Why is Ruud van Nistelrooy so disrespected?

[Siorac]

Where's the disrespect? If anything, he tends to be a little bit overrated amongst United fans - in this very thread we have several posters saying we would easily win the league if we had him in our team now.

 

[Ish]

Fantastic player. One of the best CF's i've seen in my lifetime. One of my favorite RvN goals was the one against Fulham (i think?) where he ran a solo from the halfway line. Was way more complete than just an Inzaghi type poacher.

 

[norm87cro]

He was my favourite player as a kid / early teens, name on the shirt and all that. Just a brilliant player.

People make out all he did was score tap ins, but his link up play was great, brilliant in the air, strong as anything, ran in behind, played with his back to goal. He would be absolutely perfect for us right now. Add Ruud to this team and we'd be world beaters.

Yeah I can really agree. He didint score too many out of the box but we had Scholes, Becks and Veron for that. The Fulham goal was sublime aldo the Bayern goal in a difficult angle was always my favorite one

 

[We need an rvn]

He’s exactly what we need at the moment and was a fantastic box player - simple as that (although he was way more than a tap in striker)

I think the odd bad comment someone has said would come from someone who didn’t see him play for united - huge love for the guy on this forum

 

[JamesCurran]

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

I was in the Tollgate on Saturday and their was hundreds - thousand people singing RVN's song.

Wouldn't call that disrespect.

 

[Hughes35]

Yeah I can really agree. He didint score too many out of the box but we had Scholes, Becks and Veron for that. The Fulham goal was sublime aldo the Bayern goal in a difficult angle was always my favorite one

Yea, he was a fox in the box but his all around game was better than it's given credit for. He didn't just score tap ins. His finishing was unreal.

He'd control the ball, hold off a man, lay it out wide, get in the box, find space and then very rarely missed. I miss Ruud.

 

[PaulRich]

I had the pleasure of watching him in the red shirt - absolutely fantastic player who could turn a game on a sixpence. Following the failed first attempt at signing him when his knee broke down in front of the TV cameras, the gamble to proceed paid off handsomely.

Flip side is that unfortunately off the pitch the guy was a bit of a tube.

 

[matherto]

We need a striker that can drop deep, hold up play and distribute it to the wide forwards but also be in the box to finish things off. Ruud would be bloody perfect for us.

One of my favourite ever United players, he was insanely good, scored some of my favourite United goals too. My first United match I had a shirt on with his name on the back and he went and scored a hat trick (yup, the Fulham game so that goal included) so he'll always be special to me.

 

[DutchSerb]

He's the reason I wanted my mom to buy me United PPVs as a kid and probably the main reason I became a fan of the club.

 

[Spark]

An absolute legend, one of my favourite ever United players. It's actually mad he didn't win more titles at United, easy to forget we were on the precipice of serious decline in the mid 00's.

He didn't hold the team back at all, he was a proper asset and imagine if we had peak him now! Farrkin hell.

 

[GueRed]

Fans have short memories,

If anything Ruud disrespected United when he got his agent to tout him around europe from 2004-2006. Guy wanted out.

His last season at United he behaved like a cnut. Made a young Ronaldo cry, became bitter when he was replaced by Saha, verbally abused the manager from the bench during the 2006 league cup final and stormed out of Old Trafford before kick-off on the final game of the season.

Ruud left under a cloud similarly to Cristiano (minus interview)

Great striker probably the best finisher i've seen at United but when things didnt go his way he turned into an incredible sulk

 

[cyberman]

Football has turned full circle. He left when modern football dictates a new style but his style is now back in vogue.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

Yea, he was a fox in the box but his all around game was better than it's given credit for. He didn't just score tap ins. His finishing was unreal.

He'd control the ball, hold off a man, lay it out wide, get in the box, find space and then very rarely missed. I miss Ruud.

His holdup play was always good and he seemed to love laying it off to Beckham before turning to go into the box. But I do think his array of finishes was limited. If I'm not mistaken, his only outside of the box goal was the one against Charlton (which was close to the line). He wasn't as much of a threat from outside the area as other elite strikers were.

But 36 goals and then 44 at a time where strikers just didn't score that many was sensational.

 

[Hughes35]

Yea, loved Ruud. Disagree on the array of finishing though tbh. Yea, he didn't score long range efforts, but he did scored - left foot, right foot, volleys, headers, low, high, chips, power, penalties, one on ones, go around the keeper etc etc.

Put him inside the box with the ball near, or have him running though on goal and he had every finish going.

 

[Oranges038]

Yea, he was a fox in the box but his all around game was better than it's given credit for. He didn't just score tap ins. His finishing was unreal.

He'd control the ball, hold off a man, lay it out wide, get in the box, find space and then very rarely missed. I miss Ruud.

He could also elbow someone in the face, run half the pitch and tuck it away.

He was a great striker at the time, because that's what the team needed.

He'd score up on 50 goals a year now for someone like City or Real. The game is crying out for strikers like him.

 

[Andy_Cole]

Not reading the thread but tell me a player not disrespected on this forum?

 

[JJ12]

My 2nd favourite United player

 

[Olecurls99]

Yea, loved Ruud. Disagree on the array of finishing though tbh. Yea, he didn't score long range efforts, but he did scored - left foot, right foot, volleys, headers, low, high, chips, power, penalties, one on ones, go around the keeper etc etc.

Put him inside the box with the ball near, or have him running though on goal and he had every finish going.

One of the best number 9s of the past 30 years. Properly world class for about 6 or 7 years.

 

[Elcabron]

Maybe it's because we won three league titles in a row before he arrived. One league title in the four seasons he was here and then three league titles in a row again as soon as he left?

 

[Ayoba]

Great player and an absolutely amazing finisher! I was slightly disappointed by his behaviour when we won the league cup, he was on the bench and was sulking throughout the trophy presentation, didnt even want to be a part of it.

 

[Raees]

He was a hindrance towards the end but prime Ruud wouldn’t have been. His finishing never left him but the fluidity of his link up and general dynamism began to wane towards the end but he was a beast for this club during an era where our icons were are past their peak and the youngsters were very raw.