Paul Scholes is a Manchester United legend himself, and he played alongside Ruud van Nistelrooy during his time at Old Trafford.
The retired footballer turned BT Sport pundit praised Edinson Cavani after his heroics against Roma, comparing the Uruguayan international to Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Although the Reds lost 3-2 on the night, they still made the Europa League final – having won 8-5 on aggregate. Villarreal stand in United’s way for European success and we’re always going to be favourites with players like Cavani gunning for success.
Cavani scored a brace on Thursday night to ensure United made the final. He was then compared to Van Nistelrooy.
“We spoke before about Ruud van Nistelrooy didn’t we, comparing him to him,” Scholes said on BT Sport (H/t The Express).
“And it’s that exact type of run once he gets through. All he’s trying to do there is keep himself offside, he’s clever enough to do that he knows where the defender is.
“The pass gets played through to him it’s a perfect first touch.
“And then you talk about Ruud again with a ruthless finish. This is just smashing it, isn’t it?”
Van Nistelrooy joined United from PSV Eindhoven in 2001 and went on to score 150 goals in 219 matches. He experienced Premier League glory, but I’ve always felt he deserved to win more trophies during his time at the club.
The favourite United striker.
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Ruuds goal record certainly deserved more honours but in the end that selfishness was his downfall at United as Fergie realised he wouldn’t work with the fluid frontline he wanted. Shame how it ended. Loved him!
Sir Alex: “If you compare my great goal-scorers then Ruud was the most prolific.
He was one of the most selfish finishers I ever saw. His personal goal tally was his guiding obsession. That single-mindedness gave him the edge of a great assassin.
He had no interest in build-up play or how many yards he had run in a game. The only aspect he was ever interested in was ‘How many goals did Ruud van Nistelrooy score?’
Pairing up with van Nistelrooy wasn’t going to work for Andy Cole, so I sold him to Blackburn Rovers.
Another striker who suffered from Ruud’s singularity was Diego Forlan, a grand player.
But Ruud wanted to be the No.1 finisher. That was his nature. Forlan didn’t register on his radar at all, so when you put the two of them out there together there was zero chemistry.”