When Radamel Falcao signed his loan deal with Manchester United back in August, more than a few of us had raised eyebrows and even more had questions.

Could he handle the English Premier League? 

Was this the same Falcao who smashed La Liga with Atletico Madrid? 

Would he be able to stay injury free at Old Trafford?

Now six months later, it seems that the gamble from Louis van Gaal, Man United and Falcao himself hasn’t really paid off.

The Colombian still doesn’t look fully fit, has suffered from a few niggles and has scored only four goals in fifteen appearances (eleven starts). Bu to his credit he also has four assists to his name.

Whats plain to see is that this isn’t the same Radamel Falcao from a few years back.

According to the strikers super agent Jorge Mendes, the fault lies at coach Van Gaal’s door.

‘I miss [Sir Alex] Ferguson at Manchester United. With him and this squad the situation would be different,’

‘I know that if they give Falcao five complete matches, I am convinced that he would score goals in practically all of those matches.’

I think mentioning Sir Alex will not do Mr Mendes’ client many favours and could rile up the Dutchman.

Now Radamel Falcao has actually played the full ninety minutes on five occasions this term and only scored once in those matches.

Since the sixteenth of January, the Colombian has played five times. In three of those games he played the full game, he also played eighty minutes against Leicester City and seventy-four minutes against Burnley. That is quite a lot of game time in this period of the season. Yet he only grabbed one goal (in the Leicester fixture) and one assist (Burnley match).

His confidence has been rocked and you can see it in his play. The forward also seems a yard off pace and has been snatching at chances. Falcao’s all round play hasn’t been overly influential either.

The fact that Louis dropped the twenty-nine year old hitman from the squad that faced and lost to Southampton, showed the world that the United manager lacks confidence in the player too. Whether that’s in his ability or fitness, well only Van Gaal can answer that.

Then there is the fact that both Falcao and Robin van Persie have both struggled to make any meaningful partnership happen at Old Trafford. Obviously with Van Persie’s history with the coach, the fact he’s a full time Man Utd player and has more EPL goals will often mean that Falcao will be the one that gets dropped or subbed when things don’t go well.

So as I say this isn’t the same Falcao.

But then again, he wasn’t the same Falcao at Monaco either, according to French football expert Andrew Gibney. Mr Gibney assures us that Falcao’s stats and knee injury helped keep up the myth that he was a phenomenal striker. Yet when you actually watched the Colombian in ligue 1, he seldom looked happy and never had that cutting edge or sharpness that he had shown previously in Spain and Portugal.

I’d imagine that playing in the French south coast wasn’t quite the place where Falcao was dreaming about playing his football. He probably want to stay in Madrid and move across the city to Real. But alas I am sure he was convinced by Mendes to see it out for a year, score goals in Ligue 1 and he’d soon find himself playing at the Bernabeu.

But then came his tragic knee injury. That blow then saw fellow Colombian James Rodriguez step up and live Falcao’s dreams. First, James proved himself at Monaco and became their star player towards the end of the season. Then Rodriguez shone at the World Cup and was Colombia’s hero (not Falcao who had to sit out and watch from home). On the back of that James Rodriguez would then rub the salt into Radamel’s wounds by joining Real Madrid for €80m. That money was probably earmarked for Falcao just a year before.

Losing out on a dream move like that can really dishearten a player!

Another problem for the striker at Man Utd is that the whole team isn’t gear towards Falcao being its pinnacle star. He’s now part of the machine rather than being the main cog driving it. Now you can’t have your team all geared around one player when that player isn’t fully fit or on top of his game.

So with all the fuss that surrounds Radamel Falcao and the fact that he can’t score or perform consistently, I just can’t see Manchester United splashing out £60m to make his stay permanent.

Actually unless things improve dramatically this term will any team part with that kind of cash for the striker and can he ever reach the heights he reached at the Vicente Calderon stadium again?

Posted on February 12th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article