HomeTeams - PLChelseaPremier League's Best v England's Best - A Striker Comparison

Premier League’s Best v England’s Best – A Striker Comparison

Football today is viewed as a game that is so dynamic with a myriad of intricate details, the innumerable tactical dossiers, long balls and inverted triangles that very few can even come to terms with; but in reality, is a very simple and borderline romantic 90 minute affair with the ball and the net. Forwards as they go, are at the very heart of scoring and keeping that scoreboard ticking with numbers and in the Premier League – there’s no shortage of them and fortunately so. In this article, we shall look at the ridiculous numbers associated with some of the best in the league in Diego Costa and Sergio Aguero pitted against the sharpest shooters from the home country in Harry Kane and Charlie Austin and analyze what makes them stand out from the rest.

premstrikers

Goals, Goals and Only Goals

Coincidentally, the four strikers that we are concerned about also grace the top goalscorers chart in the Premier League with Costa and Aguero level on 17 goals closely followed by Tottenham’s Harry Kane with 16 and QPR’s Charlie Austin on 15 goals so far. Astonishing numbers, aren’t they? When you look at the breakdown of goals, Sergio Aguero has managed to score 13 goals off his stronger right foot and 4 off his left, while Diego Costa has a relatively more even spread with 10 goals from his right side and 5 off his left with a further two goals scored from his head. But their English counterparts have seemed to be more versatile this season with Harry Kane getting just 9 of his 16 goals from stronger right side and 4 from his head, with 2 other goals coming off his weaker left side as opposed to Charlie Austin who has had 10 goals off his right, 3 off his left and 2 headed goals.

Goals

There’s little doubt that all four strikers being compared are unique in their own right and it’s unfair to value them based on the different varieties of goals they can score on a given day. For instance, to say Harry Kane is a better forward than Aguero because of the sheer difference in the amount of headed goals scored between the two, is absolutely devoid of anything that resembles logic. But could you deem him more rounded than Aguero at least if that makes any sense? Aguero’s lack of headed goals could obviously be put down to his physical disadvantage or even his technical superiority where one can argue – why use your head when you have got magic in your feet? But in this era of modern footballers, Harry Kane has had what one might be a perfectly all round season and the season is still a fair few games away from drawing to a close.

It is interesting again when you notice both Aguero and Costa – the cream of the crop, have scored almost all their goals from inside the box whilst the English forwards have chipped in with a couple of goals each from outside the box as well. This again goes on to highlight the long existing dichotomy between most of the homegrown and several other forwards from foreign countries, especially the big names who are more clinical within 12 yards from goal and suited to plying their trade applying the final sort of predatory touch that sends the ball into the net. Set plays are a vital part of the English game and Harry Kane rather unsurprisingly leads the table when goals from set plays are considered with 8 goals to his name followed by another English forward in Charlie Austin.

Capture

What about the rest then? It is not always just goals, is it? This is where the real quality of a footballer shines bright and it is not surprising to see the costly imports from abroad leading the pack in so many areas. Sergio Aguero leads the way with his remarkable passing accuracy (85%) and take on ratio – which is a testament to the forward’s better technical abilities on the ball while Diego Costa has been the busiest with an average of 28 passes per game and a crazy 68% shots on goal ratio with a goal once in every 3 shots making him the most lethal of them all. Again it doesn’t surprise me to see Charlie Austin topping the aerial duels success percentage charts with 32% success which is basically all important to his team’s style of play.

The fact that these two English forwards have had very good seasons, perfectly comparable to the corresponding campaigns of what by all accounts two of the best marksmen in the world, is an encouraging factor as far as English football goes. While Harry Kane (21) and Charlie Austin (25) are still far from the finished articles with considerable room to improve, which they can, by closely following the already world class strikers in Costa and Aguero vying for glory at the top end of the table and force themselves into Roy Hodgson’s plans for the upcoming showpiece events in France and Russia.

Aashish Murali
Aashish Murali
I can bore you to tears.
More News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here