the season – starting now.

Just how seriously the two managers will be taking this one is likely to be shown in their starting line-ups and I expect nothing less than full strength from both to start with although predicting what this is in the case of Manchester United is as tricky as ever.

United took part in an open training session at Old Trafford and just about everyone apart from the long-term injured took part including Evra and Carrick (who suffered an ankle injury against the Irish XI during the week and was expected to be out for a fortnight as a result).

Chelsea have been uncharacteristically quiet in the transfer market this summer and so there are unlikely to be many surprises about who turns out for them so expect the usual suspects although it might see a return to action for Essien who, given his injury problems last season, could be like a new signing for them.

As for the match itself, I expect the usual feisty encounter but I do actually think there’ll be goals in this one today. Chelsea were scoring for fun towards the end of last season and we have plenty of attacking options and plenty of goalscorers. It is quite ironic that the player who hasn’t been banging them in for club or country for quite a while is actually Wayne Rooney! This is the type of match that should bring out the best in him though.

As usual, not the kind of match to get too heavily involved with from a betting point of view but I think a small bet on the OVER market might be worthwhile.

The bet is going to be 2 points OVER 2.5 goals @ 2.29 with Canbet.

Review to follow…

As mentioned the other day, Diouf has gone out on loan to Blackburn with Alex Ferguson also confirming that Danny Welbeck will also be loaned out.

Tom Cleverley was the other name mentioned but Fergie has confirmed that he will be staying at United this season and is clearly a part of the first team plans for the coming season.

I think this pretty much puts a lid on the subject of further purchases being made this summer.

United, of course, take on Chelsea tomorrow in the Community Shield and I’ll be doing my usual preview of the match tomorrow morning.

Despite a few odd positional decisions by Sir Alex (Evans playing at left-back, for example) the United team that took the field for this one looked much more like United than most of the line-ups used on the USA Tour.

Vidic was back in defence, Valencia was on the right, Carrick was in the centre of midfield and Rooney and Owen were paired up front. All great to see.

Valencia, in particular, was very impressive and showed just what we have been missing in some of the other pre-season games with his constant running at the Irish defence and superb crosses into the box.

As for the match itself, it is difficult to know where to start. The first goal came from a mixture of indecisive defending and horrendous bad luck as Park blocked an attempted clearance and saw the ball rebound straight into the net. As someone once said, “They all count”.

The second goal came from a brilliant piece of play from Michael Owen. At first, it looked like it had been an own goal but replays showed that Owen had deftly lobbed the ball over the keeper despite being under intense pressure from a couple of defenders. It was the kind of strike that shows that Michael Owen still has the striker’s instinct flowing through his veins as strongly as ever.

And that is how the first half ended. 2-0 to United. Rooney had huffed and puffed without much success and probably deserved a bit more in the way of free kicks than the referee gave him. Despite some decent passing and possession football from the Irish players at times, they weren’t really able to make very much of it and Vidic, in particular, probably can’t remember an easier 45 minutes in a United shirt.

As the second half was about to commence, it was announced that Owen and Rooney were being replaced by Berbatov and Hernandez. Hernandez can do no wrong at the moment and every United fan is trying to keep their feet on the ground about him and not hype him up too much for fear of putting too much pressure on the lad’s shoulders.

The problem is, Chicharito just won’t play along and within seconds of coming on, he had put the ball in the net to give United a 3-0 lead.

At this stage, it was all looking a bit ominous for the Irish side and more goals looked inevitable.

It took little under fifteen minutes for the next as Valencia went on a bit of a run, using his right foot at every touch, before bringing it onto his left and firing into the bottom corner. Yes. Valencia scored a goal with his left foot!

A few minutes later, Park scored his second and United’s fifth with a lovely curling effort into the far corner and then Evans (who had been getting forward constantly throughout the match) headed home well to make it six.

Mulcahy spoiled it all when grabbing a goal back for the Irish side following something of a mistake by Smalling who over-committed himself in a wide position which left him hopelessly out of position.

A few minutes later, Hernandez was brought down in the penalty area and the referee awarded a penalty which was duly converted by Nani with typical audacity.

And so it ended 7-1 to United.

Whatever anyone says about the quality of the opposition here, there were tons of positives to take from this game. One of the worries pre-season has been “What will we do if Rooney gets injured? Where will the goals come from?” Well, seven goals here from six different scorers and not a Rooney goal in sight would suggest that we have more than enough goals scattered around the squad for that to be less of a concern than some would make it out to be.

The return of Valencia and Vidic was also great to see. Valencia, in particular, looks every bit a United player now and was the clear Man-of-the-Match for this one.

Owen showed he’s still got it so long as his legs hold out, Chicharito can’t stop scoring and I don’t think Smalling was beaten in the air once all night.

The one bad point of the evening was when Carrick had to come off due to some kind of ankle injury. I am not sure at this stage how serious it is (it didn’t look particularly serious – he walked off the pitch) but given that this was his first bit of football for months, it wasn’t an ideal comeback for him.

All in all though, a great night’s work by the lads. Sunday’s match against Chelsea should be enough to blow away a few more cobwebs and then it will be full steam ahead for Newcastle!

