An article in the English daily newspaper 'The Daily Mirror' has rightly pointed out that Manchester United should start looking out for a new striker. Not that Ruud van Nistelrooy does not live up to United's expectations, on the contrary.
After van Nistelrooy's goalscoring masterclass last weekend in which the Dutch international scored yet another hat-trick for Manchester, it is clear that Sir Alex Ferguson's troops rely too much on their goal-machine, for, if van Nistelrooy should be sidelined for a lengthy period, then the goals could suddenly grind to an halt. Van Nistelrooy, who has scored 87 goals in 110 games for United, is now United's sole goal-getter now that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been sidelined until Christmas after undergoing knee surgery.
Ruud's colleagues are also aware of their reliance on him as team-mate Ryan Giggs explained. "Ruud is such an important player to us. If you put the ball in the right place, he'll almost always finish it off. He scored a hat-trick but it could have been more. But we know we can't rely on him every time. We all have to contribute goals. It can't just fall to one man."
Frank Sinclair, who scored Leicester's consolation goal against United in the weekend also paid tribute to van Nistelrooy. "I have played against Ruud three or four times now and he is a class apart. I saw what happened to him at the end of the Arsenal game, but I have nothing but respect for him. I have always found him to be a gentleman on the pitch and a fantastic player. He has been totally professional since the Arsenal game. He's said nothing about it and just got on with his job. From what I saw of the incident at the final whistle, he was the victim. People will always try to wind up the best players, but Ruud manages to rise above all that, which is to his credit."