Why did Falcao not fit?

There was a lot of excitement among  United fans when the news of the arrival of Colombian star Radamel Falcao broke last summer. United had signed him on the deadline day in a loan deal worth 6 million pounds from French side AS Monaco.

The Red Devils had the chance to make him one among them which would have cost them for a fee reported to be around 43 million pounds but that decision would  be taken by the boss Louis Van Gaal at the end of the season.

Making his debut at Old Trafford against QPR as a substitute, the Colombian, popularly known as ‘El Tigre’ didn’t shine in the way the fans had expected him to. Perhaps the main reason behind this was a bunch of minor and unstable injuries, compounding the ACL injury which saw his miss the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Also the change in the style of play and the competitiveness in the league could have been other major reasons.

But from my point of view, the reason why Falcao didn’t fit well into the Old Trafford club was because of less playing time. He was often brought in as a substitute for the skipper Wayne Rooney or Robin Van Persie. Though many believed he had plenty of chances to come up at his best, he still didn’t display his superb goal scoring ability at the club.

Also the tactics and frequent changes implied by the manager would have been troublesome for the Colombian talisman. He had started a handful of games due the absence of the boss’ first choice strikers Rooney or Van Persie. Given more time on the field, he would have been a better performer at United.

Other than this, the fans believe that he lacked ability when it came to intercepting long balls and that his style of play is more suited to a team that plays with quick passing where he could run forward and be the primary poacher. Certainly none of this was provided to him in Van Gaal’s system.

He preferred to play as alone striker wherein he could get the maximum opportunities to score with the open space around him but unfortunately he started only 1 game in such style of play which was in a 1-0 defeat at Chelsea.

Fans seem to be agreed that there has been a combination of things which have all contributed to Falcao’s poor spell at United.

Once revered as one of the world’s best strikers, it has been a desperately sad situation for the 29-year-old having only 4 goals to his name in his debut season in England.