Rank our forwards (post-peak Rooney)

Longlivekeano

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How would you rank our best forwards, strikers since Rooney’s best years with us.

the contenders
- rashford
- zlatan
- martial
- cavani
- Greenwood
- hojlund
- Lukaku
- Alexis SancheZ
- Ronaldo (1.5 season)
 
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- Rashford: 5/10. He is basically hit or miss.
- Zlatan: 8/10. A true experienced number 9 and big mentality. Sadly the injury on the Europa league semifinal seriously held him back for his second season.
- Martial: 4/10. Woeful. In almost 10 years only 90 goals.
- Cavani: 6/10. He was good, but past it. Would have love him at an early stage.
- Greenwood: 7/10. Showed a lot of promise, but screw it up acting like everyone knows he acted.
- Højlund: 8/10. Shows lots of promise, and managed a decent amount of goals for a 21 years old coming into a new league, in a team that doesn’t pass the ball to him.

If we count RVP he is a 10/10. The guy single handily won us the league. Awesome first year. Aceptable second year. Sadly he was injury prone and his early career injuries catch up to him at 31-32.
 
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Thread title has potential but that list needs a lot of work.

Here's my list. Keeping in my mind I consider Rooney's peak to be '08 - '11 so I exclude one of my favs, Berba, whose peak was mainly before and only a bit at the start of that period.

Van Persie
Nani
Martial

The rest are either has-beens, bang average footballers with inflated stats or kids too young to rate their time at United like Greenwood and Rasmus.
 
Van Persie
Zlatan
Cavani (first season only)
Ronaldo (first season only)
Greenwood
Hojlund
Rashford
Lukaku
Martial
 
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Van Persie
Zlatan
Ronaldo
Rashford
Cavani
Martial
Lukaku
Greenwood
Hojlund

Based on their peaks and overall goal contributions
 
AndySmith1990 said:
Van Persie
Zlatan
Ronaldo
Rashford
Cavani
Martial
Lukaku
Greenwood
Hojlund

Based on their peaks and overall goal contributions
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God, Van Persie aside, that list is a terrible indictment of our strategy.

Zlatan, Ronaldo, Cavani - stop gaps signed past their peak
Rashford - not really a striker, too hit and miss
Greenwood, Martial - disastrous
Hojilund and Lukaku - at least made as long term investments, but one who shouldn't be leading the line yet, the other who just wasn't good enough
 
Sanchez 2/10 - didn't really live up to much and was a bit of bad business for what his wages were.
Martial 3/10 - So much promise when he arrived. But injured too much. Should have sold to Sevilla in 2022 instead of loaned.
Lukaku 4/10 - Didn't rate him that much.
Ighalo - 4/10 - Wasn't really what we needed but the heart was there.
Weghorst - 4/10 - Same as Ighalo. Wasn't quite what we needed upfront but he gave it his all.
Rashford 5/10 - As others say hit and miss. Either he's great or he's not there is no middle round. But there's hope he'll figure something out and have a good season.
Zlatan 7/10 - Wish we'd signed him sooner. Great to watch.
Cavani 7/10 - Wish we'd signed him sooner.
Greenwood 7/10 - Football only - he showed a lot of promise and could have really been someone to build around.
Hojlund 7/10 - needs more from other players to work with but did a decent job last season looking forward to what he does in season 2. Hopefully with a bit more supply.
Ronaldo 7/10 - He came in. did a job what happened at the end happened.
RVP 8/10 - Won us the league. Shame he was a bit injury prone after.
 
Belph said:
Sanchez 2/10 - didn't really live up to much and was a bit of bad business for what his wages were.
Martial 3/10 - So much promise when he arrived. But injured too much. Should have sold to Sevilla in 2022 instead of loaned.
Lukaku 4/10 - Didn't rate him that much.
Ighalo - 4/10 - Wasn't really what we needed but the heart was there.
Weghorst - 4/10 - Same as Ighalo. Wasn't quite what we needed upfront but he gave it his all.
Rashford 5/10 - As others say hit and miss. Either he's great or he's not there is no middle round. But there's hope he'll figure something out and have a good season.
Zlatan 7/10 - Wish we'd signed him sooner. Great to watch.
Cavani 7/10 - Wish we'd signed him sooner.
Greenwood 7/10 - Football only - he showed a lot of promise and could have really been someone to build around.
Hojlund 7/10 - needs more from other players to work with but did a decent job last season looking forward to what he does in season 2. Hopefully with a bit more supply.
Ronaldo 7/10 - He came in. did a job what happened at the end happened.
RVP 8/10 - Won us the league. Shame he was a bit injury prone after.
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This is pretty much bang on. I would maybe give Hojlund a 6/10 as I don't think his impact has been at the same level as Cavani or Zlatan in their first seasons. But based on his potential, I can understand why you gave him a 7.
 
Van Persie 10
Ibrahimovic 9
Rashford 8
Ronaldo 7
Greenwood 7
Lukaku 6
Hojlund 5
Martial 4
Ighalo 4
Wout 3
Sanchez 2
 
Van Persie 9/10
Ibrahimovic 8/10
Rashford 7/10
Greenwood 7/10
Ronaldo 6.5/10
Martial 6.5/10
Lukaku 6/10
Cavani 6/10
Hojlund 6/10
Ighalo 4/10
Sanchez 3/10
Weghorst 2/10
 
Longlivekeano said:
How would you rank our best forwards, strikers since Rooney’s best years with us.

the contenders
- rashford
- zlatan
- martial
- cavani
- Greenwood
- hojlund
- Lukaku
- Alexis SancheZ
- Ronaldo (1.5 season)
Click to expand...
Zlatan is by far the best in this list. However, that doesn't say much considering the unflattering list itself.

