Having won the Barclaycard Premiership Player of the Month award for December, Ruud van Nistelrooy has earned further recognition by scooping the Scottish Mutual Performance of the Week prize as voted for by an LMA panel.
The Scottish Mutual Performance of the Week award is usually given to a team or an individual for their display in one particular match but this time it has been awarded in recognition of one player's efforts throughout a seven-game spell that has seen him equal a Premiership goalscoring record.
Ruud van Nistelrooy's goal against Southampton at St. Mary's on Sunday afternoon earned him a place in the record books alongside Mark Stein, Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry – the only other men to have scored in seven consecutive Premiership matches during its 10-year history.
It has also earned the Dutchman a specially engraved Stuart Crystal Chalice after the LMA's panel of Dave Bassett, Howard Wilkinson and his Club manager Sir Alex Ferguson decided his remarkable achievement should be officially recognised.
Van Nistelrooy's goal against Southampton was actually his 9th in United's last 7 Premiership fixtures and his 4th against The Saints in less than a month.
The 25-year-old also netted in the victories over Derby, Middlesbrough, Everton, Fulham and Newcastle helping the defending champions to the top of the Barclaycard Premiership table with a string of seven straight wins.
Van Nistelrooy will be hoping to continue his rich vein of form and will set a new record if he scores in United's home game against Blackburn on Saturday.
In fact, Old Trafford's new hero has scored in each of his last 9 appearances, bagging an incredible 13 goals in a run that began with a double against Boavista in the Champions League at the beginning of December and included a remarkable late brace against Aston Villa in the FA Cup that sent United through to the Fourth Round (despite nursing an injury and coming off the bench).
Sir Alex Ferguson has already praised his £19million man and is delighted that the player he waited for over a year to eventually sign has had such an impact in the English game.
Speaking exclusively to leaguemanagers.com in a www.4thegame.com/lma/news/interview/1591/FERGIE+AND+ROBSON+ON+RED+HOT+RUUD.htmlvideo interview this week, the United boss said: "Certainly what he's done at the moment has been eye-catching.
"I think you get most things in a match and you see the evidence there but you also learn a bit more when you see him on the training field.
"His finishing in training is exactly as it is on the pitch – he very rarely misses a chance – and it's that consistency and that sort of a ruthlessness he's got near the penalty box."
Van Nistelrooy will receive the Scottish Mutual Performance of the Week award in front of Sky Sports' cameras in a presentation to be screened on the network's Soccer Saturday programme before his attempt to break the record in front of 67,000 adoring fans against Blackburn.
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