Hello once again. I’m grateful for your patience with me as I’ve been quite busy flying around for Easter and posting my iReports for CNN’s coverage of the Champions League. If you haven’t taken a look at them, you should. Why? Because you know me, and no one else you know is posting things on CNN.
There, I’ve had my nea nea moment.
We all know injuries are the great fear of any club’s supporter, which leads to the Panel’s next question.
Question: Which recent star’s injury will impact his club’s chances this year the most? Why?
yikes
JMo: I have to go with the ole bulldog here. Wayne Rooney has been playing the best football of his life. He’s scoring at will, and is in a system where he is the lynchpin for all offensive activity. In other clubs like Barcelona, Arsenal, Bayern, key players are missing, but those teams are flexible in attack. A characteristic that Sir Alex Ferguson, at least at the moment, simply doesn’t possess.
Diaz:
BLo: Wayne Rooney. His injury could easily cost United both the EPL and Champions League.
Chad Brown: I should preface this by saying the English league is the only league I regularly watch/follow, but for me it’s Wayne Rooney hands down. Rooney has taken a United side that was supposed to be in “rebuilding” mode (as much as Manchester United can be in rebuilding mode anyway), and singlehandedly put them right in the thick of the title chase in both the league and Europe. Without him against Chelsea, United had no end product, and for all their pressure and possession in the Chelsea half, created very little. No coincidence.
JJ: Fabregas. Top Scorer, midfield maestro, and captain for the Gunners. Nasri can’t cut it in the CAM role. Silverware hopes not gone, but severely damaged.
Willie: Rooney. He is good.
Jeff Hill: Rooney – U****d are pretty much without a reliable goal scorer at center forward, which puts the onus on players like Scholes, Giggs, and other players to chip in goals. If he’s really back in the next week or so, it won’t make much of a difference, but i could see them dropping a few points between now and the end of April without him.
Hoss: Rooney. United not a title contender without him.
Steph:
Cameron: I think Fabergas for Arsenal. United still has some decent attacking options, but with all of their main strikers injured, Arsenal needed Fabergas to generate some offensive creativity.
Billard: ayne Rooney. In the premier league alone Rooney has 1/3 of his teams goals, 26 of 77. Without Rooney man-u are barely contenders, their second leading goal scorer is Berbatov with 12, who has proven he is not capable of being a featured striker, and their third leading goal scorer is the other team. Man-u has been gifted 11 own goals this season. Neither of these other options are reliable.
M2:
Scott:
