Who is the best Premier League striker ever?

tom1ie

Henry has a scoring ratio of .68 (175 goals in 258apps) that’s the highest scoring ratio out of the top 20 goal scorers of all time in the prem.

Harry Kane also has a scoring ratio of .68 (160 goals in 237 apps).

Harry Kane who sits at number 9 on the list, is still playing and scoring freely.
He will be the best of all time in the prem.

Big Ears

tom1ie wrote: »

Henry has a scoring ratio of .68 (175 goals in 258apps) that’s the highest scoring ratio out of the top 20 goal scorers of all time in the prem.

Harry Kane also has a scoring ratio of .68 (160 goals in 237 apps).

Harry Kane who sits at number 9 on the list, is still playing and scoring freely.
He will be the best of all time in the prem.

The problem with ratio for Kane is he's not finished and if recent seasons are to go by, it'll probably decrease.
If he doesn't manage to get the 100 goals required to match Shearer, which is a big ask, things won't look so good for him there.

larchielads

Shearer all day close thread whenever yer ready there mod

DJIMI TRARORE

By numbers it's clearly Shearer, but by natural instinct I'd go for Fowler, a genius

FintanMcluskey

Always enjoyed watching Drogba on form, (Not rolling around on the floor)

Not seen anyone with strength, pace and touch like him since

He really suited Chelsea under Mourinho and won the golden boot playing for Ancelotti, which it must be said were incredibly contrasting styles

Not to mention in the big games he always showed up, remembering him scoring in crucial games vs Arsenal and United quite often

Jimbob1977

Shearer was a goal machine.

Knocking in 30+ goals every season.

Close range, long range, rockets, headers, one-on-ones. Tough as nails.

If he had gone to United in 1994 after Southampton, they would have won the league non-stop.... possibly a few Champions Leagues.

Decided to join his hometown club and won nothing. Admirable.

event

tom1ie wrote: »

Henry has a scoring ratio of .68 (175 goals in 258apps) that’s the highest scoring ratio out of the top 20 goal scorers of all time in the prem.

Harry Kane also has a scoring ratio of .68 (160 goals in 237 apps).

Harry Kane who sits at number 9 on the list, is still playing and scoring freely.
He will be the best of all time in the prem.

He could rupture his ligaments tomorrow and never play again. No point talking in hypotheticals

WesternZulu

pjohnson wrote: »

Surprised van Nistelrooy is often ignored in these discussions.

He deserves to be discussed a lot more than Cantona that's for sure.

Charlie19

Has to be Shearer but a massive shout for Ruud Van Nistelrooy. I was always a fan of his numbers at PSV and sick when he signed for UTD, I couldn't believe when they sold him. He was an absolute machine inside the penalty box.

CSF

DJIMI TRARORE wrote: »

By numbers it's clearly Shearer, but by natural instinct I'd go for Fowler, a genius

I will forever love that supporters of a team will always have a criteria, no matter how abstract or obscure, that lets their team’s guy be the one.

Given that Fowler’s career of any notoriety had ended by the time he reached his mid 20s, there is not a hope in hell he belongs here.

osarusan

osarusan wrote: »

Shearer for me. The most goals in the EPL, while spending comparatively little time at a top team/team challenging for the title compared to those nearest him.

Blackburn and Newcastle both big, expensively assembled attacking outfits while he was there for the most part

Dont disagree with you that hes the best, mind you.

Then henry, then im allowing myself the indulgence of le tissier because stats aint everything

Fitz*

CSF wrote: »

I will forever love that supporters of a team will always have a criteria, no matter how abstract or obscure, that lets their team’s guy be the one.

Given that Fowler’s career of any notoriety had ended by the time he reached his mid 20s, there is not a hope in hell he belongs here.

Tbf he has as much right to be talked about as Drogba & van Nistelrooy do. Not that any of them can be really claimed to be the best.

CSF

Fitz* wrote: »

Tbf he has as much right to be talked about as Drogba & van Nistelrooy do. Not that any of them can be really claimed to be the best.

I have no idea how you can claim Fowler has the same place in this conversation as Van Nistelrooy.

Because they had roughly the same amount of good productive seasons? Eh yeah this may be true, but Fowler was in the Premier League for like 18 seasons.

Discounting either fowler or owen so easily is a little harsh.

They were finished injury wise in their mid 20s essentially and very few burned as brightly as either when in their pomp

Fowler an absolute genius for goals you never saw coming, an animal

He was, for four or five years, the player sky would try to convince you rooney was for a decade but for me, at peak for each, Fowler all day

Les Ferdinand had a brilliant record for *actual* struggling teams. Class act.

Trey13

Good debate. Alan Shearer scored goals. Simple as. For that reason I would have him as the Premier League’s greatest ever striker.

I would place Rooney as a very close second. He was a phenom for 10 seasons and could do it all.

