Law puts faith in big hitters

Stuart Mathieson

November 05, 2009

Wayne Rooney

DENIS Law believes United have the firepower to put the frighteners on Chelsea in Sunday's Stamford Bridge collision.

But the Stretford End king, and Sir Alex Ferguson's all-time favourite hitman, warns the Londoners have their own scary spearhead.

"It is going to be a battle of some of the Premier League's most potent strikers," Law said.

"I can guarantee that somewhere along the line Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov or Michael Owen for the Reds, or Didier Drogba or Nicolas Anelka for Chelsea will have a big say in the outcome of the match.

"I think whoever wins this one it will be down to one of those five.

"Jimmy Greaves was the greatest goal-scorer I have ever seen. Not the greatest player, but the greatest goal-scorer.

"If Jimmy and the ball were in the penalty area you just knew he was going to score. When Greavesie got the ball the opposition panicked because you knew more than likely the ball would end up in the net.

"I think United have three strikers who instil similar panic in defences. When Rooney is in the box the opposition will be thinking 'Oh no' he is more than likely going to hit the net. Owen and Berbatov are the same. They all put panic into the opposition.

"When United signed Rooney I was asked what I thought about him and I thought if he stayed away from injury throughout his career he would go on to break all records. Not only for United but also for England. I still do.

Rooney work

"Strikers don't hit their best until they are around 27. That is their peak and he still has years to come.

"Because Wayne does a lot of other work on the field it could be a factor in that he has these barren spells and goalscoring gluts."

"Berbatov is a different player altogether," added Denis.

"We knew the player he was when he came here. He was the same player at Spurs. I don't understand why people are criticising him. You know you are not getting someone who is forever dashing about all day long.

"OK, he doesn't get stuck in like Rooney, but what a talent. "Berbatov doesn't work his socks off but scores some great goals."

As for Owen, Law foresees a classic Fergie bargain in the making.

"When Alex signed Owen I said it would be a good acquisition. He is a terrific scorer. He will be a great signing if he stays free of injury.

"If you have three potential scorers, like United have, you have a major chance," he added.

"Obviously in Drogba and Anelka, Chelsea have their own qualities up front and it is going to be a fascinating battle."

DENIS spoke to the M.E.N while promoting the Barclays Ticket Office, which gives fans the chance to win a pair of Barclays Premier League tickets every 90 minutes throughout the season by collecting an advice slip from any Barclays ATM or entering online at www.barclaysticketoffice.com

Who has the better strikers, United or Chelsea? Have your say.

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edinburgh red, edinburgh (05/11/2009 at 14:55)

If it was a battle of the most potent strikers this season it would be between drogba and torres followed up by darren bent,we only have rooney in the top ten on 5 I think,fabreagras and the arsenal defender have just as much already.
Face facts our team is more shot shy in recent seasons that its ever been, take ronalo's goals away and it would be even worse,rooney has never scored more than 20 in the league,berba hardly shoots,owen is our new andy cole,fletch/carrick/scholes/park and giggs get about two each a season,nani and valencia will probably get about 5 each, and anderson has probably scored his only goal already,coupled with our defenders never scoring from the countless set pieces, it's pretty grim when compared to the free scoring football we were used to seeing at one point.
Drogba on his day and anelkas pace are better than what we have, as rooney is a midfielder most of the time.

Balders!, W3106, Tier2 (05/11/2009 at 15:38)

edinburgh red, edinburgh......it's hard to argue with your comments but if you hang on about 5 mins......Dunnee from Wimpslow will tell you that a certain Kai Rooney should be in the team.......then we would be FREE-FLOWING..........

....at both ends !!!!

eddy01 (05/11/2009 at 15:53)

edinburgh red, edinburgh

If MO did turn out to be our new Andy Cole I would be delighted. He had an excellent record as a goal scorer at Utd and left before he should have. In fact, it's the defence that needs tightening up at the moment.

Dublinred, Dublin (05/11/2009 at 16:08)

Wish we had Law on Sunday!!

Excellence Of Execution (05/11/2009 at 16:12)

LMAO @ Balders.

Algernon Blabbermouth, eccles (05/11/2009 at 16:42)

Berba..Owen..Rooney. Cast your mind back 10yrs and the Fab4. Then throw in Ruud,Eric,Hughsey and our cup runneth over with the ability to put a bulge in the onion bag. Of them all would love to .have Coley back as a 22yr old.His pace and movement was a joy and he'd always make space for other players to exploit.
Just been on the comedy side...In their top 10 forwards....Dickov..Rosler..Stewart.
And the King.
No contest!

