Well Berba had struggled since signing for Spurs.
He really hasn't. The only thing he has done is disappoint those who had over lofty expectations of him based mainly on his price tag. Just go and check up the number of goals and assists he has made since signing for us in the EPL. No struggling forward would have a similar record. The only thing he can be accused of is being underwhelming compared to his Spurs days in his performances.
Ok he had improved this season but he relish in playing behind the main striker.
He doesn't. We just happen to us him that way. His best role has always been the one similar to what Totti had under Spalletti at Roma. It's what he plays for Bulgaria and it is what he played St Spurs.
In fact SAF had rarely utilized him as the lead the line striker.
So what? That means nothing frankly! For example, SAF has hardly used Rooney as a second striker for years now. It doesn't mean the lad can't play in the role.
Owen had scored a couple of goals with weak opposition.
Man City isn't weak opposition. Yet he scored against them in a Derby.
Unfortunately he tends to vanish against any solid defense.
Bullshit. I remember him coming on at Anfield and giving Liverpool hell and being denied a great opportunity to score a goal by Carragher, who really should have been sent off.
Also vs Man City he has given them a head ache whenever his faced them this year.
Your claim is pretty much baseless.
The rest had shown some promise but for the time being they are all lower EPL side level (and I am being generous).
No. You're just being plain silly. They wouldn't be in our first team squad if they were lower than EPL level. & all 3 of them have scored in this very league already when given a chance.
So yes, there is a big gap between Rooney and the rest.
The gap is there. There is no shame in that for our other forwards. But it's no where near as big as you claim. That's for sure.
....if Rooney picks a long term injury then we have all the reasons to be worried.
We really don't. Our other strikers don't get many games mainly because Rooney plays all the time. Not because they lack the quality to perform.
Currently Rooney is Mr Goals because he is a fantastic player and the team is built around him.
He is Mr goal because he plays all the time, upfront. He wasn't Mr. Goals last season because he didn't play upfront all the time. After all, He was still a fantastic player last season and didn't score as much.
We could replace Ruud because we had an equally good player in the side (Ronaldo).
BS really. Pure selective memory that.
When Ruud left Ronaldo was yet to show his true qualities. Thus many on here were claiming we'd struggle for goals and players like Saha couldn't measure up to Ruud. Yet he and Ronaldo stepped up to the plate and proved them wrong.
Heck even at the start for this season people claimed we'd struggle for goal without Ronaldo and Tevez. Yet the whole team and especially Rooney have stepped up and were are have been consistently more potent infront of goal in the league than we were last season with those 2 around.
We are Manchester United. Some one always steps up.
Do we have an equally good player to replace Rooney? I much doubt it.
You never replace such players. All you ever do is replace what they contribute in parts. The way we got Valencia to do Ronaldo's wing duties, while Rooney took over his goal getting.
I have no doubts if played regularly Berbatov, Owen and company would score goals regularly in the absence of Rooney. Without a shadow of a doubt
BTW our so much criticized midfield was central in us winning what we won in the past few years.
So? That same midfield is currently why we can't play 2 strikers in big games, couldn't live without Fletcher's absence in a champions league final last year & that same midfield now lacks quality in depth on the flanks with Ronaldo gone since we have only one natural left winger/ player naturally comfortable on the left wing in the squad.
The same midfield that still heavily relies on a 36 year old Giggs and 35 year old Scholes.
...have half his talent to replace him adequately. No wonder why SAF was so interested in spending decent money on Benzema (last year).
SAF did so only because he thought he had the midfield that could consistently support 2 forwards. His been proven wrong since then. I'll be very shocked if he strengthened his forward line before sorting out his midfield next summer.
His priority has to be to wrench our midfield from it's over dependency on Giggs and Scholes for flank and creative duties. Now that the triumvirate of Tevez, Ronaldo and Tevez is long gone. The 3 player that had started to make Giggs and Scholes squad players because they didn't need them to function. For without that we wont be able to ever properly utilise the strikers at our disposal. Even if we signed another forward of Villa or Benzema's ilk.
ridiculous