Life Without Rooney - Part I (Manchester United 0 - Boro 0)

I only caught the last 15 mins of the game. My channel list got pretty fucked up. The channels that were supposed to screen the game weren't and only after trying all the unknown channels, I finally got one which screened it, leaving me with 15 mins.

Anyway I'll write down my thoughts for those 15 mins and do another entry after I've watched the rest of the game, when and if I can torrent it over the net.

For whatever short time I caught the game, we missed Rooney.....badly. There was no inventiveness, endeavour, strength or passion in our game. Ronaldo did what he could, and the short impression when Rossi came on provided that little bit of imagination. Surprisingly Silves and Gary Neville did well on the wings. Other than that, it was negative all around.

I heard Ruud missed a penalty earlier in the game. He looked horrible the entire 15 mins and worse during the 4 added ones. He looked like he didn't have confidence and it showed thru his play.

Richardson was absolutely abysmal. I have no idea what he is doing on the pitch. He can't shoot, can't dribble, can't pass and yet he tried to do all three, failing miserably on all.

Giggs was the usual ineffective midfielder, giving the ball away, although he showed plenty of industry trying to win the ball back. He certainly gave JOS plenty of work to do.

If we play like this on Sat against Charlton, we're going to draw another game and probably concede 2nd place to Liverpool. Probably the only good thing out of the Rooney injury is that he's not going to play for England. Hopefully he'd be fully rested and fit for next season.