How good was Louis Saha?

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Quick, strong, two footed, good technique, on paper he pretty much had everything you'd want from a striker. How good was he in your opinion? And what do you think he could have done for us without all the injury problems?

Personally I think he's one of the more underrated players of our recent history. The fact that Fergie chose to go with him and not replace RVN shows just how highly he thought of him too. Such a shame injuries derailed his career.

 

[SalfordRed18]

Very good.

Would have been elite bar injuries.

 

[gormless]

Excellent movement which gave Rooney and Ronaldo space to exploit.

An integral part of the best football I can remember us playing (the first half of 06/07)

 

[El Zoido]

Very good.

Would have been elite bar injuries.

The story at the time was that it was mostly in his head, was that ever validated? He missed the CL final in 2008 through injury, which I'm sure was devastating to him. I really rated him and think he could have done a job on Chelsea in that final.

 

[Utdstar01]

The story at the time was that it was mostly in his head, was that ever validated? He missed the CL final in 2008 through injury, which I'm sure was devastating to him. I really rated him and think he could have done a job on Chelsea in that final.

Played quite well in a couple of games against them actually. Scored a good goal against them for a 1-1 draw in 06/07 if I remember right.

 

[adexkola]

Played quite well in a couple of games against them actually. Scored a good goal against them for a 1-1 draw in 06/07 if I remember right.

Yep.

 

[Falcow]

Very good player. Absaloutely explosive. Only criticism was he could be a tad erratic at times but would love to have him in the side now.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Very good.

Would have been elite bar injuries.

Aye. He scored one of my favourite United goals:


Not one you see mentioned too often in best United goals conversations (reasonably, given some of the absolute bangers we've had over the years) but that placement is just disgusting

 

[Devil_forever]

Quick, strong, two footed, good technique, on paper he pretty much had everything you'd want from a striker. How good was he in your opinion? And what do you think he could have done for us without all the injury problems?

Personally I think he's one of the more underrated players of our recent history. The fact that Fergie chose to go with him and not replace RVN shows just how highly he thought of him too. Such a shame injuries derailed his career.

I remember him scoring for fun for Fulham in the championship before we signed him but honestly whilst he was probably the best foil for Rooney, he was never anything more than a good striker.

Very good.

Would have been elite bar injuries.

He was absolutely dog shit when through on goal one on one against the keeper. I vividly remember how awful he was at keeping his head in those situations.
Rooney behind Saha was Rooney’s best position.

 

[RooneyLegend]

Never as good as this forum would lead you to believe.

 

[NoPace]

A shade better than Martial is now overall, but a less frustrating and enigmatic player so more liked. Would be a nice fit with Bruno and Rashford.

 

[KW2006]

In Ruud's final two years with us, I think that, when Saha is fit, he is better/more useful than Ruud.

 

[vanderpants]

Brillant striker that offered a lot, just a pity he was always injured. Plus I think the media underrated him too

 

[Web of Bissaka]

My most fav United's pure striker.

Bias I know but my gahd he's that good. Football is fun with him leading the attacking line. I think his teammates are having fun naturally playing football with him especially the midfielders/suppliers because he help them a lot with his movements and abilities.

Can do everything because he have all the tools.

Spoiler

postplay, aerial threat, holding, off the ball movements, quick agile pacy, strong and competitive, good at pressing and hassling defenders, team awareness and laying it off, natural two footedness, dribbling, beating markers to dead, acrobatic, combine well with any partners seemingly, and damn football intelligence.

His finishing at times can be erratic though, but he's capable of making ridiculous tight angle shots and moves with clinical finishing.

Reminds me of Zlatan in that sense but with different style.

 

[Class of 63]

On his day a mobile Mark Hughes, sadly we didn't see those days often enough because of his reluctance to play unless he felt 100% fit.

 

[lex talionis]

For me, Saha was a disappointment. He was good and he could have been great but he was never that great for us. Moments of magic, sure, but a serial underperformer.

 

[TheReligion]

He was ahead of his time and would light up the Premier League today.

 

[Bebestation]

I enjoyed watching him at Fulham like he was one of my favourite players in the world.

Unfortunately when he came here I don't really remember him much.

 

[L1nk]

He was a pretty great striker, nothing much more than that, he had great attributes, however, Ruud was 10x the striker he was, what mattered in the end though was his attributes lended himself to gelling more with Rooney and Ronaldo, which is ultimately why he was given the nod over RVN in the end.

 

[Van Piorsing]

If not the injuries SAF wouldn't need to rely on Berba or Tevez that much.

 

[2cents]

One excellent calendar year (2006), the way that his establishment in the first XI ahead of Ruud coincided with our return to the top, and the ready-made excuse of his injuries, have all made him a bit over-rated in hindsight. Nice player to watch though, explosive and athletic, but maybe a bit mentally weak (which it was hinted may have played into his injury problems).

