Ruud's health the focus of attention

ENGLISH FA CUP/Manchester United V Arsenal: He may have had a quiet season, by his standards, but, as Daniel Taylor argues, United will need van Nistelrooy to counter the threat of Henry.

When Ruud van Nistelrooy was overlooked for the title of Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) player of the year last season, Bobby Charlton summed up the mood at Manchester United by pithily declaring he "wouldn't put any store in that award".

Van Nistelrooy's sympathisers were bemused that he could score 44 goals in a championship season and miss out on the individual honour. "I'd say Ruud has embarrassed a few of the players who didn't vote for him," volunteered Charlton.

The deadline for this year's award is next week and nobody at Old Trafford will be kicking up a fuss when van Nistelrooy is passed over again. Criticising a striker as accomplished as the Dutchman can seem remarkably churlish, but not even the fiercely protective Alex Ferguson could argue that he has sustained the exhilarating standards he set in scoring 80 goals in his first two seasons in English football.

True, this has been the season when van Nistelrooy has taken Denis Law's club record for European goals, as well as completing 100 goals for United. It is also beyond doubt that, such is his importance to the team, there is no overstating the effect it may have if his problematic knee keeps him out of today's clash.

Van Nistelrooy has scored 26 goals in 39 appearances this season, which makes him second only to Thierry Henry (30 in 40). Yet that also means he is still 18 short of last season's tally. He has not scored in the past month, and at Highbury last Sunday he must have felt like a lesser mortal compared with Henry, the reigning player of the year who, barring a voting scandal to compare with the 2000 presidential election in Florida, will be required to give another acceptance speech at the PFA's awards dinner on April 25th.

Whereas Henry lashed in Arsenal's goal with the velocity that Shoaib Akhtar usually musters with a cricket ball, van Nistelrooy was strangely subdued. It was not until injury-time that he had his first presentable opportunity, but his twisting header barely extended Jens Lehmann in Arsenal's goal.

At times he has looked as sharp and incisive as ever, but he has suffered from the departure of David Beckham and, as well as losing some of the consistency that made him so feared, he has been guilty of squandering more chances in the last three months than he would care to remember.

"Most people judge these things on current form, but you have to take the long-term view," says Gary Lineker. "When van Nistelrooy's banging them in everyone thinks he's the best, but when Henry's scoring they claim it's him.

"Henry is ahead on current form. He's definitely a better all-round player, with more pace and skill, whereas van Nistelrooy is what you would describe as the archetypal striker. He can't do the things that Henry does. And when you look at the records, Henry seems to score as many if not more than van Nistelrooy."

It is a pity Louis Saha's perceptive remarks about van Nistelrooy in an interview with L'Equipe were then dressed up by some English newspapers as an attack on his team-mate.

"His game is all about finishing," said Saha. "Ruud never scores from outside the 18-yard area and never takes free-kicks. It is very rare to see him trying his luck from distance. He is strong and uses his body well to shield the ball but, unlike Thierry, he can't run 100 metres in eight seconds. Thierry is a tough, all-round athlete, whereas Ruud doesn't take as much part in the team's collective play."

Saha noted that Henry's experiences in major international championships gave him the slight edge, because they had made him "battle-hardened". He is right, of course, and van Nistelrooy has admitted as much to Dutch journalists in the past week.

"When United lose I feel solely responsible," he said. "Things get too much for me. My brain will go mad. I have a storm in my head and the noise inside is deafening. It takes a lot out of me. At times I just feel numb."

Ferguson has questioned van Nistelrooy's form, most notably withdrawing him from the game at Fulham last month, but deep down he marvels at the striker's talents and knows, too, that he has one of the most dedicated professionals in the game.

The Scot glows with pride, for instance, when he recalls van Nistelrooy rejecting the chance of a day off to report for training the morning after they had received the championship trophy at Everton last season.

On United's pre-season visit to Nike's headquarters in Portland, Oregon, van Nistelrooy gave another insight into his meticulousness. While his team-mates enjoyed an afternoon off, he had arranged to have his legs cast in plaster and the pressure points in his feet and ankles analysed so they could develop shin-pads moulded specially to his requirements.

Of all Nike's superstars, the company regards van Nistelrooy as the "most demanding" but, along with Henry and Edgar Davids, the "most helpful".

"He does it in an inspirational way," says Bob Coombes, the company's footwear director.

"Some footballers take what they are given, some say 'These are the boots I want', but Ruud says: 'This is what I have found, this is what I am thinking'. He's meticulous about everything."

This may have been Arsenal's season so far, but van Nistelrooy will be determined Henry does not get it all his own way today. - Guardian Service