Top 5:
1. Zlatan
2. Ronaldo (older version)
3. Greenwood
4. Lukaku
5. Rashford
 
Hojlund 10/10 based on age, current ability , and potential.

Fact people don’t see how good he is says a lot. Of course he’s not the finished article and needs time. But playing in a crap team that doesn’t pass to him doesn’t help.

Clearly not the same type of player. But I remember people thought Vinicius Junior was a step back, RM fans were complaining that he was the replacement for Ronaldo. Yet even in his first year I saw a player who was the most naturally gifted I’ve seen since Ronaldinho (excluding Messi who is a one off )

Hojlund is the version CF of that.

RVP 8/10 good price , great striker, only 1 great year.

Zlatan 8/10 great goal scorer
Greenwood 8/10 (what could have been )
Cavani 7/10
Ronaldo 7/10
Martial 5/10
Rashford 6/10
 
hobbers said:
Easy list

RVP 10/10
Ibrah 9/10
Ronaldo 8/10
Cavani 7/10
Greenwood 6/10
Hojlund 5/10
Rashford 4/10
Lukaku 3/10
Martial 2/10
Sanchez 1/10
Ighalo 0/10
Weghorst -1/10
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Ighalo's world class strike against LASK in the Europa League puts him way above Sanchez by default
 
Van Persie

Martial
Rashford

Zlatan
Greenwood
Hojlund
Ronaldo
Cavani
Lukaku

Alexis
Weghorst


Robin clearly in a league of his own. Rashford (19/20 & 22/23) and Martial (15/16 & 19/20) weren't world class like Robin but were better than everyone else we had. Zlatan just drops to the tier below them. I find his time here very overrated. Much like the player himself in general. Then you have the worst of the bunch in their own tier in Weghorst and Alexis, and I hate to put Alexis there but what can you do. He was genuinely terrible for us bar that one City performance.
 
colombianmancunian said:
- Rashford: 5/10. He is basically hit or miss.
- Zlatan: 8/10. A true experienced number 9 and big mentality. Sadly the injury on the Europa league semifinal seriously held him back for his second season.
- Martial: 4/10. Woeful. In almost 10 years only 90 goals.
- Cavani: 6/10. He was good, but past it. Would have love him at an early stage.
- Greenwood: 7/10. Showed a lot of promise, but screw it up acting like everyone knows he acted.
- Højlund: 8/10. Shows lots of promise, and managed a decent amount of goals for a 21 years old coming into a new league, in a team that doesn’t pass the ball to him.

If we count RVP he is a 10/10. The guy single handily won us the league. Awesome first year. Aceptable second year. Sadly he was injury prone and his early career injuries catch up to him at 31-32.
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Haaland has scored the same number of goals for City as Martial has for us
 
Rashford. A few good seasons, a couple of poor ones. His best position has been on the left running in behind defences utilising his devastating pace, power and shooting abilities.
Plenty of high spots but has just come off a bad season. 130 goals in 8 years. Overall an 7/10

Ibrahimovic. Slightlty overrated, joined past his prime but still contributed greatly to Jose's Cup Double winning season. Scored 28 goals missed a lot of chances too tbh. But he was perfect for Mourinho's brand of football: the perfect target man/lump up front to hit with the mentality of a winner and the personality befitting of a club the size of United.. 6/10

Cavani. Another Forward well past his prime. Still scored 17 goals in his first season. Fans took to him instantly not just for his goals but because of his excellent movement and high work rate. 6/10

Martial. Exceptionally talented forward had the potential to be world class. Showed a lot of promise in his first season but never fulfilled his potential. IMO Martial wasn't the bravest, had poor concentration levels and lacked fighting spirit on the pitch. 90 goals in 9 years. The last 18-24 months he has been unlucky with injury tbf. 5/10

Lukaku. Big summer signing in 2017. Was the target man Mourinho and the board earmarked to replace Zlatan. A terrific goalscorer but the rest of his game was nowhere as near as good as the big Swede. The team found it difficult to play off him. 5/10

Greenwood. Exceptional finisher. The best finisher I've seen come out of the Academy in my 30 years of following the youth. Took to first team football seamlessly was getting his fair share of football developing his game before controversy.
The red flags were in plain sight tbh..breaking Southgate's England curfew for example. There were rumours about him being a little shit but i bet Ole and most of the staff let him off hoping he'll grow out of being a teenage prick. 4/10 Will he ever fulfill his potential?

Sanchez. Flop sadly 2/10

Ighalo another example post Fergie we never took investing in top forwards seriously enough. Same with Weghorst and to some extent Ronaldo.

Hojlund. Big signing last summer. Has just had a promising debut season. Young, strong, aggressive, quick, good feet, good mentality, high work rate and can score.
16 goals in a team which struggled to create clear cut chances is pretty good. Early days. Hopefully he continues to develop and pushes on next season.
 
Some people incredibly harsh on Rashford and very optimistic on Hojlund. In reality Rashford has had really top quality moments - and Hojlund is nothing more than blind faith if people were honest with themselves. He's far more Darwin Nunes than Haaland.
 
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