Diego Forlan says Manchester United could have altered the course of their season had they used Edinson Cavani properly from the start.
Cavani, 35, looks set to walk away from Old Trafford at the end of a frustrating campaign which has seen him spend much of it on either the treatment table or the bench. But fellow Uruguayan Forlan believes all parties must look back on a missed opportunity over a frustrating 20-month spell in Manchester given his undoubted world-class talent.
“I think at United if he had the opportunity to play many games in a row, he would have been scoring many many important goals for the club,” said the former United forward. “He did that last season if you remember. At the end he was playing many games before the Europa League Final and you could see in the way that many people were behind him, players and the way he took the team to the next level.
“Why? Because he was playing most of the games. This season he started the season injured and then he didn’t play for one reason or another which I don’t know.”
Cavani has scored two goals in 17 appearances for United this season, with injuries restricting playing time under both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and interim boss Ralf Rangnick. But last season he scored 17 goals in 39 games after signing in October 2020 and was instrumental in the club’s charge to the Europa League Final last May.
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The Uruguay international bagged and impressive six in four games in the knockout stages including United’s solitary goal in the Final against eventual winners Villareal. Yet injury niggles and the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo with a guaranteed starting berth combined to put a dampener on the South American’s second year in red.
Forlan believes the lack of a run of games might well have contributed to his spells injured as well: “He never played two or three games in a row and it is difficult for a player to perform well if he doesn’t have many games."
Forlan, who returns to Old Trafford to play a Legends charity match for the Manchester United Foundation against Liverpool on May 21, says Cavani will still be remembered as a great, adding: “Edinson has been a very professional player, very strong physically and you saw just why he was signed towards the end of last season."