Manchester United- the team despised by most Mancunians and the majority of football fans., Tick tock, not long now. (05/11/2009 at 16:43)

Are you sure you feel ok Denis?

red (05/11/2009 at 17:01)

rooney's biggest asset is that he draws defenders, opening up others to score. pity there's nobody obvious to fill that second slot in the current squad. owen can't hit a barn door. but maybe obertan and valencia can score a couple against chelsea, as the unknowns. i think we've a good chance of winning this game. drogba and anelka suit our style and we can defend against them.

Steve in Brussels (05/11/2009 at 17:17)

How on earth can Dennis Law comment on a striker's strengths anyway? I mean what did he ever do in the game - what was he a goalkeeper or a linesman or something? I think we should clearly not listen to the judgement of this "Lawman" when it comes to the finer arts of scoring goals when we have so many tick-tocking armchair confucious's like Ted Knott and co. who know much more. ;-)

bobbydazzler (05/11/2009 at 17:22)

edinghburgh red.

i feel i must take you to task on your comment that owen is our new andy cole.

cole only needed 3 chances to score a goal whereas owen currently needs 5 ( as does rooney).

cole was a very very hard working player for the team whereas owen is most certainly not.

cole was very very fast whereas owen used to be fast but sadly he is'nt anymore.

was a a great great servant of our club cruelly underated

take heart edingburgh red the midfield have finally started to score a few more goals will this be the season when they finally get a total of more than 15 goals between them( all 7 Players).

anyday now expect our missing friend alias to pile in declaring that we have goals coming from all corners of the team just nowhere near enough of them. do you think he will be making more empty boasts this year that we will be top scorers? we were'nt last year and we won't be this year arsenal are already miles ahead as are the ruskis.

Gilly, Belgium (05/11/2009 at 17:32)

Chelsea have a formidable strike force, Uniteds are not as good , and im a UNITED supporter !

Brora boy, Highlands (05/11/2009 at 19:33)

Rooney and Drogba are both strong individuals but Chelsea throw a lot of high balls at Drogba which he wins a fair share of. The same is not true of Rooney although he is a more complete footballer than Drogba. Anelka was always a flip of the coin and has worked out for Chelsea partly because of the chemistry or make up of the Chelsea players many of whom are as flaky as he is. You need look no further than Mikel who is a complete head case. It always helps when you have one of the best goalkeepers in the world playing for you and the back four rarely seems to change in fact there isn't a huge amount of rotation in the Chelsea team and I stand to be corrected on this. We need to stay close to them through December as we have some great additions on the way and some will head for the exit door and some will go out on loan. I don't like the way we are performing right now and we should not be the only team Liverpool have beat in their last 7 games. I hope to see our team come out the gate battling for every ball on Sunday.

GC Northstand (05/11/2009 at 20:47)

Well it looks like absoloute plonkers come in 3s although the Dunce from Witslow hasn't contributed (clearly the doctors have finally found out how to sedate him correctly) the Jock from Edinburgh and the berk from brussels have the audacity to question the Law Man. as one who saw him make his debut from Turin and watched him almost every week he was the deadliest striker ever to wear a UTD shirt. today he would walk into any top team in any country in the world, and had an engine that took him from box to box, the man was, is and for ever will be THE LEGEND of OT

keithmat (05/11/2009 at 21:06)

To date Rooney (7) + Berbatov (4) = 11 vs Drogba (9) + Anelka (3) = 12 league goals so not much in it really. According to the Actim Index it's Drogba (1st with 301), Anelka (6th with 207), Berbatov (14th with 178) and Rooney (18th with 166) so while the goals are close the Chelsea players seem more effective? Drogba and Rooney would be good together that would scare the life out of most defences!

Unite against the UAF (05/11/2009 at 23:38)

Steve in Brussels, you criticise a great player like Denis Law who played alongside and against the greatest players of that time, just remind me who you played with or against and at what level. As for the scoring of goals, wasn't Denis's last ever goal in football one of the sweetest goals ever ?

TCPerth, WA (06/11/2009 at 02:59)

Steve from Brussels. Is this a wind up or are you a complete bloody moron?

