Manchester United Transfer News & Rumors: Is Radamel Falcao Headed to Juventus?
Life at Manchester United has been horrid for superstar Radamel Falcao. And it might not last beyond the 2014-15 season.
According to reports, the Colombian captain is slated for a move to Juventus next season, thus ending his spell with Manchester United.
It is a rather unfortunate fall from grace for the Colombian, who was seen as the top striker in the world two years ago when he put up a whopping 28 goals for Atletico Madrid; a year earlier he had scored 24 times in Spain.
However, this year he has had a grand total of four goals and four assists in 19 appearances, 12 of which have been starts. His stats are down across the board in every possible way as he has been unable to adapt to Manchester United's system.
But is Juventus the right move for him?
One of the issues for Falcao at Manchester is that he has not been guaranteed any playing minutes because of such players as Robin Van Persie and Wayne Rooney essentially being ahead of him on the pecking order.
Yet he would not be a lockat Juventus, either. Carlos Tevez has 16 goals on the year to lead the squad in the Italian League. He is unlikely to match his career-high of 23 goals in a domestic league, but 20 goals on the year is looking like a very likely possibility for the Argentine; that would match his second best scoring pace since 2010-11 when accomplished the feat with Manchester City.
Tevez's seven assists are already one off his career high set in 2012-13 and it is looking increasingly likely that he tops that number.
But Tevez is not the only man that Falcao will need to compete with. He will also have to deal with young Alvaro Morata, who is having a revelatory season. The Spaniard was formerly a Real Madrid product but was sent to Italy because there was simply no space for him in the starting XI and he was not willing to stay on the bench.
The result? The 22-year-old has responded with 11 goals in all competitions and seven in the Italian League; he is currently one goal off his career-high of eight from last season. And while he is taking more minutes to complete the feat (he scored eight goals in 560 minutes compared to seven in 975 minutes this season) he has made fewer appearances overall (22 this year to 23 last year). He also has four assists, a career-high for him and has simply looked like a player with a tremendously high ceiling that could be Juventus' main man for years to come.
Falcao has a better track record than either and at 29 should be in his prime years. But whether those are past or still occurring is a question that everyone is wanting the answer to. He could very well rebound and find his form anew with more playing time. But it is possible that moving to Juventus will not afford him this opportunity. In fact this could wind up being yet another Manchester United situation for the once-elite striker.
Should Falcao move to Juventus?
All Stats from WhoScored.com.