Manchester City striker Wayne Rooney is all set to comeback to improve the fortunes of the team and is expected to fill in the void created by David de Gea. The services of Rooney were greatly missed by Manchester City during their previous game against Norwich City.
It was only then that even Sir Alex Ferguson was heard saying that they have “played beyond themselves”. After the humiliating defeat, Ferguson was left with hardly any choice except to salvage some pride by reposing faith in Rooney. The true motive behind this move is that the team hopes for a sure win against Galatasaray during their Champion League’s next match.
Rooney who was down due to tonsillitis will have to play a crucial role when he reaches Istanbul for Monday’s game. Perhaps, it needs to be seen how many would be bothered about Carrow Road show. The most saddening part of the entire episode is that of the failure of Robin van Persie upon whom United had pinned all its hopes until the last game. Equally vulnerable was Javier Hernandez who could not make any affect in the company of Persie. As far as Ryan Giggs is considered, the less said the better.
Ferguson did everything he could to shrug off the issues, explaining “It was a game in which you have to give Norwich lots of credit for working so hard. It was a really special effort. It just didn’t happen for us, and we didn’t get into the space behind them. Norwich put lots of men behind the ball and closed out all the space, meaning that we couldn’t get our crosses in.
“Ashley Young improved that, but we should have put the ball in earlier. There are times when you have to recognise that the opposition have played beyond themselves.”
What’s more humiliating is the fact that Norwich City managed just two wins for the season. The shocking defeat by Manchester City was not even expected and there is hardly any chance for the team to do a postmortem on Sunday ahead of their next day’s clash. There is no surprise then if one compares this win to that of Bayern Munich’s win 19 years ago.
Interestingly, the winner was scored by Anthony Pilkington who was still an academy player for United until 2004. Later, he clarified that there was no issues of whatsoever for switching loyalties as he preferred to join Blackburn.
“It was good to put those demons away,” the 24 year-old said. “I missed a couple at United, but I redeemed myself.”
Meanwhile, enough praise was heaved upon John Ruddy by Norwich manager Chris Hughton. He said : “What I’ve been most impressed with from John are his concentration levels. Here he made the right decisions about when to come for the ball, and when not to come. He was brave, getting in among bodies, and that’s the mark of a really good goalkeeper.
Irrespective of what one has to say, it now needs to be seen that what difference can Wayne Rooney make for City.
