In all honesty, Rooney looked as old at 25 as he does now. He might even look younger now, with more hair. I've been mostly impressed with this dude as a manager and coach. The team doesn't look as garbage as it did a few games ago. It's not a high bar, but he's cleared it. Now, hopefully with guys rounding into shape, he can really start implementing some stuff. I'm actually excited to see the whole team on the field at the same time, which I didn't think I'd ever say about 3 or 4 weeks ago.
with all of the tightly-packed matches he hasn't had a lot of time to do much. Now that there's a full week clear he might be able to get some things done
He will need a month off to recover fully. So make some improvements here and there, and see who fits well together and who doesn’t
Rooney already regretting his decision. DC United could probably beat Man U right now, though, so joke's on him!
Turns out coaching a team with 3 times the player budget, in England, with talented players chomping at the bit to break into the Premier League was an easier place to manage than DC United.
Dude's gonna bail, this team will sink his prospects. Personally, I don't care, they'll suck either way. They're going to have to fall ass backwards into a couple of terrific players and some unknown coach who is the tits. Kasper won't leave and he sucks, so anything good that happens will be an accident.
If he bails soon, he's done as a head coach. He should realize his fortunes as a coach are tied to getting DC United out of the cellar next year. We don't need to get to the very top, but if we can get to top 4 or 5 in 2-3 years, that would be a huge success.
If he left tomorrow he’d have his pick of EFL jobs. Anyone can see our roster is unreachable. Thx, Jay!
A couple of Rooney quotes really struck me. First, the one where he's never seen team fall apart like that and all I could think was that he must have watched Chad's last official game in charge. Second, he through the ref's weren't bad ... was the sarcasm font missing? Third, he thinks he's going to get even more money from Levien to fix this shit show? Losada needs to move on and stop acting like a child and accept his role in f_cking over this team this season.
What we saw last night started a year ago with NYCFC 6-0. That was a QuitShow we had never seen from DC. Then we threw in the towel this spring in stoppage time in consecutive home games against Atlanta and Austin. The Austin game from 80' on was a QuitSandwich--from 2-0 to 2-3. That NYC game seems to be forgotten, but we've lost three games by six goals in less than a year. And even projecting for Benteke, I think our roster a year ago was much better.
Absolutely agree about the "quit" has been here since last year. The 2013 team lacked talent, but never quit during a game. They just were feckless in attack. This squad lacks both talent and heart. It's very sad to watch. You know that once the first goal is scored against them they won't come back and are likely to begin leaking more goals. Time for Rooney to make a public example of a "quitter" either to encourage the others or coax the other quitters to ask to leave. Whatever.
The press conference was impressive in an odd way. Rooney looked like he was having a hard time keeping it together. Glad he owned the decision to start Palson over Pines - seems a clear mistake in retrospect. It sounded like he's concluded that the team needs a complete cultural reset. Not clear how they became so soft. At least during the Benni ball years, the team fought. Also, since Rooney's arrival Taxi's been either injured or playing selfishly. Unclear what his deal is or if he'll last.
I posted a pic of twitter after the 4th goal and all the defenders and midfielders were standing there before kickoff, in their positions, hands on hips, heads down. and I don't know how any of them had the nuts to face Rooney after the game. The coach is a man who at 32 ran down a younger, faster man, in the 96th minute from about 50 yds back, got up, pressed the ball another 30 yds forward, and played a pinpoint 40 yd pass. I don't quite get it, it's not like he's 70 and that play was 35 years ago, it was 4 years ago and it's on Twitter at least once a year. The willingness to just give up and roll over was never in this team's DNA. Chris Howe said 3-4 players would be moved on at the end of the season. It might need to be more like 7-8.
Did Rooney ever explain why he switched back to Romo? Goff seemed satisfied with the mere explanation that it was "planned" before the start of the week, but no one has explained why it was planned. When Goff tweeted the starting line-up, he wrote: "Rooney GK rotation for 3-game, 7-day stretch." What manager rotates goalies for games that are four-days apart? Andre Blake had played the prior Saturday and then again Wednesday. Ochoa needed to be rested for our biggest home rivalry game because ... he played Tuesday, and not even the prior Saturday? Would Rooney bench Jordan Pickford before a home Everton derby against Liverpool just because Pickford had played four days before? Did he ever see Ferguson do that at Man U? I know this crappy roster handicaps Rooney, but that's the kind of decision that makes me worry Rooney will be perpetual tinkerer/overthinker, or that he doesn't understand that even though we're in last place, a home game against Philly isn't an exhibition match for mere experimental purposes. I watched the 2nd half last night (I left Audi at 60:00) and Romo was incredibly lucky his mistakes didn't lead to three or more goals. He was rattled and obviously not up to the task. Wildly out of position and frequently passing balls to Philly players with no pressure.
I don't think it's tinkering per se. Rooney views this season as an extended tryout. Romo is, at his very best, a depth piece. You can't jettison all the depth pieces in the offseason, it's just not possible. So my guess is that he gave Romo the run out to see how he would handle the pressure of facing the same team that had scored 7 on him earlier this year. I think Romo failed the test and he's now in the "discard pile" of depth pieces. We will see Hamid and Ochoa, mostly Ochoa, for the rest of the season. The same thing applies, I believe to the continued run outs of Djeffal and K. Smith. They are depth pieces, and international slots. Rooney needs to see if there is enough in them to pay an international penalty for a depth piece. Maybe K. Smith can become a LB, I think Djeffal is a slightly niftier version of Skundrich.
That's a reasonable answer, but Rooney and the FO had seen plenty of Romo and little of Ochoa, so it seems like any look ahead to next year would have put Ochoa on the starters' sheet.
"... I purposely stayed quiet on the side, I wanted to see which players were gonna take responsibility and show some leadership, and the only one was Chris Durkin. He kept running, he kept trying, he kept trying to pull players into position, he was the only one who kept trying to do the right things and tried to organize the team and players, and kept working. Him other than that, I think he was the only player who really can hold his head high" (quote from minute 4.05 onwards) Q: So, Officer Barbrady, please tell the court why you did not intervene while elderly people were getting beat up in the street? A: Eh, I thought it best to observe which victim would stand up to their attackers. Thank God, that granny proved me right. Never seen someone leave gum marks on skin before that day! She is a champ in my book! Q: Thank you Officer Barbrady, you are excused. A: Um... excuse me, when do I get my medal? Seriously, what kind of Battle Royale bullcrap is Rooney trying to pull here? How does this help build a team?
They're adults. They should know better. They've been playing soccer for a good 15-20 years. If they need a cheerleader on the sideline, then they should go back to 5th-6th grade