Best Striker in the World

stefan92 said:
Another candidate (but more for the future) is definitely Yossoufa Moukoko. Still 17 years old, 4 goals and 5 assists so far in 755min (0.48goals/90, 1.07 g+a/90).

If he gets the playing time and can just keep that level he would be right in the mix.
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Absolutely! Been monitoring him since his early teens, and he has some unreal records in the U17s and 19s for Dortmund from when he was 14 and 15.

Other punts for the future:

Jonathan David is now on 10 goals and 3 assists in 1214 minutes so far this season for Lille and Canada (0,74 goals/90 and 0,96 goals+assists/90) (2/3 penalties)
Sesko is now on 8 goals and 3 assists in 1384 minutes so far this season for RBS and Slovenia (0,52 goals/90 and 0,71 goals+assists/90) (0 penalties)

More a winger though, but:
Gakpo is having a fantastic season so far: 14 goals and 14 assists in 1758 minutes so far this season for PSV and Holland (0,72 goals/90 and 1,43 goals+assists/90) (2/2 penalties)

Marcus Thuram is finally showing some of what was expected of him a few years back, for BMG:
11 goals and 3 assists in 1170 minutes so far this season for BMG (0,85 goals/90 and 1,08 goals+assists/90) (0 penalties)
 
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troylocker said:
Absolutely! Been monitoring him since his early teens, and he has some unreal records in the U17s and 19s for Dortmund from when he was 14 and 15.

Other punts for the future:

Jonathan David is now on 10 goals and 3 assists in 1214 minutes so far this season for Rennes and Canada (0,74 goals/90 and 0,96 goals+assists/90) (2/3 penalties)
Sesko is now on 8 goals and 3 assists in 1384 minutes so far this season for RBS and Slovenia (0,52 goals/90 and 0,71 goals+assists/90) (0 penalties)

More a winger though, but:
Gakpo is having a fantastic season so far: 14 goals and 14 assists in 1758 minutes so far this season for PSV and Holland (0,72 goals/90 and 1,43 goals+assists/90) (2/2 penalties)

Marcus Thuram is finally showing some of what was expected of him a few years back, for BMG:
11 goals and 3 assists in 1170 minutes so far this season for Real Madrid and France (0,85 goals/90 and 1,08 goals+assists/90) (0 penalties)
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Jonathan David plays for Lille, not Rennes :)
 
Pressingstats for the "top 5" (Club only)

Pressing:
Haaland - 12,2 pressings/90 - 4,1 successful pressings/90 - 9,1 pressings in the attacking 3rd/90
Lewa - 11,6 pressings/90 - 3,0 successful pressings/90 - 8,8 pressings in the attacking 3rd/90
Benz - 12,5 pressings/90 - 3,2 successful pressings/90 - 8,7 pressings in the attacking 3rd/90
Kane - 8,0 pressings/90 - 2,5 successful pressings/90 - 4,2 pressings in the attacking 3rd/90
Mbappe - 7,0 pressings/90 - 2,6 successful pressings/90 - 4,5 pressings in the attacking 3rd/90

Kane and Mbappe in the bottom 2 and 1 percentile

Dribbling stats:
Kane - 1,33 players dribbled past/90 - Succesrate 50%
Lewa - 1,11 players dribbled past/90 - Succesrate 46%
Benz - 0,54 players dribbled past/90 - Succesrate 50%
Mbappe - 2,55 players dribbled past/90 - Succesrate 38%
Haaland - 0,56 players dribbled past/90 - Succesrate 47%

.....or from another perspective:
Kane - 1,33 possession lost dribbling/90
Lewa - 1,30 possession lost dribbling/90
Benz - 0,54 possession lost dribbling/90
Mbappe - 4,16 possession lost dribbling/90
Haaland - 0,63 possession lost dribbling/90

Shootingstats:
Haaland - 4,89 shots/90 - 54% on target - 0,33 goals per shot
Lewa - 4,67 shots/90 - 54% on target - 0,27 goals per shot
Mbappe - 4,58 shots/90 - 48% on target - 0,21 goals per shot
Kane - 3,60 shots/90 - 39% on target - 0,14 goals per shot
Benz - 4,95 shots/90 - 39% on target - 0,09 goals per shot

