UEFA Europa League 2016-17: Manchester United 4-0 Feyenoord - 5 Talking Points
In what turned out to be an out and out thrashing of sorts, Manchester United beat Feyenoord 4-0 on the fifth match day of the UEFA Europa League. It was a do or die match for the Red Devils, as anything other than a win would have made it very hard for them to make it to the knockout stages of Europe’s second tier club competition.
However, Jose Mourinho and his men turned on the heat on the team from Netherlands in style, as goals from Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard and an own goal sealed a convincing win for them at Old Trafford.
Despite dominating in their matches against Stoke, Burnley and Arsenal, United were unable to gain all three points due to a combination of bad luck and lack of decisiveness upfront. This win will however, give them a huge boost as they take on a grilling set of games in the forthcoming weeks.
Here are the 5 takeaways from the game:
#1 Wayne Rooney has still got it in him
Rooney is a player who has always divided fans’ opinions about him. On one hand, he is one of the finest players United ever had, on the other one he is a now-lethargic, worn out footballer who is past his best days. Very recently, he was ridiculed and heavily criticised after drunk pictures of him emerged, while he was on England duty.
However, the former Everton man answered all his critics by playing a sublime game yesterday and edging closer to Sir Bobby Charlton’s record goal haul for United. He started off in the number 10 position but frequently interchanged his position with Zlatan and Mkhitaryan, which made life extremely difficult for the Feyenoord defence.
He started off the movement for the first goal by exchanging some smart passes with Ibrahimovic, and then finished the move by dinking it over the top of Brad Jones. It was his first goal at Old Trafford since May and his 39th in Europe, which coincidentally made him United’s highest goalscorer in all European competitions.
He was subbed off in the 75th minute, but he had managed to kill the match off by then by providing a sweet assist to Juan Mata for the second goal as well. Overall, it was a superb comeback for the captain, and we hope to see similar performances from him in the future.