Generic media/team DC United coverage thread (this stuff doesn't deserve it's own thread)

Every forward is expected to score. I don't think in our lineup Rooney is expected to bear the brunt of our scoring duties. I know you said that it's not about actual results, but they're relevant. I think everyone considers his time to be a huge success, but he's far far from bearing the brunt of the scoring duties. I think he's scored 3 out of 16 goals during his time here. They've been important goals to be sure, but he's doing a lot of other important things very well.

His place in the formation when the team lines up for kickoffs is different for him. The expectations and how he's played so far *seem* very similar to his time at ManU (but not his recent stint at Everton).
This literally says he played as a false 9 in the first game and I agree with it. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...s-new-tactical-flexibility-dynamism-dc-united
Perhaps I'm relying too much on that as I watched him intently that game since I was at the stadium and I could focus on him. In other games, as far as I could tell, he played very differently than a traditional #9.

The great thing about this DC United attack right now is that if you collapse your defense on Wayne Rooney, Acosta, Asad, Arriola, and Stieber can make you pay. Heck even Mattocks can, although I think they won't play that many minutes on the field together for better or worse. I think he's being asked to be the leader and captain and facilitate an attack from the lone forward position, which includes scoring as one of it's duties.

As someone else said... if were constructing a roster from scratch, we'd trade one of our attacking/wing mids for an actual #9 (not Mattocks) and play Rooney as the 2nd forward and possibly get even better soccer out of him. On paper, that's a better use of his skill set at this point, but it's hard to argue with the actual success the attack has had with Rooney and Acosta directing it.

 

The chances of this turning about well are about 0%.

 

So...you're saying the second assertion in the headline is false and, therefore, misleading.

What is this statement based on?
I didn't follow his career very closely but it flies in the face of what i've seen firsthand and everything I read about the guy.

 

Latest rage among the copycats in media.

 

It's based on watching him play with ManU and England. Similar to you I didn't watch *that* closely all those years. Maybe a ManU fan can weigh in.

What flies in the face of everything you read or saw? It seems like his recent role at Everton was more of a departure from his past than his DCU role is.

 

I'm not a ManU or Everton fan- but I do follow English football alot. His time at Everton recently is not completely indicative of his capabilities. Yes he is older and NOT the same player obviously. But frankly he could still play as an AM for a lower level EPL squad or a Championship team imo. He just needs the DMs behind him to back him up.

When he arrived at Everton he started in a role similar to here at DCU under an attack minded manager (Koeman). He scored 10 goals or so in the first half of the EPL season and was effective for the most part. But Everton as a whole was not performing up to snuff and Koeman was sacked and replaced with the dinosaur manager Sam Allardyce. Fat Sam is an old school, hoofball, defense first manager. His job was to stabilize and keep Everton in the EPL (frankly they were in no danger of relegation imo). Rooney was moved back to a DM or even a box-to-box CM (no8) in an effort to keep him in the lineup. OF COURSE he struggled in those positions and looked poor- those are not positions he is supposed to play in. When Fat Sam did move him back up top, the tactics were hoofball- and Rooney still struggled as either a target man/hold up play type, no runners around him... again thats not who he is. He was then benched. Everyone started to claim he was washed up, past his prime, etc etc. I blame Fat Sam for how bad Rooney looked more than anything.

Everton then changed managers again- back to an attack minded manager, but he wants to use younger players. Putting Rooney further down the depth chart. I'm sure this whole ordeal has pissed Rooney off. Most people forget Rooney grew up there, and went to the Everton Academy as a kid. He started his career at Everton before transferring to ManU for the majority of his career.

I was never a Rooney fan- but frankly I think he got a bit of a raw deal for his 'poor' play 2nd half of the season at Everton. Square peg, round hole more like it.

 

Great pick up. Anything, but NC8 for me. I'm a big fan of going the digital rights route. You can get much higher quality data about the people that watch your games and use/sell that data in a more targeted manner. I also think you can pick a carrier based on your target audience. If they went the Rooney route to get all those people watching the Premier League on NBC, they may just pick ESPN+ because of all that additional European content. If you have a digital producer there's no reason they couldn't also syndicate to a local over the air or cable based provider as well. My guess is you'd rather stick to digital only so you can get a much clearer understanding of the audience.

 

Anything's better than the status quo.

