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.

  • alexoviccBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    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.