 

[Bobski]

Very talented, quick, strong, agile, great in the air, held the ball up well while being able to run in behind. Add to that a high level of technical ability and he is a guy who should have been one of the top strikers in Europe over an extended period. Injuries scuppered that, yes he could be a little erratic in his finishing but his all round game was so strong, individual goal tallies are overrated, making the team better and more effective is the key. He did.

 

[Rozay]

Not that good.

 

[Josh 76]

Never as good as this forum would lead you to believe.

A bit harsh.
He was better for bringing the best out of others.
Had some great moments, but wouldn't say he was amazing. Was a good option. Shame about his injuries.

 

[Art Vandelay]

He could have been excellent, he had all the tools, but I seem to remember him having a bit of an issue with his composure when finishing. Also the injuries just ruined his time here. If I could pick one of our failed strikers to sign now it would be Forlan, but Saha would still be an upgrade on what we have if he was fit.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Quick, strong, two footed, good technique, on paper he pretty much had everything you'd want from a striker. How good was he in your opinion? And what do you think he could have done for us without all the injury problems?

Personally I think he's one of the more underrated players of our recent history. The fact that Fergie chose to go with him and not replace RVN shows just how highly he thought of him too. Such a shame injuries derailed his career.

Very good.

Would have been elite bar injuries.

Sums him up perfectly.

Saw his debut and pretty much most of his games and he was a complete CF. Shame he was made of balsa

 

[Sandikan]

Never as good as this forum would lead you to believe.

Replacing Van Nistelrooy who was phenomenal for us, and helping our style evolve, hype him up a bit i think.

 

[Lentwood]

Very good.

Would have been elite bar injuries.

Yeah agree. Strong, quick, good in the air, worked hard, two-footed, intelligent - not necessarily a prolific goalscorer but definitely improved players around him

 

[Chairman Steve]

He was very good and two good knees would have seen him post much better figures for us. I have a WBA friend from Uni who has had a Hawthorns season ticket for years and said Saha was the one of the best players he’d ever seen live and maintains it to this day.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

Very good.

Would have been elite bar injuries.

Pretty much this.

Off to watch some videos now, and very likely get sucked into the rabbit the hole.

 

[SalfordRed18]

Yeah agree. Strong, quick, good in the air, worked hard, two-footed, intelligent - not necessarily a prolific goalscorer but definitely improved players around him

Was certainly prolific for that time.

The Ronaldos and messis have skewed people's opinions on what's prolific these days.

 

[manutddjw]

I kind of lean to the side of a tad bit overrated and the case of his injuries making him better than what he was because he didn't play enough to form a concrete opinion. Don't get me wrong Saha was a very good player, but I believe if he was fit the whole time, he'd be the striker that in 3 seasons would have 23, 14, 19 goals which is a good record but certainly not world class.

 

[Gazza]

We played better football with him in the team than we did with Berbatov and Tevez. Says a lot, not so much in terms of their quality as players, but in terms of being a perfect fit for a United team under Sir Alex.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Had all the talent in the world. If he hadn’t had the injuries and subsequent mentally problems he could have been one of the very best in the world, he had it all.

the reality was he was fantastic for about 12 months, and mostly a waste of time after that. Such a shame.

 

[Revan]

In Ruud's final two years with us, I think that, when Saha is fit, he is better/more useful than Ruud.

In one of those two seasons you mentioning, Saha scored 1 league goal (2 goals overall) from 22 games.

On Ruud's final season, it can be an argument that Saha was better. 15 goals in 30 matches (7 in 19 league matches) for Saha, with Ruud scoring 24 goals in 47 matches (21 in 35 league matches). I don't agree that he was better, just that an argument can be made. But in Ruud's penultimate season, despite that Ruud was injured for a long period too, it is not even close.

Saha was pretty good at the end of 05-06 season, and brilliant in the first half of 06-07 season. On his other part here he was mediocre and inconsistent (to a large degree because of many injuries he had).

 

[RedSky]

Excellent player hampered by injuries. Such a shame because when he was fit we were awesome to watch.

 

[RedTiger]

A fit Saha playing as the lone forward in our current side would rip shit up.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

One excellent calendar year (2006), the way that his establishment in the first XI ahead of Ruud coincided with our return to the top, and the ready-made excuse of his injuries, have all made him a bit over-rated in hindsight. Nice player to watch though, explosive and athletic, but maybe a bit mentally weak (which it was hinted may have played into his injury problems).

It's arguable that the injury problems played into the mentally weak tag. They are frustrating and when they keep piling up it does mess with your head. When he was fit, Saha was incredible.

 

[FrankDrebin]

I'll never forget our home game in the FA Cup against Burton. Its no exaggeration that he could've ended the game with a further 4 goals.

A forward that would make the difficult look easy and the easy look difficult.

 

[The Original]

Never as good as this forum would lead you to believe.

Been watching old games and I think he was quite like Ighalo is. Maybe a bit more skilful.