Finishingstats (goals vs. expected goals):
Haaland - 22 goals vs. 14,8 xG - overperforming by +49% (has been a consistant overperformer since he moved to a trackable league 3 years ago,+15-50% every season)
Lewa - 17 goals vs. 11,8 xG - overperforming by +44% (Has pretty much always been consistant around his xG except one or two outlier seasons both ways)
Mbappe - 14 goals vs. 11,0 xG - overperforming by +27% (Has been slightly overperforming his xG except the 17/18 season were he was a tad less sharp than his xG)
Kane - 11 goals vs. 11,8 xG - underperforming by -7% (Has been slightly underperforming since 2020, overperformed consistantly before that)
Benz - 5 goals vs. 7,7 xG - underperforming by -35% (Has pretty much always been consistant around his xG with a couple of outlier seasons both ways)
 
The 22/23 season so far for the 5 forwards I consider the best (ranked by goals and goalcontributions/90 in league and CL games):

Haaland
26 goals (3 pens scored/3 total pens) and 3 assists in 1555 minutes (17,3 x 90mins)
1,5 goals/90 - 1,33 non penalty goals/90
1,68 G+A/90 - 1,50 npG+A/90

Lewandowski
18 goals (0/1 pens) and 4 assists in 1595 minutes (17,7 x 90mins)
1,02 goals/90 - 1,02 non penalty goals/90
1,24 G+A/90 - 1,24 npG+A/90

Mbappe
20 goals (3/4 pens) and 5 assists in 1849 minutes (20,5 x 90mins)
0,97 goals/90 - 0,83 non penalty goals/90
1,22 G+A/90 - 1,07 npG+A/90

Kane
16 goals (3/5 pens) and 3 assists in 2148 minutes (23,8 x 90mins)
0.67 goals/90 - 0,55 non penalty goals/90
0,80 G+A/90 - 0,67 npG+A/90

Benzema
8 goals (3/4 pens) and 1 assists in 1044 minutes (11,6 x 90mins)
0,69 goals/90 - 0,43 non penalty goals/90
0,78 G+A/90 - 0,52 npG+A/90
 
Never understood why when discussing 'the best strikers in the world' Ciro Immobile has never got a mention.
Always scored goals, has won trophies, won personal accolades, but I guess he has never played for a traditional 'massive' club so isn't big enough to get a mention.
Which highlights the folly of picking the 'best in the world' I guess.
 
Champ said:
Never understood why when discussing 'the best strikers in the world' Ciro Immobile has never got a mention.
Always scored goals, has won trophies, won personal accolades, but I guess he has never played for a traditional 'massive' club so isn't big enough to get a mention.
Which highlights the folly of picking the 'best in the world' I guess.
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He was a total failure in Dortmund and since then has been seen as "not good enough" outside Italy I think.
 
stefan92 said:
He was a total failure in Dortmund and since then has been seen as "not good enough" outside Italy I think.
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He wasn't a 'failure' at Dortmund, he just didn't fit in too well there. Certainly was brilliant in Champions League for them, but struggled in the league.

He's been brilliant near enough everywhere else he's been.
 
Champ said:
Never understood why when discussing 'the best strikers in the world' Ciro Immobile has never got a mention.
Always scored goals, has won trophies, won personal accolades, but I guess he has never played for a traditional 'massive' club so isn't big enough to get a mention.
Which highlights the folly of picking the 'best in the world' I guess.
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He's decent but nowhere near world class, look at his performances in the nation's team.
 
Champ said:
Never understood why when discussing 'the best strikers in the world' Ciro Immobile has never got a mention.
Always scored goals, has won trophies, won personal accolades, but I guess he has never played for a traditional 'massive' club so isn't big enough to get a mention.
Which highlights the folly of picking the 'best in the world' I guess.
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Because he was never close to being one of the best in the world? A good goalscorer who found a good setup for himself, nothing more though.

The best clubs will go for the best players, you can be sure of that.
 