Following the showings of several of the youngsters during the USA Tour, several are now being linked with loans away from Manchester United.

The ones who seem likely to fall into this category include Diouf, Welbeck and Cleverley.

As regular readers will know, I have been largely impressed with Diouf since he came to us and started to bang the goals in for the Reserves but he hasn’t quite done enough for me when in first team action. Given our striker situation, it looks likely that he is possibly our sixth or even seventh choice striker and a loan deal would not surprise me. He’s too good for the reserves but not quite good enough for the first team but if there’s anything in the reports of a possible loan move to Blackburn then that would be a good option, in my opinion.

Welbeck has been impressive in the pre-season games. He appears to have grown physically as well as mentally and looks perfectly at home with the first team now. The problem Fergie has is accomodating him in the team at the moment but he is almost certainly one for the future but he needs to continue his development by playing regular football at a high level. For this reason, I can see a loan for Welbeck being agreed with Sunderland recently being linked with such a move.

The last one is Cleverley and this one is the most interesting for me. Whilst most fans are generally happy with the squad as it is, I don’t think there is one who would say no to a quality attacking/creative/goalscoring midfielder. Cleverley has been played in this role during the pre-season tour and has done very well.

He’s another one who needs more than Reserve level football and having been out at Watford last season, now needs to make a step up and a loan to a Premier League club would seem to be a good option if he is not to remain at United for the coming season. The reports linking him with Newcastle won’t go away.

However, I believe that Cleverley is the kind of player we need to stay at United and I do believe that Fergie took him to America in order to have a good look at him and make a decision regarding his future. I am also now of the opinion that it is the outcome of this decision that will determine if we enter the transfer market one more time or not because I simply cannot see the logic of letting Cleverley go without bringing someone who is currently better/more experienced in that position in.

To this end, I will say that if Cleverley goes out on loan, we’ll be bringing someone else in (possibly Ozil) and if he doesn’t then that’s our transfer business finally done for this summer.

I believe this match was organised as part of the deal which brought Javier Hernandez to Manchester United and was to provide a very special occasion for a player who is clearly highly thought of in Mexico and is becoming increasingly highly thought of here in Manchester.

The idea was that Hernandez would play the first half for Chivas and the second half for United.

Whilst this would seem the “proper” way to do it, Fergie might just have wished he had opted for the other way round when Hernandez scored against us after just eight minutes though! It was a fantastic goal, a left footed strike from outside the box whilst on the run which found the bottom corner with clinical precision.

Chivas’ lead didn’t last long though as the other newcomer to the United party, Chris Smalling, score a couple of minutes later with a decent header (although to be fair, he did seem to be all over the Chivas defender’s back as he jumped for it) but it was good to see him bag a goal.

Chivas scored again after 38 minutes to take a 2-1 half time lead.

Of course, Hernandez was going to be playing for us in the second half so we all hoped he would do the business for us rather than against us but the hopes were dashed when Chivas scored a third and Hernandez was brought off shortly afterwards with Fergie explaining after the game that he only intended to give him an hour anyway.

United kept plugging away though and at times our passing was so fast and accurate that I thought there was something wrong with my telly – it all seemed a little too fast!

United’s second came as a result of a neat passing interchange between Cleverley and Welbeck but when Cleverley was tackled on the edge of the area, the ball broke free for the impressive Nani to stroke home.

It all proved too little, too late though and Chivas saw out the game 3-2.

Despite the defeat, this one had a very good consolation prize to go with it though – we got to take their star striker home with us!

Well, this was a bit more like it. Fergie went with a slightly more experienced line-up with Van Der Sar in goal, a back four of Fabio, Evans, Brown and Rafael, a midfield of Giggs, O’Shea Fletcher, Nani and Obertan with Macheda leading the line.

Macheda has been a little disappointing so far during this pre-season but he looked really up for this one tonight and the MLS All Stars were absolutely stunned when Macheda put us 1-0 up after just 22 seconds with a cool finish when through one-on-one with the keeper.

Just a few minutes later, he was at it again with a great headed goal from a good Nani corner after just 12 minutes.

The All Stars were really rocking now and it looked like this was going to be a really long half for them but surprisingly no further goals were scored in the first half and so we went into half time 2-0 ahead.

There was a bit of first half bad news for us Obertan fans though when he limped off after just around 20 minutes having taken a bit of a knock to be replaced by Tom Cleverley.

As the second half got underway, there had been no further changes to the side although Giggs was replaced by Gibson after 52 minutes.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for came just after the hour mark though when Hernandez and Welbeck came on for Nani and Macheda.

It was to turn a bit flat for Hernandez though because no sooner had he come onto the pitch, the All Stars scored to make the score 2-1. It had been coming to be fair as the All Stars had been enjoying a good spell of possession just prior to this.

It didn’t take long for Hernandez to give us a glimpse of what he’s all about as he ran through a few minutes later only to be brought down 25 yards from goal for a United free-kick.

Gibson stepped forward to take the kick and the keeper seemed to be showing him a lot of space to his right side which Gibson duly exploited with a beautifully shot which curled all the way into the side of the goal giving the keeper absolutely no chance.

