Great strikers historical rankings

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

Did Suárez manage to win 5 PL titles in 6 years?

No one ever brings up Cantona in discussions about who's the greatest French striker and trust me our pundits love having a go at that kind of debate. Usually it's just Benzema vs Henry stuff, but even when people want to throw in other names, it's Kopa or Fontaine or perhaps Papin that's gonna be mentionned.

Cantona was an iconic player but he's not better than Suarez, let alone a whole tier above him.

 

[Pretzels81]

No one ever brings up Cantona in discussions about who's the greatest French striker and trust me our pundits love having a go at that kind of debate. Usually it's just Benzema vs Henry stuff, but even when people want to throw in other names, it's Kopa or Fontaine or perhaps Papin that's gonna be mentionned.

Cantona was an iconic player but he's not better than Suarez, let alone a whole tier above him.

Yeah, and I guess somebody somewhere is saying that Griezmann or Giroud are better than Cantona.

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

Yeah, and I guess somebody somewhere is saying that Griezmann or Giroud are better than Cantona.

This isn't about the opinions of average joes, I'm talking former players turned pundits who've won everything
Although you'd actually be right that a lot of average joes would claim Giroud is better than Cantona.

 

[Swoobs]

This isn't about the opinions of average joes, I'm talking former players turned pundits who've won everything
Although you'd actually be right that a lot of average joes would claim Giroud is better than Cantona.

Not too sure about Giroud but Griezmann above or on the same level as Cantona is fine.
Benzema, Suker, Suarez, Villa and the likes are 100% above Cantona

 

[Red the Bear]

Cantona wasn't really much of a striker so I don't know what this whole debate is about.

 

[Lord SInister]

Is Luis Suarez being a cnut of the highest order the reason he is massively underrated in most of the lists or it is because he was a Liverpool player?

 

[Denis79]

Weah should be on the list.

 

[Lord SInister]

Luis Ronaldo(I would rate him below Van Basten, Muller and Romario in my all time ranking) is regarded as better player than Suarez, Lewa and Benzema is because he at his peak was better, he won more individual titles and has won World Cup, was the highest goal scorer in world cup at one point. Benzema peaked late, Suarez and Lewandowski were always in the shadow of Messi and Cristiano.

Muller is regarded highly because he also like Ronaldo, won Ballon Dor, scored bucket loads in very less matches, his stats are impressive even if we discount the goal inflation during his era(although current era is same or worse in terms of goal inflation), had a career where his teams conquered the Europe like very few team did in the history, and was basically one of the most clutch player of all time.

 

[Drygon]

Luis Ronaldo(I would rate him below Van Basten, Muller and Romario in my all time ranking) is regarded as better player than Suarez, Lewa and Benzema is because he at his peak was better, he won more individual titles and has won World Cup, was the highest goal scorer in world cup at one point. Benzema peaked late, Suarez and Lewandowski were always in the shadow of Messi and Cristiano.

- Peak Lewandowski's & Peak Suarez's numbers completely blows Peak Ronaldo's stats out of the water in comparison
- Ronaldo won individual accolades because he didn't played in same era as Messi & Cristiano. He too would've been overshadowed by them
- Any great striker could've won 2002 World Cup in an ultra stacked Brazil. Ronaldo wouldn't win World Cup if he was born in Poland or Uruguay

 

[432JuanMata]

- Peak Lewandowski's & Peak Suarez's numbers completely blows Peak Ronaldo's stats out of the water in comparison
- Ronaldo won individual accolades because he played in same era as Messi & Cristiano. He too would've been overshadowed by them
- Any great striker could've won 2002 World Cup ith an ultra stacked Brazil Ronaldo wouldn't win World Cup if he was born in Poland or Uruguay

Ronaldo gets rated so high due to him being elite so young and injuries running his peak but at the end of the day it’s over a whole career and Lewa and Suarez are better.

Ronaldo pre 21/22 years old was the best youngster I’ve ever seen but at the end of the day you have to compare players over their careers and while Lewa is scoring 50+ at 32 years old and older while Ronaldo was finished still counts

 

[Righteous Steps]

- Peak Lewandowski's & Peak Suarez's numbers completely blows Peak Ronaldo's stats out of the water in comparison
- Ronaldo won individual accolades because he played in same era as Messi & Cristiano. He too would've been overshadowed by them
- Any great striker could've won 2002 World Cup ith an ultra stacked Brazil Ronaldo wouldn't win World Cup if he was born in Poland or Uruguay

Im pretty sure there are more goals in football all round though, you would be surprised how many goals the top players were scoring at times in the Ultra defensive leagues like Serie A in the 80’s that should also be acknowledged.

And no one is overshadowing Ronaldo from 95-99 no one.

 

[Righteous Steps]

Ronaldo gets rated so high due to him being elite so young and injuries running his peak but at the end of the day it’s over a whole career and Lewa and Suarez are better.

Ronaldo pre 21/22 years old was the best youngster I’ve ever seen but at the end of the day you have to compare players over their careers and while Lewa is scoring 50+ at 32 years old and older while Ronaldo was finished still counts

Yes and what also counts is the fact that Lewandowski wasn’t scoring 47 in 49 games in a top league as a 20 year old.

