Cavani, Hit or Big Hit?

[Bondi77]

Curious about what you expected from him?

I did not expect an Ibra impact but given the player has an excellent record for the big clubs that he has played for I was expecting a better goal return at this stage of the season but he may improve for the remainder.
This is only a progress report so as one poster has stated the deciding factor will be how he finishes the season.

 

[sugar_kane]

He’s scored 7 goals in 1264 minutes of play, or a goal every 180 minutes

That’s pretty damn good for a 34 year old striker in a new country.

Add that to what the players and Ole say he’s brought to the squad and he’s clearly been a good signing.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

He’s scored 7 goals in 1264 minutes of play, or a goal every 180 minutes

That’s pretty damn good for a 34 year old striker in a new country.

Add that to what the players and Ole say he’s brought to the squad and he’s clearly been a good signing.

They’ve generally been important goals too. He’s not only been an obvious hit. He’s also far exceeded most reasonable expectations.

 

[Spaghetti]

He’s been decent, similar level to when Larsson came for a few months.

That’s a crazy comparison. Larsson played a handful of games, barely touched the ball and scored (I think) one goal. He was an extreme miss (except in the eyes of some looking for romanticism) and I always loved Larsson.

Cavani has had a full season, scored some crucial goals and worked his nuts off. He’s not exactly Messi, of course, but he’s done well.

 

[Spaghetti]

Bigger hit than Martial's ever been.

Except maybe when Martial won POTY last season. But let’s forget things like that and you continue with your agenda

 

[sugar_kane]

It should also be noted that he wasn’t bought to be a starter (I believe at least...) but rather mentor and challenge our front three

Frustratingly Martial has been shocking and we’ve had to throw Cavani into the starting line up more often than planned, instead of using him to devastating impact from the bench.

 

[MartinRed]

He's not some absolute hit, but it's good to have him.I would keep him next season too if it's up to me.

 

[Hawks2008]

Serviceable but we need better than him and Martial going forward if we are to compete for the major honours.

 

[dal]

Martial Problem

Haaland Solution

Cavani Fine

 

[Raredaredevil]

He has been decent but let's not hype him up too much. Remember Ighalo was doing well before the pandemic and after the season restarts, he was such an irrelevance. I think Cavani would prove to be a bigger hit than miss anyway as I wasn't keeping my hopes up with our history of South American flops.

 

[charlenefan]

100% hit

Got to remember he only joined in October, hadn't played football for months, then got injured, then got banned. All that being said he's still managed to be top for us

 

[Tom Cato]

Bigger hit than Martial's ever been.

Martial was our top scorer last season so this comment is wrong and you know it's wrong. Why bother telling a lie?

 

[UmbroDays]

Not a hit or miss.

Started well but some games he’s been completely missing and more recently too.

For me he drops too deep when he doesn’t have the ball considering his age and position.

 

[JohnnyKills]

Why has this degenerated into another round of Martial-bashing? I know it's fashionable at the moment but give it a rest FFS.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Best example how fee IS important in judging players. If he was played 50,60mil then he would be a miss. But for free player he was excellent transfer. Our best buy this year.

 

[JohnnyKills]

Martial was our top scorer last season so this comment is wrong and you know it's wrong. Why bother telling a lie?

Because slagging Martial is the latest Top Red hobby horse. Ignore it mate

 

[youngrell]

One thing he has done for certain is point out the type of profile we should be looking for going forward, when he come to sign a long term CF. Unless he can stick around long enough for Greenwood to become that guy.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Because slagging Martial is the latest Top Red hobby horse. Ignore it mate

What’s top red about that?

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

Bigger hit than Martial's ever been.

I mean that’s simply not true

 

[Remember the geese]

He's obviously a hit. I don't believe he is good enough to be our main starting striker, but that's on Martial, not him. For the role that we signed him for, he is perfect.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

Hit. A glaring indictment that someone meant to be our backup striker has usurped Martial easily. More than met our expectations, but a team meant to be challenging for top trophies should only be relying on him as a backup. Love his attitude though, and invaluable role model for our young forwards

But that’s really down to the drop in form of Martial rather than brilliant performances from Cavani. I mean he deserves credit for plugging the hole, but no one expected Martial’s from to dive so dramatically. The fact remains, Martials performances last season eclipse anything Cavani has done in a Utd shirt, by a big distance.

 

[united_99]

He was never bought as a starter. If the club really thought they would be getting someone who has never played in the Premier League before, who is 33/34 and had a lot of injuries in the last two years to play most of the games, then our last summer’s transfer business was even worse than it already was anyway.
But some people just have deluded expectations, you could see those fitness experts moaning here every time he didn’t start a game.
He has already scored important goals, he works very hard and has a great attitude. We couldn’t have asked for more, really.

 

[pacifictheme]

Cavani has been a great buy. Mad topic.

 

[Brightonian]

Are you mad? He completely transforms our football when he's on the pitch. His decision-making is impeccable, his experience is so noticeable, and his work-rate is always the best on the pitch despite the fact that he's 34.

He's proven that we need a proper centre-forward who knows what to do off the ball as well as on it.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

To answer the question though, he’s been a hit so far, but not resoundingly so. I think the narrative around him that he’s brilliant has been over the top and as can be seen in this thread, most of it is just an excuse to hate on Martial who lets be honest has never had the full support of the fans.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

Are you mad? He completely transforms our football when he's on the pitch. His decision-making is impeccable, his experience is so noticeable, and his work-rate is always the best on the pitch despite the fact that he's 34.

He's proven that we need a proper centre-forward who knows what to do off the ball as well as on it.

