Wayne Rooney's Struggles the Tip of the Attacking Iceberg for Manchester United

OLD TRAFFORD, Manchester — On Saturday, Manchester United will go top of the Premier League if they win away at Leicester City, yet on Wednesday, boos rang around Old Trafford at the final whistle of a goalless draw against PSV Eindhoven.

These are strange times in English football, a period when everybody seems to sense the league table, which convention has it never lies, isn’t quite as straightforward as it could be.

It’s not easy to cut through the storms raging on social media, not least because almost everybody, for once, has a point. It’s understandable United fans are frustrated at a fifth 0-0 draw of the season and at seeing their side spurn an opportunity to secure their place in the last 16 of the Champions League.

PSV will probably beat CSKA Moscow at home on Matchday 6, and that means United will go out unless they win away to Wolfsburg, who have dropped just two points in seven league games at the Volkswagen Arena this season.

But it’s also understandable that fans of other clubs should look at a team lying second in the Premier League and see the howls of protest—and yes, there is a spectrum of opinion, from the justifiably irritated to the ludicrously outraged—as representing a profound sense of entitlement.

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How it feels watching Man United play... pic.twitter.com/FkrtqNoAPv

— Footy Jokes (@Footy_Jokes) November 25, 2015"

Louis van Gaal himself, for once, seemed partially to acknowledge the problem. His demeanour on the bench during the second half suggested exasperation, and while his words in the post-match press conference seemed bullish enough, they were not delivered with the usual fire.

“The result is disappointing because I have still the feeling we could have finished this game several times—in the first half more than the second,” he said, before pointing to the chance Jesse Lingard fired over the bar with 16 minutes remaining. “In the first half I can say it was average. But in the second half, in spite of my changes, it did not improve.”

United actually began well, and there were signs of a confidence about their movement. It was the first time the three of Memphis Depay, Anthony Martial and Lingard had started together with Wayne Rooney as a No. 10, looking to knit them together. That is, a 30-year-old, and three players whose total age comes to just 62.

Their inexperience, perhaps, is something worth remembering about this forward line. It is still developing, and while it was disappointing how they seemed to lose faith in themselves as the game wore on, becoming increasingly impatient, it’s also understandable.

Perhaps Martial would have hit those two chances straight at Jeroen Zoet at any age, but perhaps with four or five more years' experience, he’d have been slightly more composed and placed his shot beyond the 'keeper.

Jon Super/Associated Press

That, though, still leaves two issues. First, how have United, having spent roughly £130 million net on players over the past two seasons, ended up with such an inexperienced forward line? And second, Rooney.

Others might not put it quite as bluntly as Roy Keane, but it’s hard to deny the basic truth of the former midfielder’s verdict to ITV (h/t Sky Sports) that, “Mentally he doesn't look really sharp; physically he doesn't look in great shape. He needs to have a look at himself."

Others, equally, may not blame his off-field activities and the recent stunt in which he slapped a wrestler, but something isn’t right.

Rooney’s own attitude to his form has been cranky. When he did play well in the 3-0 win at Everton in October, scoring the third goal, he was snappish, attacking his critics for pointing out it was only his second goal in 13 league matches. He hasn’t scored in the league since, and once again on Wednesday, he looked the sluggish heart of a sluggish side.

Stats from WhoScored.com show that although he had a higher pass-completion percentage than any other starting Manchester United player, he didn’t play a key pass in the whole game. He only had one shot, which was off target, and only one of his three crosses found its intended target.

In a sense, he was doing what Van Gaal demands of his creators, retaining possession, but he offered nothing in the way of penetration.

It was impossible not to wonder whether Juan Mata might not have been the better option, but he was given only six minutes at the end of the game. Van Gaal was typically defensive when asked why Mata hadn’t at least been introduced sooner.

“That is always the question after a disappointing result,” he said. “You are coming with this kind of questions but I have thought with this lineup we had the best chance to win, and you shall not know if it was with Mata in the beginning happening. You never know, but you as a journalist are thinking yes that is like that, but you cannot know.”

Jon Super/Associated Press

You can’t know, that’s true, but you can wonder whether Rooney would be shown such indulgence if he weren’t captain.

It’s not as though this domination without end product is anything new. It was apparent last season and in the two 1-0 wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa and the 0-0 draw against Newcastle United with which United began this season.

And it’s not getting better. In their last seven games, United have only scored five goals, one of them a penalty and one an own goal. The other side of the equation is in that time they've conceded only once—a penalty.

“In the second half, we gave only one chance away so then you know at the end it is 0-0,” Van Gaal said, and that again is true. United at least have the safety net that they concede so rarely that poor performances tend to result in draws while every goal tends to mean a win.

But that doesn’t alter the fact they are not scoring enough for a serious title challenge. Even if they go top on Saturday, it would not be sustainable any more than Leicester being top with the sixth-worst defence in the league is sustainable.

“Of course I am worried,” Van Gaal said. “But I know also that goals are coming and going. It is not a consequence of good or bad performances. Today we could have scored at least three goals. It was not the most difficult chances, but we didn’t score, and the next game you can score out of nothing. That is football.”

That is the nature of football, but United too often do not look like scoring. Van Gaal needs to find a way to change that.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise stated.