Regular readers will know that we have championed the cause of Radamel Falcao all season. He was really unlucky with injuries, after a bright start to his time at Manchester United, and we fully expected him to be scoring a brace per game once he got fit and into his stride.
But the last few weeks have been very worrying for him indeed. He’s had some serious game time and still looks out of sorts. You can’t fault him for his work rate and he may simply not suit a system which employs two centre forwards. But he just isn’t doing enough to stay at Manchester United beyond this summer.
If he was a young hopeful then the boss could well decide to keep him on. But, at £350,000 a week and a fee of about £43m to come, there is very little chance that Louis van Gaal will buy him on this form. Falcao just hasn’t shown enough quality or ball control – his touch has been poor of late and his hold up play substandard – to be considered as one of Manchester United’s main summer recruits.
With 13 games left in the league, and potentially 4 in the cup, Falcao has 17 games at most to prove his worth. If it was up to us we would drop RvP and play Falcao up top on his own for three games in a final test of his ability to succeed at Manchester United.
Why? Well, at 31, RvP could well move on this summer. He certainly isn’t a long-term solution and hasn’t had a great season. But Falcao could be a longer-term solution for United so he should be given the opportunity to show what he can do up top alone with Rooney in the hole and good service from out wide from the likes of Di Maria and Januzaj.
Falcao is a finisher but he is often asked to come deep and it doesn’t suit him. Let him lead the line alone at number 9 for a few games and then we can get a conclusive idea of whether he is worth the money.