Henry and Aguero next after Shearer and Rooney.

If Harry Kane stays relatively fit I think he’ll go onto break Shearer’s record. I would currently place Kane in the top 10 for sure and I think he’ll go down as the Premier League’s greatest ever striker by the time he retires. If he were to join a City or United I think he would hit 300 PL goals.

Michael Owen could have been an absolute great. He achieved a lot in his career despite the injuries but he was incredible in the late 90s.

The Floyd p

Henry had the playmaking that Shearer, Aguero & RVN didn't have. Kane doesn't have any PL titles so that rules him out, at least for the moment.

I'm not an Arsenal fan but it's Henry and it's not overly close. He's the archetypal modern #9 and hit 20+ goals and 20+ assists in 02/03. Come back when another PL striker does that, because it hasn't been done by a PL striker since and likely won't for years and years. All round best PL player of all time.

gimli2112

Fowler for me. God for a reason.

olestoepoke

Ive seen this debate on Twitter the last few days, I think the criteria needs to be set. Very few people are mentioning Ruud VN or Torres. For me these two were unplayable in their primes, ok they didn't have the stats of shearer or Rooney but in my opinion were better strikers on their day.

POKERKING

Suarez is not even in this conversation becuase he wasnt here long enough. RVN altho scored alot of goals it was sometimes to the teams detriment. Im not even sure he gets into Utds best pl team let alone the best ever striker.

For me its Shearer, Henry and then a toss up between Rooney or Aguero. I think Rooney is very under appreciated maybe due to how his career ended but as a city fan he haunts me. He was incredible.

JPA

RVN scored 95 goals in the PL.
He is not in contention.

noodler

CSF wrote: »

I will forever love that supporters of a team will always have a criteria, no matter how abstract or obscure, that lets their team’s guy be the one.

Given that Fowler’s career of any notoriety had ended by the time he reached his mid 20s, there is not a hope in hell he belongs here.

You are right, I forgot about Fowler

I am changing my answer to Fowler.

Liam O

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Firmino has as many goals as Cantona both having played 5 seasons respectively for Man U and Liverpool I doubt many would even consider putting either of them even in the top 25 of strikers.


Neither of their games was built as a straight out and out striker.

Hilarious this gets traction.

63 goals in 202 PL games for Firmino at Liverpool.

64 goals in 143 PL games for Cantona at United.

Oh yeah, he also set up more goals than anyone in the league 2 of the seasons he was there.

United won the league the year he joined, didn't win it the year he was banned and didn't win it the year he retired.

But sure let's throw Firmino out there to make some distracting, lazy comparison.

noodler

Liam O wrote: »

Hilarious this gets traction.

63 goals in 202 PL games for Firmino at Liverpool.

64 goals in 143 PL games for Cantona at United.

Oh yeah, he also set up more goals than anyone in the league 2 of the seasons he was there.

United won the league the year he joined, didn't win it the year he was banned and didn't win it the year he retired.

But sure let's throw Firmino out there to make some distracting, lazy comparison.

Hardly Firmino's fault Cantina was banned for thuggish behaviour??!

I'd say Bobby runs him quite close on assists over the five seasons as well - it's a bit lazy and distracting to cherry pick 2 of Cantina's seasons.

The Floyd p

The Floyd p wrote: »

Henry and it's not overly close. He's the archetypal modern #9 and hit 20+ goals and 20+ assists in 02/03. Come back when another PL striker does that, because it hasn't been done by a PL striker since and likely won't for years and years.

Harry kane will likely do that this year, seems worth noting.

In a rubbish team.

Liam O

noodler wrote: »

Hardly Firmino's fault Cantina was banned for thuggish behaviour??!

I'd say Bobby runs him quite close on assists over the five seasons as well - it's a bit lazy and distracting to cherry pick 2 of Cantina's seasons.

Would you say that about Bobby? You'd be wrong so not too different to Coulsen above you as another post that didn't bother to look up readily available statistics.

TitianGerm

POKERKING wrote: »

Suarez is not even in this conversation becuase he wasnt here long enough. RVN altho scored alot of goals it was sometimes to the teams detriment. Im not even sure he gets into Utds best pl team let alone the best ever striker.

For me its Shearer, Henry and then a toss up between Rooney or Aguero. I think Rooney is very under appreciated maybe due to how his career ended but as a city fan he haunts me. He was incredible.

Augero has scored as many goals as Rooney has in something like 150 games less.

olestoepoke

JPA wrote: »

RVN scored 95 goals in the PL.
He is not in contention.

