Alarm bells ring for out of favor Rooney
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, March 7, 2013
When the raw pain of its Champions League exit subsides and Manchester United looks forward to the trophies it can still win this season, one player who may find the gloom harder to shift is out-of-favor Wayne Rooney.
The shock omission from the starting line-up for United's biggest game of the season in the second leg of its last 16 tie against Real Madrid was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Nani's red card and Cristiano Ronaldo's Old Trafford return.
Before the game, manager Alex Ferguson said the England forward was on the bench because he had not had enough match action after injury but afterwards, with Ferguson too upset to talk, assistant Mike Phelan said the move had been tactical.
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Wayne Rooney started Tuesday night's game as a substitute after he was axed by Sir Alex Ferguson. |
"In that dressing room, everyone was fit," Phelan told a news conference after United went out 2-3 on aggregate after a 1-2 defeat on the night. "But big decisions have to be made."
Alarm bells might be ringing for Rooney when he considers the fate of previously key United players who have been dropped for huge games.
Take David Beckham who started on the bench for Real's 2003 trip to Old Trafford before leaving the club that summer or Ruud van Nistelrooy who was benched for the 2006 League Cup final and a series of other games before departing that year.
With striker Robin van Persie enjoying prolific form in his first United season with 19 league goals to his name "maybe the writing is on the wall for Rooney," former United midfielder Roy Keane said in the ITV studio before the game.
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