Red in STL
Turnover not takeover
Says someone who never saw RvN playRooney was superior to RVN comfortably.
Says someone who never saw RvN playRooney was superior to RVN comfortably.
Fair, I think at the time it was less fans being annoyed when he left and more being worried about and then elated about defying the whole "where are the goals going to come from" thingI don't remember being particularly annoyed with him when he left. Think it was more that he'd had fitness issues and fell out with Ferguson. That and Saha at the time was also playing so well that it was actually a problem finding enough game time for all our forwards.
Do think there's an argument that picking him meant the team couldn't be as dynamic though. He did a lot more than goal poach but he was very much a ball to feet striker so wouldn't stretch teams and open space for others.
2002/2003 he was as good as anyone in the world. Especially during the last 3 months of the season when he basically just scored whenever he felt like it.
I've been a season ticket holder since 2001 you weirdo.Says someone who never saw RvN play
Well done you, so I was probably going to OT before you were even bornI've been a season ticket holder since 2001 you weirdo.
Not sure what relevance that has. You said I've never seen RVN play, I told you the reason that I have. It wasn't an invite to prove how long you've been a united fan. What a drip.Well done you, so I was probably going to OT before you were even born
Ok this is getting on my nerves. Familiar behavior from United fans, which grates me the more.
Fantastic striker, extremely efficient in front of goal, and was an integral part of a title winning United team in 2002-03. Went to Madrid and won another two titles.
However his name usually gets mentioned as an epithet for describing strikers who "don't do more than score" and as a result "hold their teams back".
Why? Because he had the misfortune of playing for probably the shittiest team Ferguson managed since Sky invented football/the PL in 1992. Blame it on Ferguson/The Glazers/Gill... We really had a mix of inconsistent talent and crap supporting RvN between 2003 and 2006.
And people annoyingly put our improvement in 2006 on getting rid of RvN. If you think a prime RvN in between Rooney and Ronaldo would have done much worse than Louis Saha, you don't know football.
Imagine a prime Ruud in front today instead of Martial.
I planned for this to be cohesive but it's also a rant so go figure. Stop disrespecting RvN by making him the example for great players that "hold their teams back"
Rant over for now
Rooney was superior to RVN comfortably. - he may have been superior but not comfortablyNot sure what relevance that has. You said I've never seen RVN play, I told you the reason that I have. It wasn't an invite to prove how long you've been a united fan. What a drip.
Outside of being French, Martial and Saha don't play similarly. Saha was a much better finisher. Martial struggles to use his right side and that's an issue that doesn't get held against him nearly enough. He's also nowhere near as good on the ball or in the air. It's a weird comparisonExactly, but it feels like an easy comparison to make to Martial which is why you see his name more than Ruud who was 10x the player Martial dreams about being.
People should really not consider lists like those. For one, I'd could make the case for there being 10 strikers greater than Vardy in the Premier League over the last 10 years. Then consider that this a lone striker era, and before that lots of teams played with 2 strikers.Talksport debate other day they where having vardy in top 10 premier league strikers ahead of him
Must have short memories, him and Henry where right up there as the best about in the world at that time of them both playing against each other in premier league. Ruud was legit world class, unreal striker.
Be daft money if he was about these days
Hell no, they could play together. But I'd never take Rooney over RVN as a number 9.Rooney was superior to RVN comfortably.
I'm with you. I won't hear anyone that doesn't put him in the top 2 number 9s in the Premier League era.He's my childhood idol and I agree he's very underrated now. feck anyone who has anything negative to say.
I don't think it's just Ruud. The reality is a lot of people disregard goal scorers or goal scoring like it is some menial task any tap in merchant can do. As annoying as he is, I've heard people talk about peak Owen as an overrated Chicharito basically.Ok this is getting on my nerves. Familiar behavior from United fans, which grates me the more.
Fantastic striker, extremely efficient in front of goal, and was an integral part of a title winning United team in 2002-03. Went to Madrid and won another two titles.
However his name usually gets mentioned as an epithet for describing strikers who "don't do more than score" and as a result "hold their teams back".
