Rooney: the epitome of a manager?

[RoyMac5]

Is he already showing signs of being a very good manager?

To make such a big difference in so short a time.

If we do not sign him up then there will be other teams queuing up to sign him.

[ck-]

Totally agree. I really didn’t think he was the  man for the job, but goodness me how wrong was I?

You can only judge based on what you see. 
He took over a ran low in confidence, seemingly petrified of a forward pass. We were set up defensively, yet still lost. We couldn’t - or wouldn’t - play a forward pass. 
 

Now, we’re defending solidly - mainly because everyone busts a gut to get back if they lose it while attacking - but look so much better offensively.

It’s long been said that attack is the best form of defence, but only if you’re prepared to work at it. That’s the biggest difference I’ve seen. Where Cocu’s message was “Don’t lose the ball at any cost” which caused a lack of ambition, Rooney’s mantra seems to be “Try something - if it works, great ... but if it doesn’t you get straight back to help recover from your mistake”. The players are responding to that freedom to express themselves, and showing the discipline needed. 

 

 

[RoyMac5]

15 minutes ago, ck- said:

Now, we’re defending solidly - mainly because everyone busts a gut to get back if they lose it while attacking - but look so much better offensively.

I think it really comes down to explaining things to the players in a simple manner. But more than that Rooney seems to understand the players, the game.

[Millenniumram]

Think we need to be a little careful and make sure we don’t go too over the top after one performance. Sometimes that over excitement can come back to haunt you if things go wrong in the coming weeks.

Rooney has done some good stuff during his caretaker spell in charge so far. He’s undoubtedly made us more organised and harder to beat, which is clearly evidenced in the increased number of clean sheets we’re keeping, and the reduced number of defeats we are suffering. That has given us a stronger base to build on, but the question has still remained as to whether he could fix our biggest problem - scoring goals. There’s been a fair few games under Rooney, particularly early on, where we’ve only drawn when we really should have won. And that’s largely been down to us not scoring enough goals. The fact he hadn’t yet turned around our impotent attack is why some fans still held serious doubts about him.

Tonight might be the night those doubts start to disappear. We finally put together a properly good performance going forward, scoring way more goals than we have done most of the season, with enough chances created to score even more as well. Fair play to Rooney, you have to give him massive credit for getting that level of performance out of some pretty average players. It certainly looks promising for him at the moment. But it’s only one game, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. It’s still very early in Rooney’s managerial career, and he still has a lot to prove. I hardly think clubs would be “queuing up” to take on someone so inexperienced, other than maybe for the extra sponsorship it brings. But in terms of a chance at our job permanently, he’s probably earned it.

[Gritstone Ram]

A Man U fan said to me he will put the work in to get the results. That’s all you can ask for really.

[Mckram]

Let’s not forget we also brought in Shane Nicholson on fitness and got rid of Steve Haines. The lads are running through brick walls for 90 minutes now and that wasn’t the case before. 

[Van der MoodHoover]

He's making a promising start for sure. 

 

I still personally find it a bit weird that he's apparently stepped seamlessly from being a part of "the problem"  to being "the solution", but maybe that's just me. 

[ck-]

3 minutes ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

He's making a promising start for sure. 

 

I still personally find it a bit weird that he's apparently stepped seamlessly from being a part of "the problem"  to being "the solution", but maybe that's just me. 

It’s perhaps also a hint to his ruthlessness that he recognised his emerging limitations, and dealt with it head on. 

[ck-]

12 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Think we need to be a little careful and make sure we don’t go too over the top after one performance. Sometimes that over excitement can come back to haunt you if things go wrong in the coming weeks.

Yes absolutely. I wouldn’t want us to give him a 4 year contract just yet. It quite clearly could still be the “new manager bounce”. 
But from his very first game there was a difference: a willingness to pass the ball forward, and players showing for the ball. And as the players have learned to pay in a more attacking fashion again, so we have increasingly looked like scoring. 
Early days, and certainly no over-confidence but I’m moving from a position of serious doubt to a position of “Maybe, just maybe, we’ve stumbled on something here....”

[Millenniumram]

Just now, ck- said:

Yes absolutely. I wouldn’t want us to give him a 4 year contract just yet. It quite clearly could still be the “new manager bounce”. 
But from his very first game there was a difference: a willingness to pass the ball forward, and players showing for the ball. And as the players have learned to pay in a more attacking fashion again, so we have increasingly looked like scoring. 
Early days, and certainly no over-confidence but I’m moving from a position of serious doubt to a position of “Maybe, just maybe, we’ve stumbled on something here....”

Yeah, I’ve got similar feelings here. Think the pivotal turning point was the switch to 4-3-3 against Swansea. We’ve looked much more dangerous since that point.

[Premier ram]

20 hours ago, Mckram said:

Let’s not forget we also brought in Shane Nicholson on fitness and got rid of Steve Haines. The lads are running through brick walls for 90 minutes now and that wasn’t the case before. 

To be fair mate if Shinner told me to run through a brick wall i wouldnt argue with him

[Ellafella]

22 hours ago, Millenniumram said:

Think we need to be a little careful and make sure we don’t go too over the top after one performance. Sometimes that over excitement can come back to haunt you if things go wrong in the coming weeks.

