Robin and Rooney

         Robin and Rooney

         The best problem for Sir Alex

      It's been a interesting past few months with Manchester United coming up short for the Premier League title last season, then getting some great improvements for the team with new players Shinji Kagawa and Robin Van Perise stepping up to the plate and dominating.

        Sir Alex Ferguson had to make a very important decision on the first match day against Everton away, and he decided to trust his main stay striker, Wayne Rooney. It turned out to be the wrong decision, as the game was played out to a 0-1 loss for United, with Rooney staying in the entire length of the game and Robin bringing brought on as a sub late game. 

The only good thing received from that game, was Shinji Kagawa who played a beautiful game, dictating the midfield completely, but to no avail. Next match was our home opener against Fulham. Fergie decided against using Rooney, keeping him on the bench and bringing on RVP to start. It turned out to be the right decision as Kagawa and Robin worked so well together they both netted a goal each, with the game eventually finishing 3-2 for United but gave Wayne Rooney a injury that would leave him out of the game up to four weeks. 

Today, marked the third Premier League match of the season for United and it wound up being too close to call. South Hampton grabbed a early goal by a Rickie Lambert header, but it would be only a few minutes later that Robin slots home a goal, to tie the match up at 1-1.

The game kept that score line up till half time and a few minutes into the second half, till another cross from South Hampton got them a beautiful header, making the game 2-1 in the favor. Robin would eventually get taken down in the 69' minute, but tried to be too clever on the penalty take and the GK was able to stop the shot.

The game continued, with minutes flying down the timer as the boss of South Hampton seemingly was about to pull off a great upset, one that his team really could have benefited from. With the introductions of some new players, United's attack started to pick up in the 80th minute, the red wall of South Hampton standing strong against United but corner after corner it was bound to happen. 

Nani lined up for the corner, crossing the ball into the middle of the pack and Rio Ferdinand managed to get his head on it, clearing the crowd as the ball headed for the goal only to smash against the far left post, but it bounced right to a waiting Robin who smashed the ball home, giving Fergie and United fans a chance to breath, with the game tied up at 2-2. 

It wasn't enough though, United seemed hell bent on getting the winning goal, and their diligence paid off when again, Robin Van Perise scored the match winner, giving the game to United 3-2. It looked completely certain it was South Hampton's game, and it left many fans questioning what happens as yet again, a team from Manchester crawled back against them to win. 

After today's game, it leaves many United fans not even questioning who should be starting, with RVP already 4 goals in his new season as a United player, and this leaves the question, What about Wayne Rooney?

When the deal was made, 24 million pounds for RVP from Arsenal, many people speculated that Sir Alex would fall back to some sort of a 4-4-2 system, with Rooney and Robin together out front. After the Everton game, the formation seemed to have strayed away from that and to a 4-2-3-1 system, which has worked very well with Nani, Kagawa, Valencia dominating right behind RVP. 

So, what happens to Rooney, who is still sitting out with an injury? It's in my opinion that both the injury and RVP in such great form, will only push Rooney back into the goal scoring machine that he once was when he first started playing for United.

Rooney's form has always been in question, even more so lately, as the striker only managed to tie with RVP last year for the Premier League Golden Boot. His position started with him out front but he has slowly crept back into the midfield, playing a sort of CF position, wanting to always feed the balls and sometimes take that shot.

Now with RVP, either Rooney can fight for the striker position and that can only benefit United if he can actually produce a good fight for it, or we'll see him drop back and play behind RVP with Kagawa, Nani, and Valencia. It could mean he may even get less playing time if that was the case, with Young and Cleverly both showing some sort of form to give them a chance to play.

Rooney has to step up his game and give Ferguson the only best kind of headache a manager could ask for, which one of our great strikers gets the start? Javier Hernandez is always biting at the chomp to get playing time, as well as Dany Welbeck.

Before the end of the transfer window, there was some rumors rushing around England about a transfer involving Wayne Rooney and his depture from the club. At this point, it would be silly. RVP has only a few more good years before he becomes the way of Berbatov, who left the club this transfer season for Fulham ( :( ), while Rooney has many years left in his life to continue building on this impeccable skills he has shown in the past. 

No one can complain about RVP, scoring his first United hat trick already in his second game starting, making this problem of two great strikers a happy problem that any fan would be glad to take on. Rooney still has time, and I am sure he won't get a start right away but he'll be coming back soon with some passion in his game that he's been lacking, if he wants to prove to the team and to Sir Alex Ferguson he is worth it. 

Who will win in the end? Only time will tell, but for now let's hope they both continue scoring!