Man Utd: 5 Awesome Strikers And 5 That Sucked

4. Ruud Van Nistelrooy

Before the days of Javier Hernandez, Ruud van Nistelrooy was the original goal-poacher at Old Trafford. Perhaps in ridicule, perhaps in affection, the Dutchman was dubbed "the man who can't score from outside the box". True enough, Ruud had a fairly lacklustre goalscoring record from beyond 18 yards, with nearly all of his 95 goals at United coming from inside the penalty area. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing - inside the box, he was, as the saying goes, "a fox" and was absolutely lethal from six yards. Bought in 2001 for £19 million, he more than justified that price tag by winning all of England's major trophies during his stint at Old Trafford, and his final season yielded 24 goals, to give him an overall tally of 150 strikes in 220 appearances. Due to a falling out with star player Cristiano Ronaldo and Ferguson himself, Ruud left United for Real Madrid (as too many former United stars have done) in 2006, and continued his remarkable goal-scoring spree by adding a further 64 strikes in 96 appearances at the Bernabeu, making him by far one of United's biggest "what if" players. Had he stayed at the Theatre of Dreams, there's no question he would have continued to be a success, but now we will never know.