Wayne Rooney: Record breaker

Two hat-tricks in a row, 8 goals in total. Wayne Rooney has started off this season in magnificent form, already reaching the halfway point of last seasons goal tally and looking as if he could again reach the hights of two season ago where he scored 34 goals!

He reached the massive mile-stone of 150 goals for the club with his first strike against Arsenal, but it almost seems silly concentrating on this as he has now blasted in a further 5. 2 more against the Gunners and 3 past Bolton. 

Total club goals now stands at 155, 110 in League bringing him equal with Ryan Giggs (the only player still playing to compete with Rooney, but realistically Wayne will not have to worry about Ryan scoring a bucket load this season) Well take a look at Wayne's Goals now in terms of Man Utd all-time scorers & all-time league goals

via www.stretfordend.co.uk

via www.stretfordend.co.uk

As we can see he has a further 90 goals to score in the league and just an extra 5 on top of this in all competition. Being only 25, its not unrealistic to think that he can exceed these totals. Being cautious we can safely assume he will be playing until he is 32/33 and stays at United for the rest of his career. Therefore playing for the next 7 seasons he would require only approximatley 14 goals a season, a bench mark he has exceed in every previous year in a United shirt! If he can in fact continue the form he is on at at the minute it may not even take this long. Obviously, although it may be the smaller target Wayne could break the all time record before the all time league record as there will be no restrictions on the compettions the goals are scored in. Speaking on the all-time target Sir Bobby has set he has said, 

"I spoke to a few of the players and asked how many Sir Bobby had and Giggsy said I was 100 or so off. It's a target for me, to try and do that. Hopefully, in the next few years, I can do it."

The game against Bolton was also Waynes 7th Hat-trick for the club bringing him level with Sir Bobby on atleast one level

via www.mufcinfo.com

He had the greatest possible start to trying to break the record no.of hat-tricks by scoring one on his dream debut against Fenerbahce in 2004. Since then he has almost averaged one a year with 7 hat-tricks and this being his 8th season at the club. Assuming one more a season it is tough to see Denis Law's immense 18 trebles being touched.

A crazy stat regarding hat-tricks (kinda relevant), literally just tweet as I am writing this blog;

"January last season, Berba had more hattricks than Rooney had goals. Now Rooney has more hattricks than Berba has appearances" via R_O_M

Today's goals also brought Wayne into the Top10 all time PL Goalscorers aswell,

via www.premierleague.com

Looking at this table, we can see that there are 3 other players in the top 15 that are still playing. Although, looking at the ages of the others, the only player who will be able to significantly rise up the table will be Rooney with Owen (31), Lampard (33) & Anelka (32) all heading towards the final seasons of their career.

To top Alan Shearer's record will be an even will require Rooney's goal tally per season in the league to to be as high as 20 league goals per season over the next 7 years (again this figure is variable because Wayne may well play on longer than this) 

All-in-all his blog has been to highlight how Wayne has the potential to be one of the greatest & most prolific strikers in the English games history. What I find most pleasing when looking at these stats, is that I know he offers the team so much more than goals, working tirelessly throughout each game and putting as much effort in to assist the team as he does to score himself. 

Only time will tell if he can break any or all of these records, but regardless I think we should all be please that we have a player of his quality in our squad!

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Arsenal Aftermath

The Good

Could just write up the 90min match report in this section....but will try to keep it brief ;-)

Andos Assist: The ball falls to a midfield player, 30-odd yards from goal many would shoot, a lot would pass to the wings but very few would try the lobbed pass that Anderson played today. I will admit that the Arsenal defence really should have handled it much better, but it is not our fault they didn't. The assist was hit into the danger area and towards Welbeck, great vision from the young Brazilian in my opinion, anyone who calls it lucky, I say you make your own luck!

Double de Gea: Looked a lot more solid in goal today! Particularly impressive and sticking out in the mind, was the double save, shortly after the penalty save (obviously impressive in itself)  But on a whole, de Gea looked so much more confident, surely starting to win over many of his doubters. And who knows what way the game may have turned out if Van Persies penalty or the efforts shortly after had of found the back of the net!


Super-Strikes: If anybody was still thinking United where lucky to be in the lead after Welbeck's goal, the other two goals in the first half surely dispelled that thought. Ashely Young with a magnificent curling effort, finding the top corner. He then repeated the feat at the end of the game, from inside the box this time, it as almost unstoppable! Great to see him settle at the club so well. I said, when he signed, he is a player who seems made for United, but I am sure he has exceeded even his own expectations at the start of this season. Maybe unlucky not to get the Man of the Match award today.

