Manchester United narrowly secured a valuable three points with a 0-1 win away to Aston Villa on Friday night, in what was a scrappy affair with not much quality on show.
The only moment of real quality in the game produced the goal, as Juan Mata slipped a delightful ball into Adnan Januzaj who sold the defender with a clever fake shot before firing home.
Had Januzaj not taken his chance, it's difficult to see where the United goal would have come from, because it certainly wasn't going to come from Wayne Rooney.
Despite being given the central striker role at United, Rooney has been totally anonymous in both of his side's league games, and twitter reacted negatively to his performance at Villa Park.
@ballsdotie also reaching David Bellion levels of giving the ball away!
— Derek McCarthy (@IrishDerekMcC) August 14, 2015
Tonight has been one of Wayne Rooney's worst performances in a United shirt. Truly awful. #mufc
— Transfer news (@TrustyTransfers) August 14, 2015
FT: Aston Villa 0-1 Man United
10 vs 11 and still 3 points.
Cause I don't think Rooney was playing...
— Joey (@JoeyMUFC_) August 14, 2015
Losing Rooney would be a tremendous addition
— -__- (@krn_brk) August 14, 2015
Rooney worst player on the pitch for me. Horrendously bad.
— Liam (@OffsideLiam) August 14, 2015
Rooney’s two opening games this season have been practically invisible. Shame LvG won’t drop him or buy some competition for him.
— Liam (@OffsideLiam) August 14, 2015
Poor performance but we got the three points which is the main thing, defence was strong, Darmian impressing again, Rooney was shocking
— Colm Wilson (@ColmWilson_) August 14, 2015
Coleen is pregnant, ROONEY with the Symptoms ? #MUFC
— Nataly Antar (@Nataly_Antar) August 14, 2015
Let's be frank, Rooney was absolutely turgid. What sort of message does that send out to the rest of the squad when he stays on pitch?
— James Ryddel (@kick_in_grass) August 14, 2015
Mata some delightful balls. Schneiderlin did well too. Don't even want to talk about Rooney anymore.
— Sarika (@RedHerrering) August 14, 2015
There's no way Van Gaal can defend Rooney's play tonight. He puts everyone else on blast. Rooney's turn
— Ramss (@bananarams) August 14, 2015
Wayne Rooney is 51-years-old in Rooney years
— Gavan Casey (@GavanCasey) August 14, 2015
Will Louis Van Gaal be forced to try and buy a striker before the trasnfer window closes? It certainly doesn't look likely, so Rooney had better find his scoring boots, or any boots at all for that matter, and start performing soon if Manchester United want to do anything this season.
