United captain Wayne Rooney has (kind of) come good recently with a handful of goals (he's the club's top scorer with a massive 6 league goals), including the winner in a drab victory over rivals Liverpool. Though his instinctive finish at Anfield was a good one, his overall performance in that game was poor. In Saturdays victory over Southampton he was virtually invisible, as he has been for much of this season. Partly its due to service, or rather, the lack of it. Uniteds play has been slow, plodding and predictable and so the lone front man whos usually Rooney in Van Gaal's favoured formation often has little in the way of chances. That said, there have been too many occasions this season of the England man being too deep to get on the end of crosses, or too slow to reach through balls, or with the first touch of a brick wall which results in the ball bouncing off his shin into a grateful defenders path. Rooney is far from the only problem in this team, but hes one of the main ones. Its clear that Van Gaal isnt the man to get the teams talisman back to his best. Potentially, no one is. Rooney is surely past his peak, but if hes not going to improve then the manager must be strong and take the tough decision to drop the captain. Maybe a few years ago the arrogant Van Gaal would have been that man to drop an ageing star and give a talented youngster like Martial a change to shine up front, but its clear than the Van Gaal of 2016 is not that man. Its time to make way for someone whos less in thrall to his underperforming captain and will make tough decisions for the greater good of the team.
David is an office drone and freelance writer for WhatCulture and Moviepilot, among others. He's also foolishly writing a serialised novel on Jukepop and has his own irregularly updated website. He's available for freelance work. Reach out on Twitter to @davefox990
