[Thurnscoe_OWL]

So I think I'm the only one who won a so here's the updated table


thurnscoe
washington
raf
kev

[consilio]

i dont belive in building teams around players   thats why we have been so shit over the years    The Germans built there team around the system of play so did the spanish    And if we look closer to home .. Wednesday havnt built a team around anyone either the team has been built around the spirit of the team  

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we did try this with beckham owen shearer waddle hoddle gazza keagan brooking blah blah blah and its never worked . the 66 winning team was again built around the team spirit !! not charlton hirst or banks !!!

That's a very good point Imre. Fully agree with that.

Have a rep point

[Owlshighgreen]

covert operations eh

Imre does black ops

[madsteve]

Rooney needs to play up front.  He's who we should be building the team round

I just don't think that Rooney is that great at International level against the top teams. We can get through the groups ok but we struggle against the best.

We have bright exciting younger players in Sterling, Sturridge, Barkley, Oxlade-Chamberlain & Walcott. Rooney is good but somehow I can see him getting in the way of the progress of players that might take a tournament by storm.

[consilio]

He's going to be our record goalscorer and in my opinion he's our only world class player

[Chezzie Owl]

Great post by imre and in total agreement there

Rooney is class, but World Class?? Well that a matter of opinion I guess but at the moment I don't think he is, World Class players maintain their form on a consistant basis but Rooney has been very hit and miss for the last couple of seasons. Rooney is world class when he has hunger, spirit and fight as well as his natural ability on the ball and scoring goals...at the moment he isn't showing ANY of all the above, Rooney looks a shadow of his former self at the moment and I would go as far as saying that he should be on the bench.

Never thought I would say this as I've been very critical in the past of him but I reckon Welbeck will finally start to show his early promise, his move to Arsenal will benefit him greatly and it was evident to me that last week and especially on Monday night that since his move and the prospect of being the main man at Arsenal has given him a few more springs in his step, looks full of confidence and took both his goals very well. Just shows that when you are playing in your natural position and having managers (Wenger for signing him & Woy for playing him in a central position) believing in you it can do wonders and bring the best out in folk. The front three of Studge & Welbeck with Sterling in the 10 position sounds very appealing but what with Rooney now as cpt then as MS says, our progress and the progress of the afore mentioned front three will be distrupted if Rooney keeps playing what with his lack of form.

[consilio]

How can Welbeck have gone from (in most peoples eyes) a donkey who shouldn't be in the squad, to the spearhead of our new look attack in one game.

Ridiculous.

Rooney got 17 in 29 league games last year in a struggling side with no confidence in the manager and often played out of position. His international goal scoring record of 41 in 97 is by no means poor and he has now been rightly given the armband. Rooney's here to stay.

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The front three did well against the Swiss, now Sturridge has to win his shirt back.

It's about time we had competition for places

[madsteve]

Great post by imre and in total agreement there

Rooney is class, but World Class?? Well that a matter of opinion I guess but at the moment I don't think he is, World Class players maintain their form on a consistant basis but Rooney has been very hit and miss for the last couple of seasons. Rooney is world class when he has hunger, spirit and fight as well as his natural ability on the ball and scoring goals...at the moment he isn't showing ANY of all the above, Rooney looks a shadow of his former self at the moment and I would go as far as saying that he should be on the bench.

Never thought I would say this as I've been very critical in the past of him but I reckon Welbeck will finally start to show his early promise, his move to Arsenal will benefit him greatly and it was evident to me that last week and especially on Monday night that since his move and the prospect of being the main man at Arsenal has given him a few more springs in his step, looks full of confidence and took both his goals very well. Just shows that when you are playing in your natural position and having managers (Wenger for signing him & Woy for playing him in a central position) believing in you it can do wonders and bring the best out in folk. The front three of Studge & Welbeck with Sterling in the 10 position sounds very appealing but what with Rooney now as cpt then as MS says, our progress and the progress of the afore mentioned front three will be distrupted if Rooney keeps playing what with his lack of form.

Both Sturridge & Welbeck have flourished when they have played up front. The question probably is which one of them gets dropped for the next match assuming Rooney & they are both fit.

[Chezzie Owl]

No, Sterling and Welbeck did well, Rooney time and time again lost the ball, won nothing, no work rate, poor passing, the only thing he did successfully from what I seen was his simple pass to Sterling for him to assist Welbeck's goal.

It's no co-incidence that when Welbeck came on last week for Rooney we livened up and he and Studge linked up well and the front three was full of energy and pace...yes I agree Welbeck shouldn't be a great player after 1 and a bit good games but he does play well with Sterling and Studge, there seems to be a good understanding, just I hope that Welbeck continues his good form for his country!

The last couple of years and especially this season I think Rooney has fallen way off the pace compared to how he used to be...yes he got 19 goals last season and was arguably MU's best player in a poor MU team that had a disastrous season, but even then he wasn't up to his former standards.

As I said earlier, true world class players consistently keep a high level of form and performance...ie Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo, Messi, Falcao, Bale, Di Maria, Iniesta, Maradonna, Pele, Gerrard, Van Basten, Puskas, Cruyff, Ibrahimovic ect...players like those don't/didn't lose their hunger and form for club and country...Rooney has from what I have seen recently!

No point in trying to sugar coat everything to do with England Consilio although I admire your optimism, there are still a lot of improvement to be done and it's still not all rosey, we DON'T have any world class players, the only one we had has now retired but we have players who have potential to be such as Sterling & Barkley!! Whilst not having World class players INS'T such a bad thing as teams should win games and not individual's...having world class players that can play as a team and not for individual gain is an added bonus. If Woy keeps the diamond system and plays with attacking flair (by jove he has the players to do it) then all the better for us...until Rooney hits good form again then in my eyes he's not a starter!

[Chezzie Owl]

And that's why the promising front three of Studge, Sterling and Welbeck could be distrupted as Rooney doesn't click with any three of them in my opinion! No matter how bad Rooney plays for let it be Utd or England he'll be starting games based on his past reputation and will also play as he is the captain...albeit not a Natural one, and that's yet another problem we have, who else is there who can be England Captain??? John Terry, would love it if he came out of retirement as he is our only world class CB