Set-piece Hat-trick: What can I say about this other than Wayne Rooney...take a bow. The two free-kicks looked directly off the training ground. The first one looked pretty unstoppable, but I think Szczesny should have been doing better for the second free-kick. From the opposite side of the pitch perhaps the Arsenal keeper thought Rooney would try to find the opposite corner, rather than shoot across the goal, leaving the goalie stuck in the mud it seems.

The Bad

Welbeck Injury: After an excellent start to the game unfortunately Danny pulled up with what seems to be a hamstring injury when chasing a long ball on the counter attack, such a shame that he only got 35mins under his belt today. It looks like it could be a month or so before we see Danny back in first team action again, which is a shame and we wish him a full & speedy recovery. Of course the silver lining is we seen almost an hour of football from Chicharito, who did well, unfortunately unable to find the net himself! But it goes to show, with Sir Alex speaking of selection headaches leading into the game, it is shown why the full depth of the squad is required. I dare say Wenger would have liked the same strength in numbers as we hold.

The Ugly

Arshavins Tackle: Leaving a bitter taste in many reds mouth, Arshavin can count himself lucky to have stayed on this pitch with a horrendous tackle on Ashley Young. I suppose Young can also count himself luck that he was not seriously injured by the tackle. Arshavin's foot was high  with studs showing and could have cause much more damage than it did in the end. Arsenal eventually did keep their record for a Red Card in every premier league game so far this season, with young Jenkinson picking up two yellows. Although the two bookings were fully deserved you almost felt sorry for the young gooner as he was tortured the whole game by Ashely Young on the wing and offered no help or protection from the Arsenal midfield!


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Return of the Little Pea

Javier 'Chicarito' Hernandez returned to first team duties during the game on Monday night against Spurs. With I imagine everybody involved in the club being ecstatic to see the little pea back to full fitness....except perhaps Danny Welbeck & Dimitar Berbatov.

With Welbeck, easily being the most impressive striker on the pre-season tour, with some very strong performances. He has been rewarded early this season, earning two starts in the Premier League ahead of Berbatov, proving himself worthy by scoring a goal & creating an excellent assist in the game against Tottenham on Monday night. I know its only been a few games but I feel we now need to stop considering him as a young reserve getting a run out, he is a fully pledges first team member & should be fighting for his place and in contention for starting place throughout the season. Though with the return of Chicarito this may be easier said than done! In the second half of last season it became clear that his partnership with Rooney moved him above Berba in the pecking order at United. It will be interesting to see if Hernandez is now put in along with Rooney for the Arsenal game on Sunday, or will Fergie stick with Welbeck, perhaps introducing Hernandez slowly due to his lack of pre-season.

Then the next step we look at has to be does this force Berbatov to fourth in the queue? If it does it would be a crazy outcome, the season after he shares the golden boot in the Premier League, he falls to a bit-part roll by the start of the next season. To be honest, I like Berbatov, but will always prefer to see Welbeck and particularly Hernandez starting. I like the youth, pace and the hard work of these two and feel it serves the team better than Berba's more 'relaxed' style. Dimitar has undoubted skill and when he's confident & on form it is amazing to watch. Unfortunately, it doesn't really lend itself to the wide attacking, pass and move style of united when we play 4-4-2. Having said that, SAF could turn around and hand Berbatov the start against Arsenal, he certainly has the ability to hold the ball up more than the two young strikers, so depending on tactics and how the manager feels the game will pan out Berba could even get the nod. SAF spoke about the problem in an interview stating;

"Chicharito came back on Monday which gives me a tremendous problem for picking a side, But that’s the kind of problem we want" Sir Alex Ferguson

Regardless of who starts on Sunday, it is great to have the little pea back in the mix and I personally believe that he will be Rooney's partner in attack this season once the staff are confident he is fully fit and prepared! He himself seems to be as keen as ever, speaking to MUTV about being back in the first team squad he spoke of how difficult it was not playing football for two months & had this to say about the game against Spurs;

"It was great to play again, unbelievable" Chicharito

Chicharito won't be the only player fit to return to action this weekend, with SAF confirming that Darren Fletcher is ready to return to first team duties and will be in consideration for the side vs. Arsenal on Sunday. More good news for United fans and usually we would see the Scot returning to being the first name on the team sheet, but it could be much harder for him to break-back into the set-up with Anderson & Cleverley playing so well in the centre of the park. It will be another interesting selection problem for the manager, let the youthful pairing gain more experience together on the pitch, or bring back in Fletch who imo over the past few years has been our strongest CM. 

