Diego forlan

United would have done better with Forlan ONLY if he had gotten 90 minutes every game like in Villareal. Forlan was on a scoring streak then Man U bought Saha basically telling Forlan that he was not wanted. Forlan got sent to the bench again even though it appeared he was starting to become great and only needed lots of minutes on the pitch. This was proven true since he got into Villareal and started playing every game from the start. He showed that the good games he was having near the end of his tenure at man u was a sign of great things to come.

btw, can a golden boot winner be called a flop? My idea of a flop is different. A flop is a player that did absolutelly nothing. Liam Miller is a flop. Forlan struggled in the beginning, did ok later, scored some important goals and became a fan favorite.

 

He was never going to do that for us. Many have pontificated as to why he wasn't, lond234 touched on some of them. I'd say that most fans are happy for him, cause he's such a classy guy.

In any case, your question is phrased in a strangely provocative way. Were you trying to upset us?

 

I'm upset at the spelling.

 

Kill this thread

 

Well, I've given you a chance to argue that you didn't mean to use this thread to start a fight with other members... I'm giving you a second one, since you're new around here.

 

Its fine... we always thought he had talent and felt he'd do better somewhere where he could be the #1 guy where there was less pressure and expectancy. We might have done slightly better were Forlan fit, but not by much. His standard of play for United was inconsistent at best, in fact that's not true, it was consistently poor, but on occasion he'd suprise us.

lond suggested he was on a scoring streak. There was no such streak, he had managed to score a couple goals, but we would not have bought Saha if we'd seen Forlan as a player for the future, the fact that he had so little success when given his chance is what killed his future, not the fact that Saha came, because after Saha we bought Smith and Rooney. Diego just was not gonna work out for us and we are happy he's lighting it up in Spain.

 

My only regret is that we sold him, rather than loaned him out.

However, it doesn't keep me up at night or anything...

 

I am quite happy to have a sensible discussion with mature posters. Your opening post would suggest that you are not that type of person. Do you honestly believe that the Forlan issue hasn't been discussed on numerous occassions beforehand? Use the search facility and you will find out exactly what we think. To come on and start a thread by trolling, then in your second post to start throwing insults, only proves that my initial thoughts about you were correct. Would you like a third chance to act in a mature manner?

 

I am happy for him, he was a nice guy. But he just wasnt a good fit for United.

 

Okay, while I somewhat disagree with the motives behind this thread, your reply, johno, is very arguable.

I agree with you that Forlan could do better in a place where he can be the "go to" guy. Problem here is that Forlan is not the only striker who has had difficulty pairing up with Ruud. Since Fergie is so reliant on Ruud, than his faith in other forwards is very shaky. Forlan did play a good amount of games, but sometimes it takes time to adjust to the flow of a game, and fifteen minutes just ain't enough. They can't all be Solksjaers, you know? When he did start, he had that pressure of living up to Ruud's standards. It wasn't neccesarily that he couldn't play as well, it was that pressure he had to do what Van Nistelrooy was doing at that time, which seems impossible. Because we have Ruud, we had been spoilt to the level of thinking anything below him is sub-par, and Forlan was just that. Hypothetically speaking, if you put Forlan into the system we are running now, with the injuries that we had last season, do you still think he couldn't of done well? No Ruud. No Saha. It would have been fun to see Diego running with the kids. Do you think that Smith is better than Forlan? Just a question.

Um, and yes, at some point, Diego had scored like 5 goals in a 6 game span, IIRC. That sounds like a streak to me. In fact, it is one. He was then benched, for no reason at all other than the fact that the others returned to claim their places. He won us a couple of games in that short span, and then he was benched. Who is to say that if he didn't get continued starts that he couldn't have done here what he did at Villareal? In saying that there was no streak, but that he is a nice guy, you are discounting him for any type of worth because you don't know him personally, which makes the nice guy comment as heavy as tissue, and we only know him as a footballer. At yet, you defend Kleberson thread in and thread out based on one performance in the Champions League last season? I don't get it.

 

While I never thought Forlan was complete garbage for us I think you are overlooking the main thrust of johno's post that Forlan was given plenty of opportunities and he never lived up to expectations. We all know that he was the type of player that was needing a full time role, like he got at Villareal, in order to succeed.

