LIKE WE CARE

Last updated : 05 November 2004 By Editor
Arnold Muhren says that Ruud is a great goal scorer but perhaps not in the band of the greatest.

Speaking to BBC Sport he said:

"I find it always difficult to compare players with each other. He's a different
player and it's a different time.

"He's got a very good character, he moves well, he wants the ball, he's a good
header of the ball and he can score goals. What more do you want from a
striker?

"At European level he's one of the best strikers around.

"He can beat people. He's fast, he's very suited for the English game.

"He's always dangerous in front of goal and liable to score goals - every team in the world wants a player like that. Personally I would have loved to have played with him."

He then goes on

"They said on Dutch television last night that if there was any doubt about who
should be the centre-forward in the national side between Kluivert, Makaay or
Van Nistelrooy then he finished that discussion last night,"

"But I think it is wrong to make comparisons with Cruyff and Di Stefano. I think
they were on another level.

"Van Nistelrooy is a great goalscorer but I think Cruyff and Di Stefano were more complete players.

"The way Ruud scores the goals is great. He is very alert at punishing defenders for small mistakes.

"But two of the four goals last night were mistakes by defenders and I also saw
an offside goal and a penalty.

"I don't even think he is yet at the level of our present national coach Marco van Basten. Both he and Cruyff were more complete football players.

And on

"I think that's part of the discussion about who should be in the national team.

"I think Kluivert is a better footballer but not as good a goalscorer. He tries to do things in a more sophisticated way, like Van Basten used to do.

"Van Nistelrooy is only worried about the ball going in, no matter how he does it, which is also good quality.

"In the way Van Nistelrooy achieves what he wants to achieve as a goalscorer I would say he's more like Gerd Muller than an all-round player like Cruyff."

Yawn