 

You can very easily hook something up to a bar's TV with wires or Chromecast

 

I currently can't get any of the Sinclair stations that carry the games and I still agree with you.

 

Why can't a bar show a game broadcast on ESPN +? LAFC has youtube TV, I'm sure plenty of bars in LA are showing their games.

Times are changing, I welcome DC United going into the digital world.

 

That's just it. From my memory, the nominal role (the role he & coach have described to the media before he ever stepped on the field at AF) is different than the tactical expectations for him before he moved stateside. When he was rumored to be heading here i read debates about where he should play...because he's played numerous positions across the midfield and frontline. Regardless of where he was deployed, or the specific formation, before DCU I had never heard his club being dependent on him as the tip of the attacking spear (and projected to be top scorer for the squad).

During Wayne's career I was a fan of Arsenal who's exposure to Manchester United was limited to watching occasional highlights unless they played us. That whole time I knew he was a versatile threat but don't remember seeing him as the main threat. I thought Sir Alex was expecting more from Van Nistelrooy, Tevez, and others partnered with him.

That's what seems inconsistent with what you're saying.

At international level I've not found England entertaining and rarely singled them out as must watch at Euros or WCs so I can't really comment on anything about his role with the lions.

 

Maybe I have good internet, but I stream everything and have no buffering issues. Especially nothing as bad as you described. I'm guessing bars are going to be looking to adopt because streaming is becoming more prominent. For example, I think most Serie A in the US is only available through streaming on ESPN+.

 

yea for sure. I just mean the logistics of it is easy to do. Performance is another issue.

 

That's what she said too

 

I don't think he's being deployed that way except perhaps on goal kicks or that the team depends on him. He is so often drifting back into the exact same spots he's spent his entire career (again... except perhaps the last few months with Everton one Big Sam got there). I don't think he's being projected or asked to be the top scorer. The fact that he and Ben say he's expected to score goals doesn't (to me) prove they expect him to be the top goal scorer. And again... I know you don't seem to be as interested in what's actually happening and are more interested in what is being asked of him, but I think the results speak pretty well for what he's actually doing. He's an integral part of an attacking from 4 or 5 (depending on the game), but the team isn't dependent on him scoring goals to be effective. In terms of the formation, he starts out farther forward, but he drifts into spaces where lots of center mids or attacking mids or second forwards find themselves. He's playing a lot of passes like do and making lots of runs like those types of players do. He's taking free kicks and corners like (I think) he often has.
The difference is that instead of another forward leading the line he's often playing in a winger or attacking mid and setting them up to shoot or score. I'll give you that his heat map might be a touch closer to goal than he's used to, but I don't think the difference would be much at all. I'd be interested to hear what Ben or Wayne himself say about this now that they've had some games together.

 

Cool, glad to clear that up. I don't know how you can arrive at this conclusion with enough certainty to be upset with the Guardian headline.

No need for further debate imho.

 

I still think it's quite misleading. Their article doesn't even try to back it up.

What JohnL said is relevant:
"They guy who writes the story is never the guy who writes the headline.
The guy who writes the story is ideally the guy who wants to provide information and informed opinions.
The guy who writes the headline is trying to grab your attention with just a few words."

There's no evidence that leads me to believe that either in what anyone has said or in how they are trying to use him. He's just not playing in the mold of most true #9s. It would also be a really dumb way to expect him to play given United's personnel.

 

Even if you turn off cookies they still know you're watching. They still know the IP address. You can VPN, but that actually is still valuable information for them.

Please let me know what's bad about me letting ESPN+ know my basic info? That by combining meta-data with other sights they can find out exactly who I am and where I've been? Problematic, yes, but we're not living in Orwell's 1984 just yet. Either way, maybe I'm missing something. What else is there for me to worry about?

 

I might need a little more detail to be convinced. I don't consider my IP address my privacy just like when they used to publish my address in the printed phone book.

 

I'll just drop it here that every single day Big Soccer serves me ads based on conversations I've had in the past week. Every single day. For example, if I say, "I want to go to Quebec someday," I'll get an ad within the week from the Quebec tourist authority. I got an ad a few days ago that was unrelated to any conversations that I could recollect and I was offended that AdChoices got it so terribly wrong.

Just to be clear, these are verbal communications picked up by my iphone and then served to me by Google AdChoices.