It’s clear the best strikers of the last 15 years to now are Lewandowski, Suarez, Benzema, Kane, Haaland. Here’s my ranking of them based on big game performances.
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Benzema. Even before his Bdor season, he regularly showed up in big CL games with goals, assists and key passes even if he might play like a donkey in the league. It helped that he was with Real and had qualities all around.
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Suarez. Often went missing in CL, but regularly cooked Real in El Classico and showed up big for his national team.
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Lewandowski. Hit and miss during big games. Was more of a big game player for Dortmund than Bayern & Barca. Had some memorable performances like vs Real in CL, Bayern in cup, vs Chelsea in CL.
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Kane. Statistically the best finisher and based on eye test the best striker of the ball. Has been relatively quiet in big games. Did show up vs big teams in PL.
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Haaland. Literally a stat merchant at this point but still has a lot of time to improve.
Before Ronaldo left real Madrid, no one considered benzema to be even the top 5 stickers of the last decade. Now that can be attributed to his supporting role to Ronaldo, and he took on the main role after Ronaldo left, but still before 2018, aguero, cavani, higuain and rooney were all considered better than benzema. He did have consistent world class seasons after 2019 and was deserving of the ballon d’or, but he’s definitely not better than Suarez and Lewandowski, maybe even zlatan.
Suarez’ champions league record is so poor, such a shame. I still consider him to be the best of the lot, easily. But I get that people hold it against him. Dude hit levels the others just couldn’t touch. Best highlight reel by far as well, as a bonus.
Suarez’ goalscoring record in the UCL (27 goals in 73 games) is identical to Morata’s (26 in 75) and obviously nowhere near the rest 4 guys in the list. In comparison the “stat merchant” has already scored 10 goals more than Suarez, in 40 less appearences.
showed up big for his national team.
When exactly did he do that? In WC 2022 and Copa America 2021 combined, he scored 1 goal vs Chile. In Copa America 2019 he scored 2 group stage goals (Ecuador, Japan). In WC 2018 again 2 group stage goals (Saudi Arabia, Russia). He missed the 2015 & 2016 Copa Americas plus the round of 16 of 2014 WC because he was too busy biting people. So, the last competitions you could really say he showed up BIG for his country were the 2010 WC and 2011 Copa America, when the guy was still playing in Eredivisie.
So yeah, Suarez was an excellent league striker, probably the best in this list, but outside of league games, his record and performances look completely average.
Suarez’ goalscoring record in the UCL (27 goals in 73 games) is identical to Morata’s (26 in 75) and obviously nowhere near the rest 4 guys in the list. In comparison the “stat merchant” has already scored 10 goals more than Suarez, in 40 less appearences.
And yet he still has more goals in the final than everyone else on this list except for Benzema who he has as many goals in the final as despite the fact Benzema started in 5 finals and only managed to score when a brain damaged Karius gave him the ball to score an open goal.
Suarez has scored/assisted in a lot of big games in the CL. He rarely stat pads against shite group teams but his record against tough teams is solid.
2010/11 - Two assists for Ajax against Milan
2014/15 - 3 goals 1 assist vs PSG, 2 goals vs Manchester City, 2 assists vs Bayern, 1 goal vs Juventus (which was the winning goal)
2015/16 - 3 goals 1 assist vs Roma, 1 goal 1 assist vs Arsenal, 2 goals vs Atletico Madrid
2016/17 - 1 assist vs Manchester City, 1 goal and 1 penalty won vs PSG
2017/18 - 1 assist vs Juventus, 2 assists vs Chelsea, 1 goal and his shot rebounded for a goal vs Roma
2018/19 - 1 assist vs Tottenham, 2 assists vs Lyon, 1 goal vs Liverpool
2019/20 - 2 goals 1 assist vs Inter, 1 goal 1 assist vs Dortmund, 1 goal vs Bayern
None of those goals were penalties btw
So, the last competitions you could really say he showed up BIG for his country were the 2010 WC and 2011 Copa America, when the guy was still playing in Eredivisie.
What the fuck does playing in the Eredivisie have to do with 2010 WC and 2011 CA? Do you not realise how dumb that point is? You seriously felt like that needed to be in bold? How does that negate anything about his performances in those tournaments? He was still insanely good whilst at Ajax anyway. Tore apart Milan in the CL. He scored/performed in more big international games in those two tournaments than the others have their entire careers. Literally scored and assisted in the final of the Copa America and was named player of the tournament but I guess it doesn’t count because of the league he was in?
2014 he also scored a double against England which secured Uruguay’s promotion out of the group. 2018 he linked up very well and played a nice pass to assist the first goal with Cavani against Portugal.
Nobody else on this list comes close to him for international tournaments.
Benzema is not better than Suarez or Lewa. He’s had 2-3 great seasons post CR7 for sure, but before that no one was putting him on that level. While a lot of that was due to his role as facilitator, that’s not the only reason. Heck, Suarez has consistently had better assist numbers while racking up just as many (usually more) goals, and he wasn’t always on better teams.
Benzema’s upgrade to this top level has really been a recent phenomenon, if you look back, NO ONE was putting him amongst the top strikers 5 years ago. He was in that next tier with Higuain, Ibra, Cavani, Rooney, Van Persie, Villa, (and I’m sure I’m missing some, or specifically excluding a few who hit that level but for a shorter period). His 2-3 years at the very top are not enough to leapfrog him to #1. I also wouldn’t put Haaland there yet for similar reasons although barring disaster he for sure will be.
Lastly, you should clarify next time what you mean by striker. CR7 was a winger, but also kind of a striker. Messi’s false nine years had him play as the most central attacker. Salah has consistently played the most forward of any attacker for Liverpool. It feels like a relic of the past or semantics to not put them in as strikers sometimes considering how much the game has evolved.
No Drogba? But you have Benzema first hahaha, football is so fucked fifa got kids on lock