Football Banter Thread

drunkenmaster · 26 Sep 2016 at 09:12

There isn't a striker out there who hasn't had off days. Again I'll point out, Drogba spent ages playing for an incredibly defensive Chelsea side where his job was to hold the ball up till he got support more than to score goals and despite that he still did have a fantastic scoring rate. Double up most of his seasons to think about what he'd get in similar starts to most other strikers and you have 20+ goals most seasons with 10+ assists as well. I don't recall every year but I'm not sure he took penalties either, didn't Lampard take all the penalties? Likewise Chelsea mostly had great CBs for scoring from corners.

Ibra is the main target for every corner at pretty much every club he ever played for where as Drogba was just a tool to bully and distract at corners. Then again Ibra and Lewandowksi have always played for extremely attacking sides in every league he's been in(well, till now).

If we're going to mention Ibra as having a much better record, up till he joined PSG he had exactly two seasons in which he scored over 20 goals in the league. I think he's a fantastic player but this idea that he scores significantly better than 1 in 2, I have no idea where that comes from. At PSG, where PSG spent like 11 billion to the second placed teams 10million, yeah, he owed that league, it's a bad league. Cavani who can't hit a barn door scored 4 in one half the game after missing 4 easy chances against Arsenal.

Trusty · 26 Sep 2016 at 14:24

BaZ87 said:
Lewandowski and Ibrahimovic - they both score at a far better rate than Drogba managed.

Perhaps yeah, it's hard to quantify though as these 2 played for top clubs in a league where the competition is minimal. The gulf between the bottom sides and top sides is far bigger than here. Having said that, i'd put a Drogba in his prime for Chelsea playing up front on his own above those two, it's obviously close between them all but Drogba was quicker, more agile and stronger than both those two, i think he was a bigger presence on the pitch than those two, he set far more goals up than Ibra does for example.

Tummy · 26 Sep 2016 at 14:57

Peak Drogba over peak Zlats / Lewandowski?

.

Disagree. Drogba was a good player.

FrankJH · 26 Sep 2016 at 15:14

I would actually take Lewandowski over either of the other two

Tummy · 26 Sep 2016 at 15:24

They're slightly different players, but Zlats and Lewandowski are wonderful players.

The_One · 26 Sep 2016 at 16:47

Kostafi vs costa

Music makes it lol

https://twitter.com/TerryAFCx?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

BaZ87 · 26 Sep 2016 at 17:00

Trusty said:
Perhaps yeah, it's hard to quantify though as these 2 played for top clubs in a league where the competition is minimal.

And Drogba played for relegation battlers. Lewandoski done it at Dortmund before moving to Bayern Ibra done it everywhere he's been. And the competition here didn't stop Henry, RvN, Suarez and Aguero scoring at the rate they did.

Trusty · 26 Sep 2016 at 17:27

Tummy said:
Peak Drogba over peak Zlats / Lewandowski? .

Disagree. Drogba was a good player.

Actually i'd probably have a peak Zlatan over Drogba, Lewandowski would be 3rd choice.

BaZ87 said:
And Drogba played for relegation battlers. Lewandoski done it at Dortmund before moving to Bayern Ibra done it everywhere he's been. And the competition here didn't stop Henry, RvN, Suarez and Aguero scoring at the rate they did.

Again, it comes back to the type of striker they are. Pace will always give you a huge advantage, if Aguero went to RM, he'd be scoring like Suarez is now, nearly a 1 in 1 ratio. We could argue til the cows come home tbh.

Clipsey · 26 Sep 2016 at 18:00

The_One said:
Kostafi vs costa

Music makes it lol

https://twitter.com/TerryAFCx?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

Watched that earlier, some proper good defending on show there! Hopefully starting to form a fantastic partnership.
Costa looked more f'd off with his team mates not helping more than anything.

BaZ87 · 26 Sep 2016 at 18:11

Trusty said:
Again, it comes back to the type of striker they are. Pace will always give you a huge advantage, if Aguero went to RM, he'd be scoring like Suarez is now, nearly a 1 in 1 ratio. We could argue til the cows come home tbh.

Drogba was quicker than Van Nistelrooy and possibly Suarez too.

Trusty · 26 Sep 2016 at 19:54

In a straight line maybe he was quicker than Suarez, certainly RVN. But Suarez is more agile and quicker off the mark. RNV played with someone else up top in a 2, Drogba played on his own. It's hard to have a level playing field to compare these players, so many factors to consider

BaZ87 · 26 Sep 2016 at 19:57

RvN played up front on his own for the most part actually. You're just creating factors to try and justify your argument. Ultimately all the top strikers in the world play in different systems, different leagues and have different qualities, yet they have 1 thing in common, they score goals for fun. Drogba didn't.

Trusty · 26 Sep 2016 at 20:01

BaZ87 said:
RvN played up front on his own for the most part actually. You're just creating factors to try and justify your argument. Ultimately all the top strikers in the world play in different systems, different leagues and have different qualities, yet they have 1 thing in common, they score goals for fun. Drogba didn't.

RVN played on his own? If i remember correctly, he played as a 2 for the most part.. have a look on google or something. I'm not creating factors to try and justify my argument, i don't really care that we disagree on a player. It's not a big deal.

BaZ87 · 26 Sep 2016 at 20:06

lol I'm not sure what I need to search in google. When RvN joined Utd they moved to a 4-5-1 to fit him and Veron into the side, with Scholes moving into a number 10 role. I remember it clearly because there was a big fuss moving Scholes.

drunkenmaster · 26 Sep 2016 at 20:08

BaZ87 said:
RvN played up front on his own for the most part actually. You're just creating factors to try and justify your argument. Ultimately all the top strikers in the world play in different systems, different leagues and have different qualities, yet they have 1 thing in common, they score goals for fun. Drogba didn't.

Except you know, he did. He simply played less per season, his goal rate wasn't incomparable. Again scoring 10 with 5 assists isn't great if you've started 35 games, if you start 17 it's actually pretty fantastic.

Trusty · 26 Sep 2016 at 20:12

BaZ87 said:
lol I'm not sure what I need to search in google. When RvN joined Utd they moved to a 4-5-1 to fit him and Veron into the side, with Scholes moving into a number 10 role. I remember it clearly because there was a big fuss moving Scholes.

Doing a quick google search brings up Solskjaer/RVN as the PL's best strike partnership. I'm sure he played up front on his own at times but Man U at that time were a 4-4-2 side.

BaZ87 · 26 Sep 2016 at 20:42

drunkenmaster said:
Except you know, he did. He simply played less per season, his goal rate wasn't incomparable. Again scoring 10 with 5 assists isn't great if you've started 35 games, if you start 17 it's actually pretty fantastic.

It's far from bad but the best strikers in the world score(d) far more.

Trusty said:
Doing a quick google search brings up Solskjaer/RVN as the PL's best strike partnership. I'm sure he played up front on his own at times but Man U at that time were a 4-4-2 side.

They were pre-RvN.

Stumble Bum · 26 Sep 2016 at 21:31

Derby

Egon · 26 Sep 2016 at 22:10

Stumble Bum said:
Derby

snip

Haha, brilliant!

Stewy · 26 Sep 2016 at 22:16

I used to really, really rate Drogba, he was so strong and powerful yet very technically good. Lukaku, for example, is nowhere near in terms of actual footballing ability.