Redarmy11 (06/11/2009 at 03:18)

T&C- I wasn't having a personal dig at Phelan other than he isn't the most flamboyant of characters. What is your opinion in the drop in the level of entertaining football last season and this season thus so far? I know people called CQ at first, but it just seems a coincidence. I know we are winning games now, but we were winning trophies in an exciting manner in 93/94 team, 99 team, 07/08- why have we resorted to cautious, boring football. Further, I need to mention team selections- Barca, Scousers etc to boot. Why did we select Park so much last season as opposed to Nani (which I think has had an affect on him). Why are we playing with O'shea continuously and sticking with Shelley in midfield, whom I know is one of your favourites.

Red on, Ice (06/11/2009 at 08:53)

Tic tock, I can smell your bile all the way to Iceland. Sorry about your predicament, but we love ManUtd and you are a City supporter I guess. Nothing can be done about that. Remember, envy is a deadly sin.

eddy01 (06/11/2009 at 09:37)

I think you'll find Steve in Brussels was responding to the Bertie who was questioning Dennis'comments. It's called sarcasm.

tooth&claw, manchester (06/11/2009 at 09:41)

RedArmy, this season is only just begun and we are slow starters every season, so we'll park that.

Last season we changed the way we played to accommodate Ronaldo. It meant that he didn't have defensive duties and that a midfielder had to drop in and cover him every time he went forward or wandered from his station. That effectively meant that we were light in midfield if we lost the ball. The system worked well in that we won a lot but it made some of the play disjointed and often meant that we were lighter in central midfield than would normally be the case.

On top of that, you have to factor in the cumulative effects of so much high level football. Nearly all of United's players were carrying injuries come the latter part of the season. That showed up particularly in the CL final with a number of players playing through injury.

Finally, there's always the nostalgia element. You feel that we were playing much better a couple of years ago but at the time the same people were moaning that we weren't playing as good as before or as well as previous teams. It always happens, even if nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

I don't think the coaching or fitness staff have much of an impact on how well we play in individual games. That's down to the players and the selection. The coaches have a more long-term effect. I don't notice any difference in how well we prepare for games, so I'd say it's less the coaches than the system. And we've changed system again.

bobbydazzler (06/11/2009 at 10:22)

dublin red

if a 26 year old denis law was playing for us he would absoloutley terrify john terry. and he would score more goals than rooney berbatov and owen combined. simply the greatest striker ever to wear our famous red shirt.

Steve in Brussels (06/11/2009 at 11:55)

Eddy I'm glad someone is awake. As for the others i will let them scratch their heads and furrow their brows in a vain attempt to understand sarcasm! Not Americans are you two by any chance?

On the actual topic it is hard to judge on goals alone. On MOTD Shearer and Hanson were given the choice. Rooney, Drogba or Torres. Shearer didn't hesitate to say Rooney and Hanson went for el scouser. Cantona never scored more than 20 in a season, ruud scored 44 in one. Was he twice as good? No. Rooney is a complete footballer and a monster. Drogba is a handful and a monster also aided that he dives more shamefully than ronaldo did at his worst. Witness the penalty last week when taken down from behind he went over like that guy in Platoon. Anelka finally seems to play as he always could but like Berbatov does not score so many. Berba is odd as he is undoubtedly a genius but does not show it often enough and needs to score more. He managed to score close to 30 for Spurs in a season so it is not beyond him. Owen is a finisher. nothing more nothing less. Yes he has missed a few but so does everyone. I think if you look at the minutes Owen has been on the pitch this season he will probably be as prolific as anyone else.

jordy, Middleton (06/11/2009 at 15:44)

Balders at 15:38, haha superb mate!

Britt/Canada (06/11/2009 at 16:19)

bobbydazzler,
6/11/2009 at 10:22

You must have witnessed the the lawman close up,I also watched him many times ,great player & an even better man.No one as ever since brought the electricity to MU that Denis & George did,I am thankful that I got to watch that team and like thousands of others copy the lawmen's salute when some miss hit effort-hit the back of the net.

Britt/Canada (06/11/2009 at 16:26)

tooth&claw, manchester,
6/11/2009 at 09:41

Good post T&C,seems like SAF actually banned CR from tackling back etc,used to get him into too much trouble...should have got Scholesy to give him advice,that would have kept him out of trouble.

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