Atletico, Porto for a player in his late twenties, hardly any CL performances to show, Atletico and Colombia were more succesfull without him and his statistics appaerently are matched by players like Negredo and Soldado. Not really the profile of a world class striker is it?
I think he was a very good striker who deserved a chance to show he is world class, but still got to prove it. His performances so far suggest there's a reason he played all those years just below the world class. He had to raise his game a bit, and didn't so far.
Lot of talk about RVN here but I don't think he would qualifie as the modern world class striker. That type of striker is just too 'high maintenance', in the end Rooney, Scholes, Ronaldo and Giggs had to provide him with service, and then even Saha had to be added to provide some fluency and someone to hold up the ball upfront, which of course weakened the midfield. And for what? 25 goals a season including penalties and a majority of indecisive goals and goals against the bottom half. It's very difficult to win the PL or do well in the CL if you pay such a high price in service to make this one guy score, while the team needs about 50 goals from other players, and needs decisive goals against the big clubs. At least that would explain why the RVN years ended with poor stats of the really important kind: titles, cups and CL rounds.
The modern world class striker is technically better and doesn't waste posession a lot, provides service himself, doesn't just try to sneak away from his defender but holds the ball when challenged, doesn't need to be provided with sitters, combines poaching with hunting and scores about twenty goals that really count. Allthough technically quite all right, I'm afraid Falcao is too much a nineties striker, too dependant on 10 players working for his chances.
