Comments on: Summer Transfer Frenzy: Are Strikers Worth Their Weight in Goals?

By: Bestplayersdirectory.com

Bestplayersdirectory.com — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:16:07 +0000

Just hoping that Huntelaar and Van Nistelrooy will join a new club (i hope in England) where they can prove their scoring skills each week. Can’t wait to hear the good news!!

P.S. Maybe other interesting post to read on Huntelaar:
http://www.oleole.com/blogs/realmadridtalk/posts/is-selling-huntelaar-the-right-thing-to-do

By: Robbert

Robbert — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:31:06 +0000

Very good article, cheers for that. Two things though:

I like Huntelaar a lot, and it tends to somewhat irk me to hear the criticism “oh, but he’s only played in Holland so far”, as this is often meant to imply he can’t cut it at a higher level. But I am of the opinion that for a player of his ilk this is a rather irrelevant point. It’s true that he’s not an incredibly technical, modern centre-forward that creates his own chances; instead, he’s the ultimate goal poacher. But the skill to be good off the ball, the ability to be in the right place at the right time every time is the same, whether in the Spanish league or in the Dutch.

I can understand, and agree to, your decision not to include players like Ronaldo and Arshavin into this. But I would argue that players like Rooney and Van Persie fall into the same category.

By: BD Condell

BD Condell — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:34:43 +0000

@Ryan: I understand your point but that can actually cut both ways. For example, the biggest fallers in terms of average from the career list to the last 3 years list included Fabiano, Crespo, Owen and Shevchenko. In all of these cases their stats have fallen away as they’ve passed their peak and are no longer as prolific as when they were younger.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:14:03 +0000

Most of the top players on this list are 30 and up. More are 27 and up. Torres is only 25, and his stats are approaching those of guys who have been around much longer. Most of Huntelaar’s goals were for the Dutch league, and I believe that he has not been with a top European team long enough. I like Huntelaar and Torres (treacherously I am an Arsenal fan), but Torres will be higher on the list in the years to come. He has great years ahead of him, unlike many of the players on the list.

By: Madridista

Madridista — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:09:41 +0000

Destrier: You are right, somewhat, in that in the grey area between a 4-4-2 and a 4-2-3-1, a midfielder in a very advanced position can effectively be performing as a second striker, or vice versa. The difference, as it applies to Madrid, is that it is not Huntelaar, but Higuain, who is dropping back to be a creative midfielder. We had a very strange situation last season where we often had no true targetman on the pitch. I believe Raul was meant to act as one, but he’s not as clinical as he used to be and not as ruthless as Huntelaar and Van Nistelrooy. Also, he tends to drop back to get involved in play when he’s not getting the ball. What I saw last season was the midfielders being unable to put the ball through to the strikers, so Higuain would drop into midfield to try to get the ball himself, and then look up and see that there was no targetman to put the ball through to! Neither Higuain nor Raul are aerially outstanding, so Marcelo and Robben tended to cut inside instead of cross. As for our stable of creative midfielders, they didn’t quite work out. Sneijder had lots of problems last season and Guti was himself. Van Der Vaart has actually been the most efficient in creating assists, but he simply wasn’t played.

So we had a case where Higuain was essential to both scoring and creating goals. I’ve said elsewhere that if you don’t count penalties, Higuain and Huntelaar scored an average of one goal every 146 minutes last season. But when you do a direct comparison between Higuain and Huntelaar, Huntelaar’s statistics look inferior because Higuain has more assists, and is more involved in play in general. This is why I think Huntelaar comes across as not being a creative player. Creating is not what he does best, but no one can doubt he’s very, very good at scoring goals. I still wonder what would have happened if Juande Ramos had the guts to bench Raul and play Higuain and Huntelaar up front, forming a true 4-2-3-1. Imagine Higuain, Robben, Marcelo, Ramos, and Lass all feeding Huntelaar from everywhere on the pitch!

By: Troy

Troy — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:26:12 +0000

Apologies, said the wrong thing completely!

Meant to say – Drogba is 13 and 11, surely that’s a case not to sell him?

By: Troy

Troy — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:13:06 +0000

Fantastic article!
Important to note for Chelsea fans that Anelka is no.4, surely that provides backing that he is better than Drogba?

By: BD Condell

BD Condell — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:59:42 +0000

@Brandon: Thanks for the comment and I can tell you that Eduardo’s career stats are highly impressive:

In table 1 he’d come in at No.2 with a highly impressive 1 goal in every 1.55 games or 32 in a 50 game season. But in table 2 he’d come in at a clear No.1! 1 goal in every 1.317 games or 38 in a 50 game season(remarkable, and helped by his incredible 45 goals in 44 games in his last season at Zagreb). Even in his limited Arseanl career (only 35 games) he scores 1 in 2.333 which is exactly the same as Van Persie.

Thanks for pointing that out….those numbers are scary!

@PrettyP: Shevchenko’s Milan stats, ignoring last season’s loan spell, are 30 goals in a 50 game season compared to just half that(15 in a 50 game season) at Chelsea.

@Jake: Agree totally but I suppose the point is that the likes of Owen and Shevchenko were top strikers in their day but are now past their sell by date!

@ish: Spot on! This analysis was never going to be conclusive on anything and your points are well made. I said I rated Torres as my number one and you make an excellent point as to why that’s still a valid choice despite him not topping the stats.

By: ish

ish — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:48:41 +0000

goals are a useful indicator of a striker but not be all.
For instance berbatov scored more goals in less appearances then tevez but he also had a much greater assist tally.
Some strikers are pure goal scorers who are generally in the penalty area to get goals.
Torres is the kind of striker who provides more then just goals, he by being fast and strong keeps both CB’s busy and opens up the game for kuyt and gerrard.
Same goes for drogba and to an extent adebayor and berba.
They are the focal points of the central attack and are there to bring team mates into the game.

By: -

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:10:13 +0000

I think the reason why van Persie is so low on the career list is because he was a winger in his Feyenoord time and still is in the Oranges.

International career is probably also the reason why Berba is so high. He has the best goals/games rate internationally having scored 41 goals in 68 matches. Huntelaar has only scored 13 in 23 matches, for example (although he did score an amazing 18 goals in 22 matches for U-21).

Also, Mutu seems to be missing. He’s played a lot, and scored a lot as well, with a games/goals rate of 2.413 over the whole of his career, which is quite impressive.