Manchester United 2-1 Wolfsburg: Takeaways

Manchester United earned their first Champions League win of the season; as they recovered from going 1-0 down in four minutes to win 2-1 at home in Manchester thanks to goals from Juan Mata and Chris Smalling.

United had lost their Champions League opener, making this game a must win if they were to stand a good chance of making it out of a quite tricky group and avoid slipping up as Arsenal and Chelsea had done.

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There were a number of talking points from the game; here are three:

1) Serious questions over Rooney

That miss, from mere centimetres away from the goal-line, would never have been squandered by the Wayne Rooney of old. But there it was, sailing over the crossbar to the disbelief of everybody in the stadium – and Wayne Rooney himself.

He still has a number of years left in him – but he is not suitable as a proper striker anymore and the impact that Martial has had demonstrates this. Martial is fresh, fast and strong. Rooney is really only the latter.

But Rooney is the club captain and on a very lucrative contract making it difficult to downsize his role in the squad. Much like the NFL, big-name players are hard to shift because so few options are available. Few teams could afford his wages especially as his numbers in front of goal are decreasing despite his international exploits. This makes it harder to justify splashing out on such a player.

Perhaps this game was a one-off. He can still make passes, and he was at least trying to put away his chances. As long as Martial is given the time to settle in; Rooney’s role must be gradually decreased at a pace to suit both him and the club in order for everybody to benefit.

2) Midfield Magic (and rubbish refereeing)

It is always going to be difficult to find the best central midfield pairing. Schneiderlin is pretty much nailed on but it is who to partner him with. Schweinsteiger looked off his game against his old Bundesliga rivals, and Schneiderlin was struggling too. Both ended up with yellows at half-time which did give some cause for concern.

Luckily nobody saw red – which was lucky given the questionable decision making of the referee. The Hungarian official was a big fan of his yellow cards for even the most minor of incidents. Although he was correct in the penalty decision which Mata easily put away.