 

[432JuanMata]

Yes and what also counts is the fact that Lewandowski wasn’t scoring 47 in 49 games in a top league as a 20 year old.

Yeah but that was my point Ronaldo was the best youngster I’ve seen but you have to rate them over their careers not just parts.

Kaka 06/07 level was up there with the best ever but his peak was much shorter lived than the rest of the elite so you can’t put him up there.
As I said Ronaldo suffered due to injuries but still you can only compare his career with how it went overall

 

[Gio]

- Peak Lewandowski's & Peak Suarez's numbers completely blows Peak Ronaldo's stats out of the water in comparison

Even if we park the context around the numbers where it was obviously much harder to score a goal in the 1990s for a team that scores 90 goals in all competitions, compared to today where an elite side scores 160 goals in all competitions, this still doesn't stack up.

Suarez scored 127 goals in 155 games during his best 3-year peak period, a ratio of .82 goals-per-game.

Ronaldo scored 101 goals in 106 games during his best 3-year peak period, a ratio of .95 goals-per-game.

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

- Peak Lewandowski's & Peak Suarez's numbers completely blows Peak Ronaldo's stats out of the water in comparison
- Ronaldo won individual accolades because he didn't played in same era as Messi & Cristiano. He too would've been overshadowed by them
- Any great striker could've won 2002 World Cup in an ultra stacked Brazil. Ronaldo wouldn't win World Cup if he was born in Poland or Uruguay

Anyone who thinks Lewandowski is better than R9 both at their peak is an enemy of football.
Like who cares about numbers. Lewandowski is poaching goals for a team that's about to win 10 straight titles.

Lewandowski will never be a better player than R9. No matter how many goals he scores.

 

[Lord SInister]

- Peak Lewandowski's & Peak Suarez's numbers completely blows Peak Ronaldo's stats out of the water in comparison
- Ronaldo won individual accolades because he didn't played in same era as Messi & Cristiano. He too would've been overshadowed by them
- Any great striker could've won 2002 World Cup in an ultra stacked Brazil. Ronaldo wouldn't win World Cup if he was born in Poland or Uruguay

See that is the problem with revisionist way of looking at football. People tend to look back at sucess and be like, hey any one great would have done XYZ. Brazil 2002 barely reached the World Cup, It wasn't as sunny sunny for them, as it looks from here. Ronaldo didn't just had a great 2002, he was outstanding in 1998 too apart from the final.

And no if Ronaldo was fit in today's era and say played for a super team like Messi and CR7 did, say he was in place of Lewa in Bayern Munich. Pretty sure he would have won a Ballon Dor over the two. Because talent wise he is up there with the best of the best. Neither Lewa nor Suarez are anywhere near R9's individual ability. Lewandowski and Benzema are becoming annoyingly overrated due to recency bias. I saw some dumbass few days back in twitter writing that Benzema this season is better than Messi in his prime and some saying Lewandowski is better than Muller.

 

[Sayros]

See that is the problem with revisionist way of looking at football. People tend to look back at sucess and be like, hey any one great would have done XYZ. Brazil 2002 barely reached the World Cup, It wasn't as sunny sunny for them, as it looks from here. Ronaldo didn't just had a great 2002, he was outstanding in 1998 too apart from the final.

And no if Ronaldo was fit in today's era and say played for a super team like Messi and CR7 did, say he was in place of Lewa in Bayern Munich. Pretty sure he would have won a Ballon Dor over the two. Because talent wise he is up there with the best of the best. Neither Lewa nor Suarez are anywhere near R9's individual ability. Lewandowski and Benzema are becoming annoyingly overrated due to recency bias. I saw some dumbass few days back in twitter writing that Benzema this season is better than Messi in his prime and some saying Lewandowski is better than Muller.

That's the thing, his game would have translated into any era because he was just faster, more powerful, and more skillful than 99% of the rest, and he could have absolutely adapted to any team because he was a great passer as well when he wanted. The only issue with R9 is that I don't think the human body can handle the combination of power, change of direction, and speed over a long career. He broke down because he simply put such a tremendous amount of force on his knees and joints with his movement and skills that even in a perfect world he still would have broken down eventually, but man was he fun while he had it going on. Messi was pretty much as special to watch, but something about R9's power and physicality combined with skills and brazilian flair, he was a bit more of a fantasy player than Messi.

 

[sherrinford]

Yeah but that was my point Ronaldo was the best youngster I’ve seen but you have to rate them over their careers not just parts.

Kaka 06/07 level was up there with the best ever but his peak was much shorter lived than the rest of the elite so you can’t put him up there.
As I said Ronaldo suffered due to injuries but still you can only compare his career with how it went overall

Why can you only compare the overall career? Why does Ronaldo being finished at the age Lewandowski is still scoring 50+ goals a season count? Why not compare the 32 year old Lewandowski with the pre-21 year old Ronaldo?

Player A was a better player than player B, except when player B was at his best - how does that sit right with anyone? If, at his peak, one player reached a level that another player couldn't at any point in their career then the later player surely cannot be seen as being a better player.