I could have said Cantona 96, Yorke 99, Teddy 2001, Ronaldo in several years.
Basic point is that when we are successful it's because we have a lethal goal scorer.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
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- Goals
- 28
- Assists
- 9
- Yellow cards
- 8
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I could have said Cantona 96, Yorke 99, Teddy 2001, Ronaldo in several years.
Basic point is that when we are successful it's because we have a lethal goal scorer.
13 goals in 22 games. That will do for me
Yeah that's pretty much the case for any team. It still doesn't make it the standard though. The standard for which to aim perhaps?
It's the standard at Man Utd because Man Utd is supposed to win titles. If we accept a lower standard than title winning form it just confirms we're done.
I think he is taking a lot of risk in his play, although Im not sure if its our plan to do so. Today in the first half for example, he wasted a decent number of plays. But they were passes with very tight angles. The fact that Pogba e.g. tried much of the same makes me think it is planned from our side. Some of the combinations we try are just bound to fail a certain number of times, but when they work a good chance is almost a given.
In the second half, he won a lot of 50/50s. Or even 2 on 1s, like the one leading to Lingards poor shot. Good goal as well, in addition to 2 good shots that didn't go in.
Best striker we've had since 2013.
In the second half, he won a lot of 50/50s. Or even 2 on 1s, like the one leading to Lingards poor shot. Good goal as well, in addition to 2 good shots that didn't go in.
Best striker we've had since 2013.
The same people would bite your arm off if you offered them Costa, it's nothing to do with dynamism and everything to do with confirmation bias.
It was a very hard pitch against 11 men behind the ball, and you say, it was obvious that our players were told to play lots of high risk passes.
Costa is a lot more mobile than Ibra though, I am not sure confirmation bias comes into it, I can see both sides of the coin personally.
You're changing the topic. You weren't talking about league winning standards, you were talking about CF standards.
It looked like that to me at least, especially in the first half. Similar to what we've been trying previously this season.
AND great midfielders/upfront partners to help them score all those goals..... you're not comparing like with like as I'm pretty sure Zlatan would score even more than he has with Scholes, Beckham, Ronaldo, etc supplying him.
We won the league in '11 and top scorer was Berbatov with 21 (plenty of 90's titles with less too).
Zlatan looks like beating that and has a miles better work/team ethic than Berbatov did.
He might not be Ruud, Cantona etc but he's not playing in great teams that won titles, doubles, etc either?
He could probably get us a last minute winner, in next years CL final and some people would still be complaining about the "sitter" he missed in the first half.
The matter of the fact is, that if his attacking partners were keeping their own, no one would be give sh!t about the chances he's missed.
The matter of the fact is, that if his attacking partners were keeping their own, no one would be give sh!t about the chances he's missed.
van Persie missed lots of easy chances in that season (incl. a sitter against Madrid to knock us out), went on a longer goal drought than Zlatan has so far (no goals in 7 games) and by the 8th December had scored just two more goals (15) than Zlatan this season. Nostalgia's great and all but come on.
We had Andy Cole who missed 2 good chances to score 1 and we won leagues with Andy up top
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That seems optimistic.
Lads for those saying he was bad, hes a striker. Hes got two defenders either side of him, then has a defensive MF on the other side and then has to beat the offside trap as well. So basically he is not going to control every ball and neither is every pass going to hit its target. He will make mistakes and that is because the opposition will have eight or nine men behind the ball at times.
IMO hes doing really well. Hes got really good vision and links play up great. Pity he isnt twenty seven though and we have him for another seven years.
IMO hes doing really well. Hes got really good vision and links play up great. Pity he isnt twenty seven though and we have him for another seven years.
Think he will hit 30 this year.
Mkhitaryan coming into the team will only help Zlatan, and Mata, Martial, Pogba and Herrera coming into form too.
Mkhitaryan coming into the team will only help Zlatan, and Mata, Martial, Pogba and Herrera coming into form too.
How many games do we have before then? How many would we realistically expect him to start? (to anyone who knows - genuine question not a rhetorical one).
It's a question of the importance more than the number. Match deciding goals, game changing goals.
@Brwned points out RVPs misses, apart from against Madrid none were match costing. Zlatan's have already cost us games.
For me the standout is Cantona 95-96. We won so many games by a single goal solely because of Eric. Zlatan said Cantona could stay the king, as he would become a god. The King would have scored against Stoke, Liverpool and Burnley.
PS) Not even gonna address the lazy Hoddle started slander against Andy Cole.
You've pulled that out your arse in the hope nobody will be able to remember any of the others that cost us.
You're also forgetting that he had other Hernandez and Rooney to reduce the risk of any misses costing him and a better defence to keep the cost down too.
I don't think I am. What other games did Van Persie's misses cost us before he got back on it at Stoke?
