Originally posted by Falchoon
Is it just me or does Forlan seem a class below his teammates and others in the top 2/3 Premiership teams. His passing is horrible.
I'm glad you asked this question Falchoon - I'm going to do a bit of a you_idiot style dribble, but bear with me
Lets clear up one thing. Forlan is not RVN. Never was, and probably never will be. As most know, I'm a huge Forlan fan, and will always stay that way.
Sadly, Diego has turned from terrace favourite to terrace boo-boy. From reading Red Issue, there is merciless slagging of the poor guy. No first touch, can't pass (as you made mention), can't shoot, can't head the ball, runs up blind alleys, etc.
Now you think after scoring a nice goal yesterday, some of the slagging would have abated. Wrong. "Panic shot", "Lucky", etc. Apparently this "panic shot" deceived Van Der Sar, otherwise it would've gone elsewhere. Now, Van Der Sar is one of the top keepers in the EPL, and probably the world, so this is ridiculous. It
was a good finish. If it was RVN or someone else, they'd be lapping it up.
Diego is very much a confidence player IMO. After that goal you would've thought he'd be flying. Then early in the 2nd half he had 'that' opportunity to score. He pulled the trigger (too early apparently), and missed - with RVN screaming for it in the middle. If roles were reversed, does anyone think RVN would've laid it off? Hell no. He's a striker, they're all greedy - why wouldn't he have a go? Plus if that had gone in and we won the game, it would've been highway robbery anyway. After Diego's miss, his confidence dropped a fair bit, and yes some bad touches came out.
The other problem is Diego is not Paul Scholes either. Fergie likes his 4-4-1-1 formation, and his usual tactic is to use him in the same role as Scholes. Diego is a striker, not an advanced midfielder or what not. When you have RVN in your squad, naturally he's going to be selected up front above Diegoal. I'm sure Diego's confidence would be sucked dry if he kept playing that role. Yesterday when he was playing alongside Ruud, he was far far better. Yes, Ruud got ****ed off, but how many times did Cantona get ****ty at Cole? Lots of times. When Cole first came to United, he had nothing to his game except being able to poach goals in the box. He couldn't hold up the ball, pass, etc. either. In the end we got a few good goalscoring seasons out of him. Some people have short memories it seems.
Now Diegoal at Independiete was another story. Unfortunately I haven't witnessed any of his work there, but from what I'm told, all his goals were spectacular. Now the Argentine first Division is not the EPL, but finishes like that aren't consistently scored by duds. That long range screamer against Southampton is testament to that. Add in that cracker he got for Uruguay at the Japorea 2002 as well (without being too biased, one of the better goals of that tournament). Diego and his strike partner Vuoso, who is at the Massives were snapped up by bigger clubs. Maybe Moomba can help me out here, but I'm pretty sure Vuoso was the one setting up Diegoal. Given that the Massives have about 10 strikers on their books, its not surprising Vuoso hasn't got a look in as yet. He is probably still one for the future.
In all honesty, Diegoal needs to be playing up front consistently to get his confidence up. When you've got RVN in the side and you're not playing 4-4-2, thats going to be hard to do. Keep in mind RVN and Diegoal are two different strikers in any case. Being slagged off in the terraces isn't going to help him. He went on a fairly barren run when he first joined United, but once the first went in, so did a few more. During that time, he never gave up. He could've easily sulked and ran back to Independiente with his tail between his legs. But he kept trying at got his reward.
Now I'd imagine a lot of the Forlan baggers are ABU's (even if they claim to be United fans anyway), so some of the criticism is probably over the top. However when United lose, the 'fans' always look for a fall guy, and Diego is currently it. He wasn't the worst player on the pitch yesterday, that is for certain.
God help you 'fans' if you drive him out of the club. God help you 'fans' if he leaves and starts scoring bagfuls in Spain or what not.
Yes this is probably a little emotive, but it annoys the hell out me to see so called United 'fans' continually get into him. He's a Red, support him or go follow Oldham.