Wayne Rooney has changed. Many moons ago you’d not be surprised to see him in the 88th minute making a defensive block in his own penalty area only 30 seconds later to see him slot away his second of the match as he latches on to a Christiano Ronaldo-driven counter attack. But that United is gone and so too the Rooney of old. In Sir Alex Ferguson’s last season Rooney was consigned mainly to midfield (and the bench), a clear statement that he wasn’t seen as the future sole striker at the club, yet under new management and with the shipping out of Robin van Persie and Radamel Falcao, here he is, more nailed on than ever. It was this cast-iron certainty of playing up top which had so many of us clambering to put him in our team sheets only to be left resoundingly disappointed.
In his two starts so far he’s looked red faced, short of confidence and largely ineffectual; one touch in Villa’s penalty box isn’t really a stat that gets the mouth watering on a 10.5 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) acquisition – especially as it was a touch to take the ball out to the wings to run down time. It’s not just Rooney though, United as a whole, under Louis van Gaal, have have looked devoid of creativity and counter attacking verve. They seem to be playing more towards a highly defensive game and nicking a 1-0 victory.
So the decision seems obvious: twist, right? Sell Rooney and another, and make way for Sergio Aguero, who looks every inch the perfect striker. Fantasy Football, however, never likes to make decisions that easy – where’s the fun in that? The metaphorical spanner in the works is what can only be described as a plum fixture, so ripe and juicy that you couldn’t have have picked it any better from the Fantasy Football plum tree yourself. That ripe plum comes in the form of a home fixture against Newcastle, whilst Manchester City travel to the tough Goodison Park where they have scored just four goals in their last four fixtures. Newcastle have looked beyond ropey at the back and if there was ever a time that a snap decision to ditch Rooney could come back and bite you on your bottom, this would be it.
It’s the age old dilemma; if you switch Rooney out now you have several days to convince yourself of his impending hat-trick as United silence their doubters. Of course you could just stick safe in the knowledge deep down that your show of faith will be repaid with a further blank and a bout of depression to kick off your Saturday lunchtime.
What am I doing? I’d love to stick for one more Gameweek and if it wasn’t for price changes, I definitely would. However, I am programmed to get extremely twitchy if the price of a player I want or am getting rid of is about to change. The fact Rooney looks ripe to drop in price, and Aguero could potentially rise double, led me to twist, 0.3 is a lot of money to lose out on for one fixture. I am now convinced more than ever of Rooney’s brace in 120 hours’ time. It’s a sad indictment of what the game can do to you that come 12:45 pm on Saturday I will be praying for the main striker of the club I love to not score, but that’s what FPL does to you (it’s not just me, right?!). It’s a sick and twisted game but we wouldn’t change it for all the tea in china.
8 years, 8 months agoSave wooney