Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
As I predicted a Fulham team shorn of Danny Murphy, Andy Johnson, Moussa Dembele and Clint Dempsey came to Old Trafford in the FA Cup with one eye on their relegation fight and totally capitulated in one of the most one sided games I have seen this season.
Dimitar Berbatov returned to the place where his talent was wasted by his lethargy, and simply showed us why we let him go. He was awful from start to finish and is now just a pale shadow of the player we bought from Spurs. He has faded faster than Michael Owen did, and with it all hope of Fulham finding any sort of scoring form is long gone.
Alongside him Bryan Ruiz made a pretty decent effort at matching Berba in every department, to the extent that at times the Fulham attack was coming at us at walking pace. Shameful!
By contrast, our team of players who either cover for the first XI or have no depth of cover for their position just strolled around passing Fulham as though they were statues.
Patrice Evra and Rafael played with David De Gea and Michael Carrick because we have no cover for their positions. Anders Lindagard showed he is a fumbling wreck, and Alexander Buttner has not kicked on from his impressive debut. Rafael has no challenge at right back and Carrick’s cover is now Phil Jones who needed minutes and so played centre-back.
All of these players did well as expected, but with little to disturb them on the day.
Of the squad players, Anderson did ok, he remains an enigma, strong but easily injured, weighty but fleet of foot, tough tackler but deft passer. Often excellent but sometimes awful. He did enough to show he is cover for Tom Cleverley but no more than that.
Jones and Chirs Smalling were just fine, a glimpse of the future first choice pairing and they are maturing just fine.
Upfront Javier Hernandez is cover for Robin van Perfect, and would walk into any other Premier league first XI including Manchester City’s.
Ryan Giggs was excellent, yet again. Dare I say that on days like this he is as good as he ever was despite his age!
So that leaves just Wayne Rooney and Nani about whom I’d like to focus.
Rooney had a very average game. He started poorly losing possession every time he touched the ball in the first 15 minutes as well as misplacing passes.
In between he missed many chances that the old Rooney would have buried and then score the goal of the game when he trusted his often ignored left peg to score a goal reminiscent of his first European goal for United. Surely the goal of the game, made by an Anderson pass and finished in style.
Rooney looks slow to me, he favours his right foot all the time and his work rate is laudable but half hearted at times.
Rooney would not be in my United first XI right now, he just isn’t doing enough to make me confident in him, his star is in the decline at United and Berbatov knows what that means.
Nani must have read the newspapers this week wondering about his location next season as Wilfried Zaha is most certainly the man who puts his back up wing berth most at threat.
When Sir Alex Ferguson first started tracking Zaha it must have been to replace the retiring Giggs, and Nani must have thought he would outlast the Welshman at United but now I doubt it.
Nani played right and left wing but was far too selfish when he made he moves to enter the box, and his off target shooting from beginning to end was like the last desperate effort of a player who knows he just doesn’t have enough t make it at the very highest level.
Despite the off key performances of these two, we won this game at a canter.
The summer transfer market is the one we make our biggest moves in and today we saw Nani, and maybe Rooney, in the shop window.
Shinji Kagawa needs to improve to take the Rooney role, and Zaha will get his chance to back up Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia while Federico Macheda tries to secure a move away to allow Danny Welbeck to develop unopposed.
As a sign of the future this game gave us some pointers, but as a spectacle it died from the moment Rooney was fired from his penalty taking duties and the man who will always be Mr FA Cup in my book, showed us that class and fitness equals longevity.
Think about that Berba and Rooney when you tuck into your dinner tonight.
By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve
i agree with all of this except the wellbeck bit…..he needs to be sold not left to develope..i thought we shouldve let rooney go when he wanted to leave while we could get top dollar…like owen he started way too young and is burned out….however fergies arrogance at that time in the transfer market meant we wouldnt have bought an adequate replacement…we could probably get 40 mill for the sale of both of them…and could be spent on two young dynamic midfielders.
This article is utter bull apart from gigs is always going to be a fantastic player and yes welbeck should be kept to develop. Rooney may be having sort of an off season but then again, is this due to Van Persie scoring all the goals and taking all the credit. I admit that rooney has been off his pace with an inconsistent touch and maybe not quite the work rate he usually has. Bare in mind that he has been injured for a lot of this season, his passing is magnificent, there is no doubt he still has that world class skill to his game he is just off form at the moment, and remember he did score 27 goals for the mighty reds last season. Also he is another fellow english player in an english club, reminding people that Man Utd do not want to turn in to a chelsea/liverpool team which sometimes don't have an english player on the team sheet. Secondly… Nani. I will completely admit that he has been shocking this season, then again what winger (apart from giggs) has actually played well this season. Young has had a couple of good games, (a couple of good games is not enough 23 games in to the season). And valencia has completely forgotten what taking the ball past some one is like. He has become the most predictable player in the premiership, running with the ball, getting to a defender, shuffling a bit, then passing it back to rafael to hope to do a better job. Which is where i favour nani cause he actually has the nerve to try and take it past someone, create some space and put in a good cross. I personally think you cant single out one of our wingers as being crap and having to get rid of them because frankly at the moment none of them are any good. Hopefully zaha will bring wonders to our attacking line up and force the other slackers to start fighting for their places on the wing.
This article is very much like your spelling and grammar…….a load of shit!
Criticizing my opinion is fine but calling it bull and then agreeing with me is schizophrenic.
Incredibly the Daily Telegraph had Rooney man of the match, now that's screwball.
Rooney has played poorly most of 2012, I agree we should have cashed in but losing him to Citeh was not just about money and we couldn't let that happen. Look at Robin and Arsenal and see what it does to the selling Club.
We are in good shape, playing better in a poor league waiting to be found out by Real Madrid.
I predict we will get a pasting from the Spaniards and go on to finish second in the league while winning the FA Cup.
All in all not a bad year for the Glazers considering their debt mountain mirrors that of their home country.
Steve,
this is nonsense!
Why will you talk about Wayne Rooney like that.
A player who has helped in the past, played out of position and has injuries problems.
he is a united legend and even scholes and giggs have had their bad days
Rooney has not performed for a year or more and is overweight, overrated and overpaid in my opinion.
He slopes around the field making half hearted attempts at ball recovery and jogs back in defence just to look willing.
His efforts on goal are few and weak. Every now and again we see something that shows us the player he once was. He is fading fast. Open your eyes.
Giggs and Scholes never lost fitness or desire but Rooney has lost both.
Sell him back to Everton for £10m and be done with it. If he'd take the wage cut !