Manchester United need Rooney and Ronaldo to be Ruud and Beckham
Over at Red Rants, K9 talks about Manchester United’s need for a goal poacher.
In my view, Manchester United are not going to find the next Ruud, or Beckham, or Giggs, or Scholes or Keane or Cantona. Those players were/are unique in their ability to win games for United. What Manchester United ‘can’ do is find and groom players who can win games through sheer will - stars who do more than just impress critics with their work-rate or arm-chair pundits with their ‘reputation’.
And Manchester United already have two such players - Rooney and Ronaldo.
Since Ruud’s departure, we’ve continuously talked about the need for a goal-scoring machine. There are high hopes for Rossi but it’s unfair to expect too much from a kid who hasn’t had a full season at Old Trafford. However, in wonderboy Wayne Rooney Manchester United have a player who can give them 30 goals every season.
There is more to this than just thoughts - Rooney scored 23 this season, when he was publicly being criticised for a lack of form in the Premiership, Europe and even for England. Given the added experience and fresh faces in the squad, is it not possible that Rooney can increase that tally?
Rooney has been pigeon-holed as a support striker. The only reason for that is because his all-round game (apart from his heading, which you can attribute to his height) is excellent - he regularly tracks back to defend, to win balls in midfield and to start attacks. However, just because a player is good everywhere on the pitch doesn’t mean that you don’t use him in the role you need him the most for - scoring goals.
However, even if Rooney starts banging in them goals there are times - crunch times - when the team fails. Cristiano Ronaldo has carried Manchester United many times this season but history, and the media, will always measure his performances in the crunch games and they will say that Ronaldo gave away that ball that led to Arsenal’s goal at Old Trafford, that Ronaldo didn’t show up against Chelsea or AC Milan.
That’s how football is - fickle and cruel at times. Ronaldo needs to rise up to the challenge next season (the way he did this season). Part of that is a mental challenge, the other is tactical, and requires Ronaldo to add more variety to his play.
He should take a leaf out of a former Manchester United #7 and work on his free-kicks and crosses during the summer. Hugging the sidelines when running at defenders is not working is not another profession, it’s part of Ronaldo’s job - and he needs to learn it fast.
Rooney and Ronaldo are already quite fantastic players, and at 21 and 22, they definitely have their best years ahead of them.
But as a Manchester United fan, I can’t sit back and say they’ve done enough. They’ve done a lot, and I thank them for that, but I want more.
Manchester United deserves more.
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United need Ronaldo to be Giggs. The reason that Ronaldo struggled in the big games is because the opposition were gunning for him. His natural skills will always draw multiple defenders to him when he’s on the ball, he needs to learn how to use this fact to the advantage of his team - much like Giggs did early on in his career. Instead in those big games Ronaldo spent the first 45 minutes trying to beat every one on the park and then score from outside the box and the second 45 minutes fatalistically making little ‘Fletcher-esque’ touches that made no impact on the game(s).
agreed, these guys have to step up……. and we need to invest in some more talent to support them.
carrick is another one who needs to step up. make no mistake, he has done very, very well this season. but if he can produce that form he had around the roma game more consistently, it’ll take a lot of pressure off the shoulders of rooney and ronaldo and dare i say, we might actually have a worthy replacement for scholes!
Carrick started the season off to a slow start, scored his first goal and his game seemed to pick up,then went on a drought,gave his unique performance against roma then went underground again.problem with carrick is that he does a dissapearing act, then reappears for a brief show then dissapears again.there so many games i watched and didnt see him do anything,hi’s consistency is my major concern,fletcher seemed to have improved tremendously after his injury though, and with hargrieves at ol’ trafford hope the midfield next season will be stronger than ever
ronaldo an rooney r doing their jobs quite well but they can do much better espically rooney
We need some more fire power now that giggs is old we should invest in Ricado Quresma 2 play down d left flank.
We should go 4 Torres or Villa to add some firepower 2 our attack.Wit these changes manu would easily become d best team.:-):-):-)
please fergie i want to tell you that;do not want man-u buy to mccathy but our team would buy;torres;ibrahimovic;etoo’;or nani because we need even next season to take the english barclays cup;F.A cup and the uefa Champions luegue;and i woulk to tell you that i’m a big fan of man-u in rwanda and i’m 18years old;thanks
i totally agree. man u needs them to step-up their game a bit. they’ve done well but they can and deserve to do way better.
Quaresma is overrated, and SAF would never be interested in him.
Carrick may have disappeared from games, but in tight games it’s not his job to be noticable…he just needs to protect his defense. Next season with Hargo in the team, Carrick will be released to go more forward, and hence be more noticable.
We need to find someone to blood into Giggs’ position. Now that Giggs retires from international duty, he’ll certainly be able to play next season…and maybe even quite a few in the season after that. That means we have 1-2 seasons to blood someone as his replacement. It also means SAF doesn’t need to find a top player…just someone who will be eventually. I see Anderson from Porto as a possibility, and I think we can price him away for about £10 mil. David Silva is another option, but I guess he’s too expensive already. I’m not sure about Nani, but if SAF sees a future for him at OT, we should get him.
UNITED HAVE NANI AND ANDERSON………………..WOWWW…..I AM BUZZING….
nani and ronaldo on wings. teams struggled against our pace last season. Nani is quicker than ronaldo so that says something about what problems teams will have
WE have Nani and Anderson for our wings and center midfield now. Forget Ribery….
i thnk wooney would be criticised even if he scored thirty goals, that is the weight of expectation on him but scoring the goals he did as a deep striker it shows his class, people should pay more attention to his off the ball running one of his best assets is his abilty to draw defenders and open up space for others for someone so young to play so intelligently means man u are in good hands. if man u can get a decent poacher i beleive they will have it on chelsea next yr.
Ronaldo has been awsome this year i do not think any other player in the world made a bigger contribution to there team he can only improve.Apparently man u have signed Nani he will be a great addition understudy to the great ryan giggs for his last though seasons,who better to learn off really. also the young brazilian anderson has been touted as a striker as well as a midfeild player