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.

  1. 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.

  2. Suarez. Often went missing in CL, but regularly cooked Real in El Classico and showed up big for his national team.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Haaland. Literally a stat merchant at this point but still has a lot of time to improve.

  • blurple77@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    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.