That’s quite clearly an exaggeration. We have played our best football under Ole last season when Cavani wasn’t even here.

 

[Lay]

Miss.

Because I want to be different

 

[Withnail]

I don't understand how anyone can think he's a miss.

He came on on a free, has played well and scored important goals. He's got 6 goals and 2 assists in the 849 mins of PL football he's played.

You could argue he should be getting more minutes maybe but I'm not sure how we could have expected a higher return from the time he has been on the pitch. Let's not forget that a lot of people thought he was over the hill and injury-ravaged when he came in.

 

[ghaliboy]

He's not a miss but I feel like he's slightly short of the "hit" category.

 

[harms]

That’s a crazy comparison. Larsson played a handful of games, barely touched the ball and scored (I think) one goal. He was an extreme miss (except in the eyes of some looking for romanticism) and I always loved Larsson.

He’s been fantastic for us, his professionalism, his attitude, everything he’s done has been excellent. We would love him to stay but, obviously, he has made his promise to his family and Helsingborg and I think we should respect that – but I would have done anything to keep him.
...
In his last game in our colours at Middlesbrough, we were winning 2-1 and Henrik went back to play in midfield and ran his balls off. On his return to the dressing room, all the players stood up and applauded him, and the staff joined in. It takes some player to make that kind of impact in two months.

I wonder who is closer to the truth between you two.

 

[harms]

Cavani has been decent, albeit slightly overrated on here. His attitude & workrate is brilliant, but his age shows a little in that he’s not as prolific as he was at his peak and he’s unlikely to ever reach anything close to that level.

Martial’s decline certainly played a part in Cavani’s popularity. Him coming on a free is a nice bonus as well, although he is (if you believe the reports) on astronomical wages, which balances this out a little.

 

[Spaghetti]

I wonder who is closer to the truth between you two.

I don’t see anything that Fergie said that’s different to barely touching the ball or only scoring one (league) goal.

There was never any doubting his attitude and the fact that he was popular in the dressing room is unsurprising. I would also have been willing to see him stay and give him time to turn from a miss to a hit, but he didn’t.

 

[hubbuh]

That’s a crazy comparison. Larsson played a handful of games, barely touched the ball and scored (I think) one goal. He was an extreme miss (except in the eyes of some looking for romanticism) and I always loved Larsson.

Cavani has had a full season, scored some crucial goals and worked his nuts off. He’s not exactly Messi, of course, but he’s done well.

That is such rubbish. Everyone at the time thought he elevated the team despite only being at United for a few months. It was short but really sweet. There's been a weird revisionism of Larsson's time at United in recent years and I've never been sure why.

 

[Caesar2290]

Hit

He is a modern version of Larsson. An experienced player signed to offer cover for the short time and share some experience with our youngsters.

The fact that he is already expected to lead the line shows that he surpassed the expectations listed above.

 

[Spaghetti]

That is such rubbish. Everyone at the time thought he elevated the team despite only being at United for a few months. It was short but really sweet. There's been a weird revisionism of Larsson's time at United in recent years and I've never been sure why.

That’s not true at all. The only revisionism that there has been regarding Larsson is that he was some kind of second-coming. He barely did anything on the pitch. We were excited by his signing but that was about it.

 

[Jeppers7]

They’ve generally been important goals too. He’s not only been an obvious hit. He’s also far exceeded most reasonable expectations.

It’s hard to find any goals we’ve scored this season that aren’t important since we so rarely win games with ease. He did score the fourth goal in a 9-0 win and his goal at Everton was about the last kick of the game. But sealed the win.

Not sure how he has exceeded expectations? He’s scored in six games out of 20 he’s appeared in. I think it’s a case that our other forwards have underwhelmed this season and to be fair to Cavani it’s been such an issue that you’ve got to question coaching and tactics.

I think some are suggesting he’s exceeded expectations because he is starting games, for me that’s more about how bad our other forwards have been, he hasn’t ousted a brilliant Martial ala last season, or Greenwood ala last season.

If you look at his form since he started playing a bigger role in the team, (Wolves at home is the clear start of this run)....he’s scored 3 goals in 762 minutes. That’s a goal every 254 minutes. One of those goals being the fourth in a 9-0 win, didn’t really make any difference. In that time he’s started 8 games out of 11 and hasn’t had less than 25 minutes in any of those 11 games. It’s not great at all, especially for an out and out CF and for someone who changes the role of our other forwards into wingers.

out of those 11 games since Wolves our record is W6 D4 L1. It’s not bad but it isn’t great.

He’s been ok. Nothing more. He isn’t the problem though, the fact our other forwards are having such poor seasons is the issue. He shouldn’t be starting so many games. He doesn’t have enough of an influence in games he starts. Or hasn’t to date.

In addition he’s missed some absolute sitters and had some crazy fresh air shots.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

free when we have zero depth up front, a great deal

 

[red woppit]

Some really good comments on this thread, and also some not very good.
My take is this, he was brought in to cover for any of the front three if they were injured or rested, but I think he has surprised many who thought we were bringing in another Falcao. His work rate, attitude and passion for scoring goals is tremendous, he has got himself really fit, and keeps going for the full 90+ minutes.
He makes a lot of intelligent runs in and around the penalty area, but many of our players don't seem to pick up on these, apart from Bruno, if we had managed to get the ball to him in these positions, I think he may well have double figures in goals by now.
I think he is a hit.

 

[SalfordRed18]

How can anyone put him in a miss category?

he’s done what’s asked of him and scored us some vital goals in close games Despite being a bit part player.

He's looking for attention.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

He’s a hit but as a football player he’s not that good.