Immobile looked very underwhelming at Dortmund and Sevilla. Sevilla even chose to take a 5 million loss on him so he can join Lazio. he can probably only play in Italy.
 
Haaland may be a freak in term of G+A output but he lacks so much in his overall game that I struggle to name him the best striker in the world even with the incredible season he is having.
 
troylocker said:
Good shout

Weggo
8 goals (0 pens) and 4 assists in 1422 minutes (15,8 x 90mins)
0,51 goals/90 - 0,51 non penalty goals/90
0,76 G+A/90 - 0,76 npG+A/90
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Awesome. But I believe we all know that Choupo-Moting is the best striker in the world.
 
Champ said:
He wasn't a 'failure' at Dortmund, he just didn't fit in too well there. Certainly was brilliant in Champions League for them, but struggled in the league.

He's been brilliant near enough everywhere else he's been.
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He definitely was a failure, though

BalanceUnAutreJoint said:
Haaland may be a freak in term of G+A output but he lacks so much in his overall game that I struggle to name him the best striker in the world even with the incredible season he is having.
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I hate Haaland as much as the next sane person, but it‘s very hard to argue against him being world‘s best striker considering his output. To me, he‘s the best without the shadow of a doubt, unfortunately.
 
Champ said:
Never understood why when discussing 'the best strikers in the world' Ciro Immobile has never got a mention.
Always scored goals, has won trophies, won personal accolades, but I guess he has never played for a traditional 'massive' club so isn't big enough to get a mention.
Which highlights the folly of picking the 'best in the world' I guess.
Click to expand...

He was a disaster in Germany, and immediately started to score again in Italy. Immobile is a class striker, but it appears he gets the job done in Serie A only. Which is isnt exactly an insult, it just means he doesnt have a legitimate vote in the discussion.
 
BalanceUnAutreJoint said:
Haaland may be a freak in term of G+A output but he lacks so much in his overall game that I struggle to name him the best striker in the world even with the incredible season he is having.
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Do other metrics count if they dont contribute to scoring or assists? His job in this city team is to be at the end of the pass, not the play leading up to it.
 
Tom Cato said:
Do other metrics count if they dont contribute to scoring or assists? His job in this city team is to be at the end of the pass, not the play leading up to it.
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What's the last team that won the CL with a striker contributing so little beyond final third output?
 
Champ said:
Never understood why when discussing 'the best strikers in the world' Ciro Immobile has never got a mention.
Always scored goals, has won trophies, won personal accolades, but I guess he has never played for a traditional 'massive' club so isn't big enough to get a mention.
Which highlights the folly of picking the 'best in the world' I guess.
Click to expand...
Immobile

Juve 08-10 (18-20 years old)
0 goals and 0 assists in 35 minutes

Between 2010 and 2012 he played only for Serie B clubs.

Genoa 12-13 (22-23 years old)
5 G and 3 A in 2064 minutes
0,22 G/90 and 0,35 G+A/90

Torino 13-16 (23-26 years old)
28 G (2 pens) and 7 A in 3665 minutes
0,69 G/90 and 0,86 G+A/90
0,64 npG/90 and 0,81npG+A/90

Dortmund 14-15 (24-25 years old)
10 goals and 3 assists in 1641 minutes
0,54 G/90 and 0,71 G+A/90
0,54 npG/90 and 0,71npG+A/90

Sevilla 15 (25 years old)
4 goals and 1 assists in 687 minutes
0,52 G/90 and 0,65 G+A/90
0,52 npG/90 and 0,65npG+A/90

Lazio 16-23 (25-32 years old)
190 goals (52 pens) and 51 assists in 22586 minutes
0,76 G/90 and 0,96 G+A/90
0,55 npG/90 and 0,75 npG+A/90

Total in top league teams: 237 goals (54 pens) and 65 assists in 340,9 + 90 minutes
0,70 G/90 and 0,89 G+A/90
0,54 npG/90 and 0,73 npG+A/90

Good career numbers, but among "the best 5 in the world" good? I think not.

