BY KARAN TEJWANI

Ask any Premier League fan about the greatest forwards he or she has seen in their lifetime and a large majority of your responses will include the likes of Alan Shearer, Robbie Fowler, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry or Luis Suárez. Very rarely will you come across a fan who brings up Ruud van Nistelrooy, a man who aced his job of leading the line and was a monster for defenders to come up against.

Perhaps it was the timing of van Nistelrooy’s reign of dominance that puts him in such relative anonymity; the era between Manchester United’s treble winning heroics – when the club were going through a dry spell in terms of trophies – and the emergence of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney who spearheaded the club onto domestic and continental supremacy.

He would score them all: volleys, headers, tap-ins, penalties and wonderful solo…