Andy missing.chances started that slander buddy. Piggy backing off your point, if we had a higher level striker then we would have fared a lot better in Europe than we did pre 99.
You didn't even mention Andy Cole in two entire posts of the examples you put forward. Its a bit disingenuous to start defending him now
Cole had a bad start to his United career. Did more than fine after his first two seasons, and steadily improved after 1994/95.
I didn't mention him because he wasn't our talisman. Yorke scored more in 99 and got as many assists as Becks. Its simply a lie to say that Coley needed loads of chances to score goals though. Did he need loads of chances when he lobbed Ian Walker? What about when he was smashing in bicycle kicks from the edge of the area? Andy Cole has scored more Premier League goals than anyone besides Shearer. It wasn't just dumb luck.
10 games till the 21st Jan, the majority of games against some poor opposition too.
Tough ask to get nine goals, in that many, to get past Teddy. Possible... he could score four in a game and it become very doable but I do think it's unlikely.
I'm fairly certain he'll hit at least 2 braces versus some of the tosh we're playing (Sunderland, Boro, Reading, Hull at home) so that requires 5 goals from the other 8 games. Either way, if it's not done by mid-jan it'll be very shortly afterwards so the point still stands, he'll quite easily pass those Eric and Teddy seasons this year.
One really would think so, without any major injury!
Another goal and yet he's still being questioned, this has been a masterstroke of a deal and can't be considered anything less with the goal return so far.
11 goals so far. Could easily be 20.
Free transfer.
And people say he's a flop/past it/bad business.
Our best player by a good distance. And in my opinion, the best player in the Premier League although his form isn't completely reflecting it right now. Needs to bang a few hat tricks before the season ends.
Free transfer.
And people say he's a flop/past it/bad business.
Our best player by a good distance. And in my opinion, the best player in the Premier League although his form isn't completely reflecting it right now. Needs to bang a few hat tricks before the season ends.11 goals so far. Could easily be 20.
Free transfer.
And people say he's a flop/past it/bad business.
He has 13 goals in all comps @Jaybomb
He's the lone striker, Cantona and Sheringham were traditional No.10's with a striker in front of them. He should be scoring more goals than those two.
I see the point you're trying to make but they're not equivalents.
Eric would've scored against Liverpool in this United team playing the way it did? feck me, Eric is one of my biggest idols but you are being completely blinded by the past. Eric didn't score in every big game mate.
And don't forget, both Sheringham and Cantona were playing in much more confident and far superior United sides.
I did, you're comparing stats of a centre forward to those of a No.10. In response to another poster pointing out you need a lethal finisher to win trophies etc.
You'd expect a lethal number 10 to get maybe 20 goals in total. A lethal striker is a different ball game, especially for a team that's creating chances. Has to be 30+.
People will find any reason to criticise eh?
Could he have more goals? Sure, but so could many other strikers in the league or in the world. The big problem is we are relying solely on him to play the role he does because Rooney cant do it and Rashford isnt ready to do it. We dont have other strikers (like Hernandez) to come on and score thus minimizing the so called effect of Zlatan costing us points by missing chances.
Yes Zlatan missed a one on one vs burnley and Stoke, but its only remembered cos the others in the games didnt score their chances (and its highlighted more).
If somebody else scores, we then look at 13 goals in 22 appearances as great (especially if we could bloody defend 1-0s in the league).
BTW, never actually had any fear he wouldnt score the 1 on 1 chance he had which was a strange feeling.
Could he have more goals? Sure, but so could many other strikers in the league or in the world. The big problem is we are relying solely on him to play the role he does because Rooney cant do it and Rashford isnt ready to do it. We dont have other strikers (like Hernandez) to come on and score thus minimizing the so called effect of Zlatan costing us points by missing chances.
Yes Zlatan missed a one on one vs burnley and Stoke, but its only remembered cos the others in the games didnt score their chances (and its highlighted more).
If somebody else scores, we then look at 13 goals in 22 appearances as great (especially if we could bloody defend 1-0s in the league).
BTW, never actually had any fear he wouldnt score the 1 on 1 chance he had which was a strange feeling.
And he will won't he?
Does that hurt a little considering how against him you've been the whole time? I love that you've now set the bar to 30+ for him to be a success, it's just you're subtle way of showing everyone just how wrong you have been regarding Zlatan.
He scores goals but slows down our attacking play.
With the right set of wingers, he'd be fantastic. I don't think we have them at United, though.
Mourinho clearly came to the club with the idea of playing with a target man, but didn't consider the individuals who would play off him. Zlatan isn't going to drag defenders out of position to give space to players who aren't naturally suited to creating it for themselves.
With the right set of wingers, he'd be fantastic. I don't think we have them at United, though.
Mourinho clearly came to the club with the idea of playing with a target man, but didn't consider the individuals who would play off him. Zlatan isn't going to drag defenders out of position to give space to players who aren't naturally suited to creating it for themselves.
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