...., but most relevant:

This season:
8 goals (2/3 pens) and 5 assists in 1311 minutes
0,55 G/90 and 0,89 G+A/90
0,41 npG/90 and 0,75 npG+A/90

Which is a bit off the best when it comes to goalscoring.
I don't think you'll find a manager in a top league out there who would take Immobile over any of the 5 players mentioned in the first list.
 
Acrobat7 said:
Awesome. But I believe we all know that Choupo-Moting is the best striker in the world.
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Hehe! He's certainly the best DFL-pokal cup striker in the world, for Bayern. Bayern never loses with him, allways loses without him and his record there for Bayern is pretty sick:

8 goals and 5 assists in 274 minutes
2,63 G/90 and 4,28 G+A/90

Thrashing lower division teams with Bayern helps of course, but still a pretty sick record.

Too bad he never really found his feet at any of the 6 clubs he played for before he turned 30 and found Bayern, but he'll probably hit 100 career goals for clubs at senior level this season, maybe even before he turns 34 (at 98 goals (9 pens) in 409 matches so far)
 
troylocker said:
Hehe! He's certainly the best DFL-pokal cup striker in the world, for Bayern. Bayern never loses with him, allways loses without him and his record there for Bayern is pretty sick:

8 goals and 5 assists in 274 minutes
2,63 G/90 and 4,28 G+A/90

Thrashing lower division teams with Bayern helps of course, but still a pretty sick record.

Too bad he never really found his feet at any of the 6 clubs he played for before he turned 30 and found Bayern, but he'll probably hit 100 career goals for clubs at senior level this season, maybe even before he turns 34 (at 98 goals (9 pens) in 409 matches so far)
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And why do you think that's the case? Maybe, just maybe it's far easier playing for Bayern than any other team in the league(or probably world).
 
Considering xG is often mentioned. Isnt xG just as much a signal of how good your team is at creating chances as it is about how good you are at getting into good positions?

That’s quite the dilemma with Darwin sometimes. He both gets into good positions, but also has great delivery from Salah, Trent and Robertson.
 
Amar__ said:
And why do you think that's the case? Maybe, just maybe it's far easier playing for Bayern than any other team in the league(or probably world).
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If you have the right skillset for that it is easy, if you don't it isn't. He is now a starter because Mane (who was said to thrash the league by many "experts" on here) totally failed in that position and became kind of an "offside meme striker".
 
stefan92 said:
If you have the right skillset for that it is easy, if you don't it isn't. He is now a starter because Mane (who was said to thrash the league by many "experts" on here) totally failed in that position and became kind of an "offside meme striker".
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Mane is not a striker, never has been. And even comparing them, Mane is not far off stats wise at all, and one is called "offside meme striker" and the other one one of best strikers in the world.
 
Amar__ said:
Mane is not a striker, never has been. And even comparing them, Mane is not far off stats wise at all, and one is called "offside meme striker" and the other one one of best strikers in the world.
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Yes, but Mane was touted to be Lewandowski's successor and he did get good stats when he moved away from that position. And yes you are right, he isn't a striker, as has been proven (again) during that period.
 
stefan92 said:
Yes, but Mane was touted to be Lewandowski's successor and he did get good stats when he moved away from that position. And yes you are right, he isn't a striker, as has been proven (again) during that period.
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Well if you expected him to be Lewandowski's successor then you had weird expectations, he was never going to be that because they are not similar players at all, plus they play different positions.
 
Amar__ said:
Mane is not a striker, never has been. And even comparing them, Mane is not far off stats wise at all, and one is called "offside meme striker" and the other one one of best strikers in the world.
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If you really thought that was a serious comment from me, I have some bad news for you...
 
Amar__ said:
And why do you think that's the case? Maybe, just maybe it's far easier playing for Bayern than any other team in the league(or probably world).
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Absolutely. The whole mention of him in here was kind of ironic to be fair though.
 
Think all things considered Kane is the most complete 9 on the planet. I couldn't believe Kane had already scored 15 league goals this season when I saw how bad Tottenham were yesterday. What he's doing in that team is superhuman. They have literally no creative outlet outside of him. If he wasn't in that team, they would be bottom half.
 
troylocker said:
Absolutely. The whole mention of him in here was kind of ironic to be fair though.
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Acrobat7 said:
If you really thought that was a serious comment from me, I have some bad news for you...
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Fair enough, altough my initial point is that he simply isn't rated because he was at 6 different clubs without doing anything special, and it's not a coincidence that his best record so far was with Bayern.
 
