Any avid English Premier League fan would acknowledge Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player in the League, and perhaps the world. He has been in superb form all season and his goal against Liverpool last week took his tally for the current campaign to 34.
This means that he has broken George Best’s record for goals in midfield. Sir Alex Ferguson described his goal record as “phenomenal” and every opposition who hopes to take points off Manchester United must stop Ronaldo—United’s most potent attacker.
Notice that United’s main threat is no longer their traditional deadly strike partnership (Cole & Yorke , Rooney & Van Nisterooy) but a world-class winger in Ronaldo.
Tevez only has a dismal 15 goals to his name, while Rooney is no better at 13 goals this season. And not to mention the forever injured striker in Louis Saha who never succeed in getting a continuous run of games. It is hardly surprising now to find that the total goals tally of all three strikers cannot match Ronaldo’s phenomenal 34.
The reason: Manchester United do not have an out and out striker who can convert all the opportunities into goals. Any Manchester United fan who watches their games would be irate at how Rooney and Tevez squander away countless goal opportunities.
Even Sir Alex admitted that they were “too generous” in front of goal after the 1-0 triumph over Derby. It could have been a defeat if not for an excellent save from Foster and a wonder goal from Ronaldo.
The pre-season critique on Manchester United was right—they would struggle without a proper target-man. Yes, they are five points clear on top of the table right now with an incredible 64 goals. But they would have done much better and scored more goals if they had a world-class, out and out striker.
Imagine Fernando Torres at Manchester United. He would have scored 30 goals by now (consider how he scored 20 goals with limited goal opportunities at Liverpool) given the almost unlimited supply of the ball from Giggs, Ronaldo, Scholes, Rooney etc. and United’s strong attacking mentality.
The absence of a proper striker does not mean that United will lose the title race. Arsenal are going through a poor run now and their form suggests that they should be in a relegation battle rather than a title race.
For all the effective tactical decisions Avram Grant made to salvage a 2-1 win and three points, I believe that was a fluke and he is nothing better than a mediocre manager. I can only dream of Grant beating Fergie on mind games and overcoming that five-point deficit.
While Manchester United do not need an out and out striker to win the EPL this season, the same cannot be said for next season. Liverpool will have made strong additions to their squad, Arsene Wenger’s squad will be more experienced, and Chelsea should probably have a world-class manager.
United better watch out.
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3 months ago
Thanks for your first post. It's always better for goals to be coming from all angles rather than relying on one striker (Arsenal at the moment).
3 months ago
When the highest scorer in the premier league is a midfielder and not a striker, doesn't this prove the fact that you dont need to rely on just a striker to score goals?
At United we have in fact, Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez, Nani, Scholes, all who can score great goals at any time during a match.
Then you have contributions from the rest of the side, this makes it much more of a team effort, all striving to get goals for the benefit and betterment of their team, so who needs some prima donna striker, only interested in all the glory for himself, instead of his team.
Yeah Torres at Liverpool has scored some good goals but look at who is just behind his goal tally there, Steve Gerrard, yet another midfielder, my own opinion is when you have just one or two strikers up front, the rest of the team dont pull together as well because they think its not their job to go score goals and generally sit back more than joining in the attack, when in fact you should have 11 potential strikers as well as 11 potential midfielders and also defenders.
Makes the game far more interesting, at United you just dont know who will score first but you know someone will, just seems to be Ronaldo alot more this season, long may he reign.
3 months ago
As a Chelsea fan, Ronaldo is the scariest player i've laid my eyes on. The boy is unstoppable. As mentioned above, a team no longer needs a 30 goal striker to win the league. Ronaldo is the proof of that. Same goes for Lampard at Chelsea and probabaly Gerrard at Liverpool but without Torres' goals this season they would've been nowhere near 4th spot, probably languishing in 7th or 8th.
Decent article by the way.
3 months ago
Let us wait and see what happens in the European Cup...
You need an out and out striker especially for those nervous big game finals (i.e Inzaghi, Solskjær etc)
Do not mistake C Ronaldo as the answer for he is not, the answer will be when Man Utd have a succesful strike partnership like they did with Cole and Yorke.
Even the years of playing with the alone Van Nistelrooy did not bring what a succesfull strike partnership can.
A strong point of Man Utd at the moment is that they have a relationship in Vidic and Ferdinand that somewhat resembles Stam and Johnson and that is a huge thing.
The premier league is what it is and Man Utd have a strong first 11 and importantly strong back ups seasoned back ups to just make the difference compared to Arsenal...
To think you do not need an out and out succesful striker at the biggest of clubs is to be very much mistaken.
However to finish on a positive light maybe you are just being grateful for what you have rather than what you have not.
3 months ago
I may be in the minority on this but I do think that Rooney is a bit overrated...Nice article.
3 months ago
i don't think Rooney is over rated at all.Last night was proof of that,even Tevez can come up with goals in tough games.Nani can score goals from anywhere.Michael Carrick can also score some crackers (roma).Vidic and Ferdinand can come up with goals from set plays and Wes Brown's back might also prove effective at times.Paul Scholes can also hit them long range shots.So i dont see why Man Utd really have a problem
3 months ago
I hope manutd can get 1 world class striker this summer & we will rule Europe !!!
3 months ago
I have to agree with the fact that how united are playing right now they dont need a striker a guy who would just sit in there waiting for the ball.... and partnersip??? hello tevez and rooney have created one...its their first season and lets not forget that rooney missed a lot of games due to several injuries which... imagine if he hadnt been injured i am sure he would have gotten more goals as he was unstoppable too in the beginning. remember he was like on a 8 goals in 9 games....
Rooney is not overrated... the guy propably isnt the best striker as a guy who would sit there waiting but he is a great attacking player.. he runs all over the pitch to get the ball , assist other... fighting and position hisself...
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