Rooney as top dog??

Daniel Taylor's recent report for the Guardian included this choice quote from Rooney, recalling terse conversations with United brass about his role: "I got told to play in midfield and I didn't want to. I just think there had to come a point when, for my own career, I had to be a bit selfish really."
--------------------------
And what do you think that means in your own words?

You're an absolute phuhking moron. Never have I seen an argument so ill concluded. Tell me, when you add 2 and 2, do you get 7?

The problem with this logic is that Berba wasn't the main man in that season we won the premier league.

He may have been top scorer but he certainly wasn't the main man. Most of his goals came in the first half of the season, most of which were against Blackburn and Liverpool.

Rooney's return to form after injury in the second half of the season was one of the main reasons we won the league that year, so these stats are pretty arbitrary, in my opinion, as Berba was dropped in the second half of the season and was never the main man when Rooney was fit.

comment by 2014 - Year of the Januzaj (U18323)
posted 36 minutes ago
disagree about rooney sacrificing. there was a quote in the guardian where he said he wants to be selfish and not play in MF or to that effect
-------------------------------------------
I'd like to see this quote albeit the Guardian is hardly the most credible source.

as leading goalscorer rooney has never won the league or golden boot
-----------------------------------
Yeah but this could be down to sheer unluckyness rather than what you're implying.

In 09/10 we faced a brilliant Barca team in the CL final (which Rooney scored in), so is it because he was our main man that we lost? We also started Giggs, Park, and Anderson in that game.

And his total in 09/10 of 26 league goals would have won Golden Boot in either the season before or after, so I'm not sure what you're trying to prove there. It's just unlucky that Drogba happened to have a career best goalscoring campaign that year

-----------------

We actually played Barcelona in the 2010/2011 season, in which Rooney scored in the game. We got knocke out on away goals to Bayern Munich in the 2009/2010 season. Also Anderson didn't feature in that game, I think you're getting it mixed up with the 2009 UEFA Champions League final . Rooney as main man in that 2011 final was simply too much for him, I think we had a couple more quality players in that game we would have did better and he would have thrived.

*I think if we had*

Whoops, my bad, I was blending the two finals together the season in between. My memory of them is a little fuzzy given that I've tried to forget about them!

Either way, I believe he scored a couple goals against Bayern Munich that year before we unfortunately had Rafael sent off.

I reckon we would have won the league had Rooney not got injured against Bayern.

The fact Berba couldn't step up in his absence says a lot more than an arbitrary stat about us never winning the league when Rooney is leading goal scorer.

2014 - Year of the Januzaj (U18323)

Haha I know exactly what you mean. I've tried to banish the 2011 UEFA Champions League final from my memory.

Yeah he played well in both legs despite being injured in the second leg.

That 09/10 season we definitely would have won the league and put up a decent challenge for the CL if Rooney hadn't been injured. We were flying and had just gotten off the back of crushing Milan over two legs.

If Rooney had been fit or Rafa hadn't been sent off, I think we would have progressed and only an average Lyon side stood in our way to the final. If only though...