Why? Because he had the misfortune of playing for probably the shittiest team Ferguson managed since Sky invented football/the PL in 1992. Blame it on Ferguson/The Glazers/Gill... We really had a mix of inconsistent talent and crap supporting RvN between 2003 and 2006.
And people annoyingly put our improvement in 2006 on getting rid of RvN. If you think a prime RvN in between Rooney and Ronaldo would have done much worse than Louis Saha, you don't know football.
Imagine a prime Ruud in front today instead of Martial.
I planned for this to be cohesive but it's also a rant so go figure. Stop disrespecting RvN by making him the example for great players that "hold their teams back"
Rant over for now
Aye aye you're on to something hereI don't think it's just Ruud. The reality is a lot of people disregard goal scorers or goal scoring like it is some menial task any tap in merchant can do. As annoying as he is, I've heard people talk about peak Owen as an overrated Chicharito basically.
I don't know what it is. Either its the emergence of all this talk about tactics and statistics among casual fans where some of it goes too far (i.e goalscorers are useless) or just visuals where a False9/Playmaker appears to just do more.
Reality is it's a position your most skilled player plays for a reason in most cases. Pep Guardiola for all his talk about tactics and micromanagement at the end of the day went for a pure goalscorer (Haaland) and was in for a footballer who was a shade of his former self and didn't bother to press because of his goal scoring abilities (Ronaldo).
tl;dr goalscoring is underrated
Same here, the example I always use is Ian Rush, he was a horrible footballer with virtually no skill whatsoever, but he could and did score goals for funAye aye you're on to something here
Haha, this post gave me serious deja vu. I looked at some old United highlights the other day and I constantly found myself mixing up Ruud and Giggs. Shitty video quality combined with relatively similar hair styles(from a distance) did play a part, but it's easy to forget how explosive and silky Ruud could be. His finishing is legendary but he had a lot more up his sleeve.Him and Giggs scored the two goals and if you only knew them by their reputed playing styles, you'd have thought Giggs' goal was Ruud's and vice versa.
As a number 9?Rooney was superior to RVN comfortably.
If you're going to do the Caf-thing of disregarding penalties there's a lot of strikers on the list you could argue were better even as just pure goalscorers.I'll just upload the entire sheet I made and slap a spoiler on it. Added a lot more players, and some early PL-era players too, some solid numbers there as well.
Source: transfermarkt.com --- Note: a lot of manually extracted data so not going to claim its faultless.
For anyone wondering, his open play league goal numbers by season are actually 19, 17, 19, 3, and 19, the 3 obviously coming in the 2004/05 season that was ruined by injury. That does indeed produce an average of 15-16, if you not only ignore the context of the injury but also commit the error of weighting all five seasons equally when one of them accounted for roughly half as many minutes/appearances as the other four.If you're going to do the Caf-thing of disregarding penalties there's a lot of strikers on the list you could argue were better even as just pure goalscorers.
To compare him to Henry at any point is just insulting. I'd even put him comfortably below Vardy, a player that accomplished more or less exactly the same for a smaller club whilst being way more significant.
At the end of the day you're looking at someone that scores 15-16 league goals a season from open play. Would that even be considered good if it was Martial or Rashford nowadays? Think about it.
Totally agree.Ok this is getting on my nerves. Familiar behavior from United fans, which grates me the more.
Fantastic striker, extremely efficient in front of goal, and was an integral part of a title winning United team in 2002-03. Went to Madrid and won another two titles.
However his name usually gets mentioned as an epithet for describing strikers who "don't do more than score" and as a result "hold their teams back".
Why? Because he had the misfortune of playing for probably the shittiest team Ferguson managed since Sky invented football/the PL in 1992. Blame it on Ferguson/The Glazers/Gill... We really had a mix of inconsistent talent and crap supporting RvN between 2003 and 2006.
And people annoyingly put our improvement in 2006 on getting rid of RvN. If you think a prime RvN in between Rooney and Ronaldo would have done much worse than Louis Saha, you don't know football.
Imagine a prime Ruud in front today instead of Martial.
I planned for this to be cohesive but it's also a rant so go figure. Stop disrespecting RvN by making him the example for great players that "hold their teams back"
Rant over for now
Nope.Great striker but i still think v.Persie was better