Yes with more full games he might have been a great player for us. The problem is, as you pointed out, we already had our main forward at the time and we needed someone who could complement Ruud and come in and make an impact in games were Ruud was rested without needing to get in a groove. Forlan showed that he was not this type of player. That is what ended his time here.

 

Okay? That point was not neccessarily just for Forlan, but any other forward that has lined up with Ruud. How do you complement Ruud and then replace him just the same? How many failures have we had to partner Ruud? Maybe that is why Fergie plays Ruud up top by himself. And Ruud has not only had problems playing with a partner for us, it has also happened for the NT. Not that I'm hating on him, because Ruud is Ruud, but you can't blame Forlan for this. What I was saying was that with the system change, and Ruud out, Forlan could have had some success with us this past season, hypothetically. Maybe I missed the "thrust of johno's post," but you also missed mine.

And I've always had this problem with the expectations we have. I think it was DS in the 'Baptista vs. Essien' thread who said that there should be no expectations for players costing less than £10M, and I tend to agree. £7M is a huge dropoff from what RVN cost, innit? Why should we expect Forlan, or anyone else, to just usurp Ruud when he is not there? If you rate Ruud world class and expect Diego to fill his boots when he is gone, then you are definitely expecting too much. But why? I recognize that perhaps Forlan was not the greatest fit here, but I want to know why the expectations? Just wondering.

 

Has anyone else taken a look at all of Gmak's posts so far. Pay close attention to the teams involved and his word selection.

 

I've already posted something in the Mod's forum.

Should be dealt with shortly.

 

I don't expect anyone to upsurp Ruud when he is not there, but I do expect the players on the team in any position to play well when given the opportunities. I liked Forlan and am happy he is doing well. The problem is that he never made the impact needed. Sure he won us some games (Liverpool I believe) and gave us a few laughs (not getting his jersey back on before play started) but he failed to make an impact.

I agree that we probably sholdn't have star expectations out of everyone who comes to this club but we can expect that anyone who comes here pushes those already here for a starting spot. And when those star players go down to injury or are rested I expect that those players who step in for them can perform at a high level. That doesn't mean I expect the same number of goals but you have to expect that even with subs the teams will still score enough to win. Unfortunately Forlan didn't do that, regardless of if he could have this year (which I agree he probably would have). In a perfect world players could be given all the chances they needeed unfortunately we all know that at some point players who just haven't made it have to be shown the door.

I now I am guilty of the high expectations problem. I expected way more out of Dejemba Djemba, Miller, Saha, and Kleberson. Dj has already moved on and I think Miller and Kleberson are borderline. Sir Alex has talked aobut offers for Klebs and that if the offer was right then it is bye bye Klebs. I want him to make it just like I wanted Forlan to do it. Hopefully he has more success.

 

See the thing with Forlan is, not only did he not gell w/ Ruud... he made Ruud worse... he almost always ran into Ruud's path, bringing an extra marker into his space, he had poor vision and was not suited to be a support striker at all...

Forlan got more than a handful of opportunities to play alone up top and he showed that he was not capable of doing that either.

Whether Forlan is more talented than Smith is not the point. Smith is more suited to this team. He can play BOTH as a withdrawn and as a target and whatever role asked of him he plays w/ heart and fire and while he might not set the world alight with amazing goals all the time, he does not miss sitters, he wins lots of headers and he does a decent job of being a target. Forlan is an Eto'o type player almost... he thrives as a single striker or as the main guy w/ a sidekick but he does not have the physique of a target or lone striker... this is why he's much more suited to play in Spain where defenders are smaller and the game is less physical - if Forlan was very very fast like say Bellion is he could have done better in England, but without even 1 dominating aspect of his game, ie. size, speed, amazing technique, passing shooting, strength etc he would never have dominated English defenders who were all a match for him.

 

I agree with Johno - his style did not work with Ruud's, and while I'm not entirely happy with Smith, he does fit in better.


That said, Forlan did score some fantastic goals for us...he also missed some fantastic sitters. I'm sure his performance at Man Utd. was hurt by a number of things (pressure, less playing time, etc). But that's football.

 

yeah... Diego could teach a clinic on diving headers and twirling volleys... unfortunately he could also teach one on missing sitters.