Should It Be Radamel Falcao or James Wilson at Manchester United?
Manchester United need to decide between persisting with the insipid Colombian centre-forward Radamel Falcao, 29, or allocating his minutes to promising English No. 9 James Wilson, 19, who has a higher upside.
Signed on loan from Monaco, Falcao cost Manchester United €8.4/£6 million and is being paid an inflated €266,576/£190,000 a week.
Not only is Falcao a Premier League failure, he is hindering the development of Wilson.
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Forlorn Futile Falcao
Breaking Everton's offside trap, Falcao was in the ideal position to divert Angel Di Maria's mistimed shot in a 2-1 win last October.
It was Falcao's first Premier League goal, and Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal revealed how the Colombian had been struggling mentally.
"[Falcao] needed that goal," Van Gaal said, per MUTV (h/t Tim Oscroft at ManUtd.com). "I talked with him and I told him that he was forcing himself too much to score."
Context: Falcao scored and provided two assists in his first four Premier League games, which is a decent return, but not value for money at €266,576/£190,000 a week.
Fitness concerns stopped Falcao from building momentum, and since then, he has been fighting a losing battle to pad up his goals-to-games-played statistic.
Vexed by the rumours, Falcao clarified that his calf injury had no correlation with the strength of his knee.
"I did take a small injury to my calf, which is something that I need to be careful with, but there are a lot of stories circulating that are pure speculation [and not true]," Falcao said, per MUTV (h/t Mark Froggatt at ManUtd.com). "It detracts from the credibility of the media."
Going on Twitter in response to the innuendo speculating about the state of his deteriorating knee, Falcao provided a sage-like quote, while Manchester United were just relieved he was fit again:
| League | Manchester United 14-15 | Monaco 14-15, 13-14 | Atletico Madrid 12-13, 11-12 |
| Goals/Games | 4/16 | 11/20 | 52/68 |
| Goals Per Game | 0.25 | 0.55 | 0.76 |
| Shots Per Goal | 7.75 | 4.91 | 4.75 |
Falcao can drop as many pearls of wisdom as he wants, but the opinion that he is no longer the same player after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury to his left knee last January will continue to linger.
- Atletico Madrid Falcao: World-class centre-forward capable of awe-inspiring moments. Able to finish from multiple angles in a variety of ways.
- Monaco Falcao: Scored seven goals in his opening seven Ligue 1 games and then inexplicably struggled with inconsistency. His form slump was compounded by an ACL injury, which prematurely ended his first season. Started his second season by blasting a penalty past Lorient goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte in a 2-1 defeat. Then he burst past Nantes left-back Olivier Veigneau and latched on to a cross to head home in a 1-0 win.
- Manchester United Falcao: His body language is reminiscent of Andriy Shevchenko attempting to keep up with the pace of the Premier League.
If you compare Falcao's output at Atletico Madrid to Manchester United, his goals per game has dropped by 0.51 and his shots per goal have increased by 3.00, which proves to you he is no longer the expert finisher he once was.
You know the Falcao project at Manchester United will be canned.
Why?
He could not score against League One club Yeovil Town in a 2-0 win, League Two club Cambridge United in a 0-0 draw and the Tottenham Hotspur U21s in a 1-1 draw.
Van Gaal dropping Falcao to the U21s was an asinine, bizarre and inane decision.
You presume the premise behind Van Gaal's judgement was to prop up Falcao's confidence, but the risk outweighed the benefit.
Even if Falcao scored a hat-trick, what does that accomplish?
Wow, a €266,576/£190,000-a-week-valued centre-forward who can't score consistently in the Premier League finally dominated against a bunch of reserves and prospects.
Van Gaal probably envisioned Falcao getting his mojo back against the Tottenham Hotspur U21s and then going on a scoring run in the Premier League.
You see, Van Gaal's ego blocked him from even considering the thought of Falcao coming up short against the Tottenham Hotspur U21s.