Dannn411 said:
Think all things considered Kane is the most complete 9 on the planet. I couldn't believe Kane had already scored 15 league goals this season when I saw how bad Tottenham were yesterday. What he's doing in that team is superhuman. They have literally no creative outlet outside of him. If he wasn't in that team, they would be bottom half.
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12 of Kane's league goals has been scored with his 1st touch, 14 out of 15 from inside the 17 yard box, 7 out of 13 non penalty goals from inside the 6 yard box and a total of 18 touches to score all 15 goals. How's that possible without support or a good serve? All good strikers and goalscorers needs support and he's got it too. He's gotten pretty much the same service since he broke through, as shown on his non penalty expected goals per 90 (npxG/90) in the PL the last 9 seasons: 0,52 - 0,50 - 0,54 - 0,71 (30 goals season) - 0,48 - 0,41 - 0,56 - 0,49 - 0,54 (this season). He's outscored his xG by 27% this season, which is great, and the main reason why he's having his best ever start goalwise of a PL season of his career. Yet he still trails the golden boot leader by 6 goals despite having played more than 3 full 90s more than Haaland. Kane likes to fall deeper, get more involved and cuddle the ball more, yes, while Haaland for instance is more direct and likes to stretch oppo teams in the build up, so peoples judgement is that Kane therefore is more complete.
When it comes to passing Kane has the lowest pass completion of the 5 strikers on the list (Kane 67,8% - Lewa 73,9% - Haaland 75,4% - Mbappe 79,5% - Benzema 84,7%)
Kane vs. the other 4 when it comes to setting up his teammates (xA/90 in league games): Mbappe 0,37 - Haaland 0,24 - Kane 0,23 - Benzema 0,19 - Lewa 0,18
Successfull dribbles: Lewa 47,2% - Haaland 46,7% - Benzema 35,3% - Mbappe 34,6% - Kane 34,3%
Possession lost from involvments with the ball at feet (gaining control, dribbling or running with the ball) per 90: Haaland 3,2 - Benzema 3,4 - Lewa 5,0 - Kane 5,4 - Mbappe 7,9
Possession lost from all involvement (passing and ball at feet) per 90: Haaland 7,0 - Benzema 10,9 - Lewa 11,5 - Kane 13,9 - Mbappe 16,4
Kane (bottom 2% tier) and Mbappe (bottom 1% tier) are also the laziest pressers of the lot.

Kane is a great striker, but he isn't the most lethal or the most complete striker on the planet. He's among the top 5 in both categories though. No shame in that.

I'd like to see your arguements for placing him at the top of the list of complete strikers though. Impossible to find numbers backing that up, so I'm really curious. Eyetest?

Whatching these 5 players, Haaland and Mbappe are the only ones that blows your mind when it comes to extreme qualities and moments.
 
@troylocker yes its partially eye test and also context. Of the players you've compared him to, Kane has by far the worst team around him so I expect all his stats to be lower. He also plays in a league that is several times stronger than every other peer he's compared to and is the focal point of productivity so he sees all the attention for 90 minutes every game. Yet he's the one out of all the 9s right now (Nip and tuck between him and Benzema) that I would trust to lead the line on his own because of his supreme hold up play ability and of his great eye for goal.
Haaland on this Spurs side would be a ghost because he would barely touch the ball. I also wouldn't class Mbappe as a 9. He's more of a wing forward to me. Lewandowski not as mobile or as good in the build-up IMO. Haaland is a pure poacher.
 
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Lewandoski is still my fav striker on his day. He’s so graceful on the ball and last few years has been devastating in front of goal.

We sometimes get caught up in the new thing (Haaland and Mbappe) but they will do well to have the career Lewa had. One of the best players never to win a Ballon D’Or. There is a big chance Haaland might join him in that list too. I don’t see Haaland getting a tonne of votes due to his style.
 
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