3-1 to United and twenty minutes to go and things were only going to get better two minutes later when Cleverley pulled off a great bit of skill to juggle his way through the All Stars’ defence before giving the keeper the eye and volleying it past him. It was a delightfully taken goal and gave us a glimpse of just what he can do. If Fergie was undecided about what to do with regards a loan move or keep him for the season then this kind of thing will only make his decision more difficult.

We had to wait a full 12 minutes more for Chicharito time though but it was definitely worth it. The All Stars were just pushing forward trying to get something more from the game which left an enormous space at the back which is clearly the kind of thing a player with the pace of Hernandez thrives on.

A great bit of movement from Hernandez kept him onside by the slimmest of margins as the ball came over the top. Clean through with only the advancing keeper to beat, he lobbed the ball over him with calm aplomb and watched it drop into the net. A star was born.

The scoring wasn’t all over though as the All Stars grabbed a late second after a bit of a mistake from Brown who completely missed a tackle to leave MLS striker De Rosario with time and space to competently slot past Van Der Sar.

All in all, this was a bit more like the Manchester United we all know and love. Five goals, four scorers. A great mixture of youth and experience and a new hero plucked from nowhere.

Happy days. Happy days, indeed.

Javier Hernandez

United play their fourth game of their USA Tour tonight against the MLS All-Stars and as Javier Hernandez has now joined up with the squad, the hope is that tonight will see him make his long-awaited debut.

It promises to be a tough encounter tonight so this will be a real test for whoever Fergie selects to play.

Personally, I want to see Obertan and Nani given starts with Berbatov playing just behind Hernandez. The defence Fergie goes with is going to be interesting and I suspect he’ll go with a bit more experience to start with (I’m assuming O’Shea and Brown are both fit to play) with Smalling perhaps given a run out towards the end of the game.

Scholes and Giggs have played a lot more of these pre-season games than I had anticipated and the injury situation with Fletcher is unclear but if fit then I would expect a midfield of Fletcher and Gibson for this one.

Should be a good game and I’ll be reporting on how it went tomorrow.

Fergie again rang the changes for this one in his attempt to give everyone some game time and the big news was that Nani started this one. The entire starting line-up was as follows:-

——Amos——

Rafael—Smalling—-Evans—-De Laet

Nani—-Scholes—Gibson—-Giggs

Berbatov—-Diouf

The back five was clearly very inexperienced and on several occasions that was exposed quite mercilessly by a Kansas City side who were clearly fired up for this one.

Straight from the off, Kansas City got at United and didn’t give us a second on the ball and, to be quite honest, we were second best in the first half and this was highlighted when the Wizards took the lead when the offside trap was completely sprung (due to Rafael not getting out quickly enough) and Wizards’ Midfielder Davy Arnaud found himself clean through to slot past Amos.

A few minutes later, the scores were level when Berbatov was brought down in the box and a penalty was awarded. Bizarrely, considering this was a friendly game, the referee also sent the Wizards’ player off because he was the last defender. A correct decision by the rules of the game but as this was just a friendly, it was probably not what either manager really wanted.

Anyway, Berby stepped up to take the penalty and, such is the confidence oozing through him during this pre-season tour, nonchalantly rolled the ball into the side netting, sending the keeper the wrong way in the process.

After our initial scare, it looked like we might have finally got to grips with the game and that we would go on to win this but there was a massive shock just seconds later when the Wizards took a 2-1 lead through a header which came down off the bar and must have crossed the line by about an inch.

At half-time, United were down but with a man advantage for the second half, surely not out?

Well, the Wizards pretty much packed out the defence in the second half and we just couldn’t make the breakthrough despite having almost all of the possession and a fair few decent chances.

The player I felt most sorry for was Diouf who probably squandered a couple of our best chances when he completely miskicked a couple of shots when in great positions.

Obertan came on around the middle of the second half and looked lively and dangerous – he is one of the few youngsters who is coming through this pre-season tour with reputation enhanced.

Tom Cleverley also came on and produced a couple of decent crosses but he also wasted a few opportunities.

Macheda came on and looked more dangerous in this type of game because it wasn’t the kind of game where pace was necessary (due to the Wizards defending deep and in numbers). He had a couple of half-chances but couldn’t make them count.

All in all, this was a disappointing result with very few positives to take from it from a United perspective.

The return of Nani was good to see and although his performance didn’t reach the heights he showed towards the end of last season, this was to be expected given that this was his first match since the end of the season.

Speculation has been rife that Vidic could be leaving Manchester United last summer, the summer before, this summer for sunnier climes but David Gill has just put a lot of that to bed with the announcement that a deal has virtually been agreed with Vidic and it is now just waiting for him to sign it when he arrives back from his holiday.

The funniest part is that this was all agreed three or four weeks ago and even just a couple of days ago, Fergie was saying that he “couldn’t clarify” the situation with regards to Vidic. Crafty little bugger.

I will obviously feel a bit better when the contract is actually signed but it is as clear an indication that the player has no intention of quitting United than there possibly could be.