Why Radamel Falcao Can Mirror the Impact of Eric Cantona at Manchester United

Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the arrival of Eric Cantona at Manchester United and Radamel Falcao will be hoping he can make an impact similar to that made by the Frenchman in his first season.

In truth, it is hard to imagine any player having as much impact as Cantona, a man described by Sir Alex Ferguson as "the can-opener," per The Guardian, who allowed the Scot to win his first English league title. Which, of course, then enabled him to win his second, third and so on.

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On this day 22 years ago, Manchester United signed “The King”—Eric Cantona. pic.twitter.com/yS6krObEMF

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) November 26, 2014"

Manchester United were eighth in the Premier League on 26 November 1992, the date of Cantona's arrival. As Rob Smyth wrote in The Guardian on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Eric's arrival:

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It is often forgotten that, when Cantona arrived United were a mess. They had gifted the title to Leeds the previous season and the whole club was afflicted with PTSD. The team had basically forgotten how to score goals. United were eighth in the table and out of two cup competitions.

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Cantona's arrival acted as a catalyst and United ended up winning the league by 10 points. To give an illustration of how much difference Cantona's arrival made, in the 16 games before he signed, United managed a goal difference of +5, scoring 17. In the subsequent 16 it was +19, with 32 in the "goals for" column.

Sir Alex Ferguson was the master of building on success, and United are an unrecognisable force from the one which Cantona joined. His inaugural season at Old Trafford was the first under the new arrangements which saw the top-flight re-branded the Premier League.

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Only the most certifiably optimistic United fans would have dreamed then that the Premier League's first 22 years would be so dominated by the Red Devils.

Falcao will not be able to act as a catalyst for success which brings about the same level of transformation at the club, because that work has already been done. However, for the rest of this season, a fit and firing El Tigre could have a similar level of impact to that which Le Roi did in his first United campaign.

Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Hints of Falcao's potential impact can already be seen. The Colombian has featured in five league games this season, in which United scored 13 goals. In the seven in which he did not feature, they scored six. Of course, correlation is not causation, but nonetheless the difference is startling. It is worth pointing out, though, that five of the goals scored in games in which he featured occurred when he was on the bench.

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Back to training 100% and ready to help the team in the next games. pic.twitter.com/YV1xIHzz9R

— Radamel Falcao (@FALCAO) November 23, 2014"

With Falcao tweeting that he is "back to training 100 percent," his return is eagerly anticipated. United had played 16 games by the time 26 November rolled around in 1992 but after their first 12 that season, although their league position was worse (sixth), they had one more point than United do now.

Nineteen points after 12 games is a remarkably small number of points to be good enough for fourth place. Although United are currently on track for Champions League qualification, "a mess" and suffering from the "PTSD" of the previous season—Smythe's characterisation of the United of November 1992—is certainly a reasonable description of United's past three months.

Falcao's potential impact cannot be overstated, assuming he gets back to his best, given just how remarkable his best is. Although there is a long way to go before El Tigre is hailed by the Stretford End as El Rey, the rest of this season affords him the opportunity to make an impact which will be remembered for decades to come.

Just as Cantona did, all those years ago.