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Fight or Flight

Every season, is a big season, for every Man Utd player. At the top you always have to perform at your personal personal best or you will fall down the pecking order at the club. Barring Rooney who seemed to be allowed the opportunity to play through his slump (and gain forgiveness) in the first half of last season....but he is Wayne Rooney after all. There are a few players though which when brought in carry high hopes but ultimately fail to deliver, e.g. Kleberson, Tosic, Manucho and he who shall not be named (Eric Djemba-Djemba). The list can go on, maybe some of them never received the same opportunity as others but regardless, there are a few players at the club atm who could are in danger of falling into this list. This season coming (if they aren't sold before then) will be a big one for Darron Gibson, Gabriel Obertan and Mame Biram Diouf. It will challenge them with the choice we all face in tough situations; Fight or Flight!?

Darron Gibson

In Darron we have a player who has all the attributes to be our commander in midfield and at times he has shown this ability but unfortunately he hasn't always been able to consistently make the grade. Already been entangled in a transfer situation this summer, turning down a move to Sunderland, apparently because they messed him about a bit with contract negotiations. Darron has had a meeting with Sir Alex and they decided he should stay home from the USA tour to make a decision on his future. He is not being forced out though and it seems SAF has left it in Gibsons own hands, if he decides to stay and gives it one last go at United (and I hope he does) he may gain an attitude in which he gives 100% for every minute on the pitch, and if this happens, he could become very successful.


Gabriel Obertan

Gabriel has been limited to mainly substitute appearances in his time at Old Trafford as far as the first team goes. He seems to be a force to be wreckoned with in the reserves scoring 9 goals in 19appearences, but he cannot perform at this level when he is brought up to 1st team level. He can be very frustrating to watch at times because he gets so close but then takes a heavy touch and loses the ball, runs into trouble when he had a simple pass earlier in the play or beats 2 defenders and then fails to deliver a decent cross. Seems to be he does all the hard work but never quite gets the end result. If he can begin to find this final ball right he could have an impact and join Nani, Young and Valencia as one of our top-class wingers.

Mame Biram Diouf 


Diouf faces the toughest challenge of the three players I have mentioned so far, he has had very limited first team appearances, which is unfortunate. He was on loan last year with Backburn so gained valuable 1st team premier league experience, although he only scored 6 goals in 26 appearances so he did not light the goalscoring charts alight. Maybe this is harsh though because it is nearly 1 goal in 4 apps, at a team who where struggling at the wrong end of the table all season, maybe at Man Utd where more chances will be created and more freedom afforded to their strikers he would have much more success. I was actually very impressed with the goal he scored in the recent friendly against the Seattle Sounders, he showed great space and movement to recieve the pass, the composure to steady himself and ensure the ball found the back of the net. The reason I a fear his task is the toughest is because of the sheer competition he faces from other strikers in the club. Behind the first choice strikers of Rooney, Berbatov, Hernandez and even Owen he will have to compete with Danny Welbeck and Frderico Macheda. This will make it tough to even get a start in the League cup. This competition is most likely why Blackpool have taken an interest in buying Diouf in recent weeks.

I'd like to point out at this stage that I hate 'fans' who just shit on the fringe players, that they are not good enough and never give them a chance. I always try to be realistic and of course accept that not everyone will make it as a 1st team regular at the Theatre of Dreams but I will always try to give the benefit of the doubt and try to defend any Man Utd players. 

It's also going to be a big season for Welbeck, Cleverly, Macheda but I have a feeling these three, returning from loans, will be given a little more slack before they looked at to be sold on. Especially because United have invested so much time and effort into their development over the years.

P.S. Rooney eventually did gain forgiveness from the fans...

P.p.s. I was there, just behind the goal and had just finished slagging Wayne off before he done this.

...and he has set his targets high this season for himself,

"Messi is a great player and rightly World Player of the Year. I think, not just for me, but for every footballer out there, that's the target you want to try to get to and hopefully I can do that." - Wayne Rooney uses Messi as a target to reach for

So hopefully we will see the return of Wayne from 09/10 and with no scandals or contact issues this season there is no reason why we shouldn't.

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