Rooney has done some good stuff during his caretaker spell in charge so far. He’s undoubtedly made us more organised and harder to beat, which is clearly evidenced in the increased number of clean sheets we’re keeping, and the reduced number of defeats we are suffering. That has given us a stronger base to build on, but the question has still remained as to whether he could fix our biggest problem - scoring goals. There’s been a fair few games under Rooney, particularly early on, where we’ve only drawn when we really should have won. And that’s largely been down to us not scoring enough goals. The fact he hadn’t yet turned around our impotent attack is why some fans still held serious doubts about him.

Tonight might be the night those doubts start to disappear. We finally put together a properly good performance going forward, scoring way more goals than we have done most of the season, with enough chances created to score even more as well. Fair play to Rooney, you have to give him massive credit for getting that level of performance out of some pretty average players. It certainly looks promising for him at the moment. But it’s only one game, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. It’s still very early in Rooney’s managerial career, and he still has a lot to prove. I hardly think clubs would be “queuing up” to take on someone so inexperienced, other than maybe for the extra sponsorship it brings. But in terms of a chance at our job permanently, he’s probably earned it.

It’s not one performance though. It’s now several. There have been lots of factors building over the last several weeks. I could list the factors out and I suspect it would run to a dozen or so but I’ll keep that back for now. It is still early days, that’s accepted, but the progress in that time has been considerable. The baseline was low granted but I’m now enjoying the games...even the defeat to Preston was not a downer. 

[66DegreesNorth]

I don´t think it wise to throw all of the plaudits Rooney´s way. Mac appears to be putting forth his ways and know hows also.

Still very happy with the upturn though, really encouraging. COYR!!

[Millenniumram]

6 minutes ago, Ellafella said:

It’s not one performance though. It’s now several. There have been lots of factors building over the last several weeks. I could list the factors out and I suspect it would run to a dozen or so but I’ll keep that back for now. It is still early days, that’s accepted, but the progress in that time has been considerable. The baseline was low granted but I’m now enjoying the games...even the defeat to Preston was not a downer. 

It’s only one, maybe two games though where we’ve shown that level of attacking threat. Our lack of goals has been the biggest problem all season, and is obviously the most important issue for a new manager to fix. Rooney has shown over a longer spell that he’s got us more organised, which is good, but he now needs to show he can get us scoring more goals over a prolonged period of time. Yesterday and Swansea were good starts in that respect, but there’s still work to be done. The January transfer window will be very important as well, which he will no doubt now get.

[uttoxram75]

6 minutes ago, Ellafella said:

It’s not one performance though. It’s now several. There have been lots of factors building over the last several weeks. I could list the factors out and I suspect it would run to a dozen or so but I’ll keep that back for now. It is still early days, that’s accepted, but the progress in that time has been considerable. The baseline was low granted but I’m now enjoying the games...even the defeat to Preston was not a downer. 

I agree.

We outclassed Stoke and Swansea by considerable margins, I'm absolutely positive we would have taken 3 points v Preston with 11 men.

The way we are playing is fairly simple in a lot of ways so is easily repeatable every game.  No one will want to play us at the moment

[RadioactiveWaste]

On 29/12/2020 at 19:54, RoyMac5 said:

Is he already showing signs of being a very good manager? - He is looking and sounding the part, which has taken me by surprise given how wooden and aukward he often seemed in interviews as a player. In terms of sorting out the team, he's done what everyone would've wanted in terms of getting them playing as a team, organised defensivly and getting the attack to have more purpose - and he's done all that as well as we would've expected from any incoming manager. Signs are good and I'd say he's done enough to prove he's got it in him to be a manager whatever happens from this point.

To make such a big difference in so short a time. - I would probably suggest having been at the club a while he had a good idea what would work that wasn't working before, so he had that over walking in to a new club - but the way it's being achieved is very impressive.

If we do not sign him up then there will be other teams queuing up to sign him. I can't see us not giving him until the end of the season, be interesting to see what happens after. If we don't carry on with him I think he'll find another head coach/manager role.

Basically, I agree with @RoyMac5

[europia]

22 hours ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

He's making a promising start for sure. 

 

I still personally find it a bit weird that he's apparently stepped seamlessly from being a part of "the problem"  to being "the solution", but maybe that's just me. 

No it's not you. This is DCFC after all.....

[Jimbo Ram]

5 4 3 2 1.........merge with is Rooney the man to take us forward.....

[Ellafella]

3 hours ago, Millenniumram said:

It’s only one, maybe two games though where we’ve shown that level of attacking threat. Our lack of goals has been the biggest problem all season, and is obviously the most important issue for a new manager to fix. Rooney has shown over a longer spell that he’s got us more organised, which is good, but he now needs to show he can get us scoring more goals over a prolonged period of time. Yesterday and Swansea were good starts in that respect, but there’s still work to be done. The January transfer window will be very important as well, which he will no doubt now get.

...what would that be? 

[Millenniumram]

31 minutes ago, Ellafella said:

...what would that be? 

Get us scoring goals consistently for a start. It’s no good sticking 4 past Birmingham if you then go on to fire blanks against Sheffield Wednesday. If we’re going to get out of this mess, we’ve got to be a consistent attacking threat. That’s Rooney’s next test, and arguably his biggest challenge imo. This is not a job for the feint hearted, but Wayne has made a decent start. He knows there’s still a lot to be done though, I’m sure.