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<Manchester United, David Moyes and Wayne Rooney fell to an embarrassing defeat at Goodison Park-- as Leighton Baines and Kevin Mirallas twisted the knife on a disappointing season for the club.
The defeat means United are now 13 points from fourth place and unable to qualify for the Champions League next season. They have been out of the race for top four for a while now but it is now mathematically impossible to finish inside the top four.
Things are even worse than that as they are now 23 points behind their biggest rivals, Liverpool, who top the league. It has been a dismal season for United and, recently, for Wayne Rooney who was atrocious today. His performance summed United’s up perfectly. Slow, lacklustre, no guile or creativity and simply abysmal.
Manchester Utd attempts on goals against Everton
Rooney, wearing the captain’s armband, was hopeless in attack for United. They hit 9 shots and just two on target – one from Rooney late in the match. He should have scored it, too, having received the ball eight yards out, but his shot was well saved.
He attempted five crosses in the match and completed just one of them. That was in the final moments of the match so his wide play was ineffective for the majority.
David Moyes is trying to build his team around Rooney and has handed him a contract worth £300,000 per week, which is just bizarre. He is ineffective and poor in the most games. Rooney often looks impressive because of one moment in an abject performance.
His performance this afternoon was absolutely awful. He completed 40 passes but just two were completed going into the penalty area. Just look at the number of failed passes around the penalty area that looked very simple. His passing – like United’s – was poor, stale and didn’t have anything clever to it.
Wayne Rooney’s failed passes against Everton.
Rooney also failed to win either of his two tackles and won just the one headed duel. Add to that his failed take-on and you can get a feel at how poorly he played on his return to Goodison.
<With rumours that Danny Welbeck could be sold to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer-- and Robin van Persie’s future still in doubt, why is Rooney being handed a new multi-million pound contract when his performances do not deserve it?
In the biggest games this season he has not turned up. How did he play against Liverpool at Old Trafford? Against Manchester City? Today was just another in a long line of bad performances but he will be kept on and the team will continue to be built around him.
Is that where Moyes is going wrong?
Rooney’s heat map against Everton, detailed on-ball actions.
Rooney’s heat map suggests he got around the pitch a lot but when he got the ball, he didn’t do anything. United’s passing this afternoon was tepid. There was nothing to it and Rooney’s reflected that. Just look at the pass below; where was he trying to hit this?
Via Harry Robinson (Vine)
Some may think I’ve been harsh on Rooney but it is true – he was dreadful at Goodison and has been poor all season. Today he showed why Moyes needs to make a big decision on how he wants his team to set up or next season will be the same as this.
Moyes said after the game that he thinks his team played well – if he’s honest about that then Man United are in trouble.