Not only did Van Gaal mess with Falcao's psyche, but the experiment aided Tottenham Hotspur U21 centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers, who remained modest.
"I couldn't wait to play against [Falcao] and just learn from him, to see what he did and to see how I could cope with it," Carter-Vickers said, per TottenhamHotspur.com. "[Bongani Khumalo and I] spoke before the match and then afterwards about what we might have done better. It's been a good night."
Tottenham Hotspur blogger Chris Miller believed Carter-Vickers had a tougher time dealing with Chelsea prospect Dominic Solanke than Falcao.
According to a tweet via Jamie Jackson at The Guardian, Falcao's positioning was so scatter-gun that he accidentally denied Wilson a goal scoring chance.
What About Wilson?
Scoring a contested volley and poaching a goal in a 3-1 win over Hull City last May, Wilson vindicated the blind faith by then-Manchester United manager Ryan Giggs.
"I've always said about younger players that you can give them the chance but they have got to take it [like Wilson]," Giggs said, per Nick Rostron-Pike at talkSPORT. "[Wilson is] a brilliant prospect."
Fellow class of '92 member Nicky Butt also rates Wilson highly.
"Wilson is very explosive, an out-and-out goalscorer with good pace and he [has] good size," Butt said, per Sam Tighe at Bleacher Report. "At 6'2", he'll be a big strong boy in a few years' time."
Still, Van Gaal, who coached Ajax to the 1995 UEFA Champions League title with the squad's average age being 23 years old, does not trust Wilson.
In a 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, Van Gaal should have been brave and subbed on both Andreas Pereira and Wilson.
It seemed like Van Gaal wanted to have an out if anyone questioned his stance on youth players by handing Pereira a Premier League debut but leaving Wilson on the bench.
Falcao added another useless seven minutes to his season, while Wilson was left pondering if he had upset Michael Carrick, as seen in a Vine via The Peoples Person.
Wilson > Falcao
Wilson, a Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year recipient (h/t via a tweet from the RedMancunian), has youth and untapped potential on his side.
Falcao is hurting post-ACL, and you wonder if he is emotionally exhausted by not living up to his salary and the unyielding perception of his body betraying him.
Here are three footballer's statistics from last season.
- A: Six goals, five assists.
- B: 11 goals, four assists.
- C: Three goals, no assists.
You would go with player "A" or "B" over "C", right?
- A: Roberto Soldado.
- B: Emmanuel Adebayor.
- C: Harry Kane.
Consider this scenario: if Soldado was a competent scorer and Adebayor was not besieged by character issues, Kane would probably be playing for a Championship club.
Afforded an extended starting run this season, Kane is England's leading scorer in the Premier League (16 goals; he is only 21 years old).
Sure, you can bring up Wilson scoring once from 332 minutes of Premier League play spread over 12 games this season.
Keep in mind, his statistics are muddled by starting only 16.67 percent of games he is involved in and averaging 27.67 minutes per game.
If you compare and contrast Falcao and Wilson purely by the eye test, there is no contest.
Wilson gets past his opposing player and is always trying to make something happen.
Falcao is meek, the dynamism is no longer there and he is to Manchester United to what Roque Santa Cruz was to Manchester City—a big-name passenger.
If Manchester United executive vice chairman and director Ed Woodward wants to avoid being embroiled in controversy, he won't even contemplate for a second about extending Falcao's loan into a permanent transfer for €61/£43.5 million.
- Dream: Long-stay, as illustrated by Omar Momani.
- Reality: Short-stay.
Presuming Falcao has no long-term future at Manchester United, it is detrimental to give minutes to him, when they should be assigned to Wilson.
"I believe [Falcao] just needs a little time to build his confidence and match sharpness," Van Gaal said, per the United Review (h/t Richard Jolly at ESPN FC). "It won't be long until he is showing everybody the talent that we all know he has."
Right message, wrong footballer.
Van Gaal, it should be: "It won't be long until [Wilson] is showing everybody the talent that we all know he has."
When not specified, statistics via WhoScored.com.
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