Oh so there is a set of criteria? And goals scored is one of them, this wasn't made clear in the OP. Yes of course RVN shouldn't be in any conversation about the greatest striker in the premier league based on how many goals they scored or how many trophies they won or number of golden boots. In the absence of any given criteria when asking the question who is the greatest striker to have ever played in the premier league then RVN is most definitely in the conversation and anyone who disagrees is either an opposing fan blinded by tribalism or never watched the man play.

olestoepoke

POKERKING wrote: »

Suarez is not even in this conversation becuase he wasnt here long enough. RVN altho scored alot of goals it was sometimes to the teams detriment. Im not even sure he gets into Utds best pl team let alone the best ever striker.

For me its Shearer, Henry and then a toss up between Rooney or Aguero. I think Rooney is very under appreciated maybe due to how his career ended but as a city fan he haunts me. He was incredible.

You're either on a wind up or too young to remember him (A Man City Fan so this is likely)

RvN stats clouded by his being a left winger for a few years

But if its about players who had two-three great seasons in otherwise good careers you could throw in berbatov for me, and a dozen others besides

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

RvN stats clouded by his being a left winger for a few years

But if its about players who had two-three great seasons in otherwise good careers you could throw in berbatov for me, and a dozen others besides

Lol wait hang on im confusing myself here, have gotten robin van persie in my head, obviously

Apologies

Van Nistelrooy was imo the most complete centre forward the epl has seen in the three years he was at utd. An absolute terminator and the only guy to rival him for unstoppable "if the ball goes into the box hes scoring" was peak drogba

Very different players to henry or other all rounders

olestoepoke

Charlie19 wrote: »

Has to be Shearer but a massive shout for Ruud Van Nistelrooy. I was always a fan of his numbers at PSV and sick when he signed for UTD, I couldn't believe when they sold him. He was an absolute machine inside the penalty box.

Finally someone talking sense, Shearer was without question the best, what would he be worth in todays prices? Ruud was beast, he had it all, hungry, clinical, skilful and absolute nightmare to play against. Not many are mentioning Torres which tells me they have their criteria set, yes he declined and yes he was brief compared to others but there he was world class and unplayable for 2 seasons, glided across the field.

olestoepoke

Deleted User wrote: »

Lol wait hang on im confusing myself here, have gotten robin van persie in my head, obviously

Apologies

Van Nistelrooy was imo the most complete centre forward the epl has seen in the three years he was at utd. An absolute terminator and the only guy to rival him for unstoppable "if the ball goes into the box hes scoring" was peak drogba

Very different players to henry or other all rounders

I agree and you could throw Torres in there.

The players that only had two or three seasons really hot are hard to judge, tho.

Shearer the best imo because he started out a pacy clinical striker who could mix it, cruciate injury back when that was no joke and he turned into a hit it from anywhere finisher who prowled the box and the defenders shoulder and the last few years he was basically immobile but the strength, aerial ability and finishing still made him one of the best around

Torres, suarez, rvn, berbatov arguably even drogba you could talk peaks but they also had cold streaks or injuries they didnt get over afterwards

Or moved on and took their other great years to other leagues- its hard to know whether the question allows for that either

pjohnson

I think the biggest issue with strikers is the versatility of the position. The likes Henry, RVP, and Rooney have all been mentioned yet Henry/RVP often played wide left while Rooney played wing/#10, sure they scored a shít load but also had responsibility to create.

Then theres the Shearer/Drogba/RVN who lived in the penalty area to score goals and thats it.

noodler

Liam O wrote: »

Would you say that about Bobby? You'd be wrong so not too different to Coulsen above you as another post that didn't bother to look up readily available statistics.

Ah now, if you have looked it up then please enlighten us.

But why did you cherry pick 2 seasons to make your assist point?

Why did you act like Cantona's ban makes the comparison misleading?



Edit: looked them up. Cantona has 56 EPL assists for utd. Bobby only has 45.

But in all comps: Cantona has 62 and Bobby us 67 so he actually does better than run him close.

Might be dragging in a bit of this season into it tbf but pretty close!

~Rebel~

Liam O wrote: »

Hilarious this gets traction.

63 goals in 202 PL games for Firmino at Liverpool.

64 goals in 143 PL games for Cantona at United.

Oh yeah, he also set up more goals than anyone in the league 2 of the seasons he was there.

United won the league the year he joined, didn't win it the year he was banned and didn't win it the year he retired.

But sure let's throw Firmino out there to make some distracting, lazy comparison.

Is the fact the numbers are remotely comparable not the point though? Given that Bobby is nowhere near this conversation?

Like, by the same comparison that you’re dismissing Bobby as competition for Cantona, you then have to accept that Cantona compares similarly with the top strikers. Even Salah with 90 goals in fewer games has almost 50% more goals than Cantona’s total.

Cantona was great, and really fun to watch, but in the question of best striker it’s a hard enough case to make..

Cantona was a talisman, beyond belief to watch in that team, ingredient x to the team he joined which lacked a bit of genius and a leader personality and creativity wise to the young side they built after.

But id agree hes not in the conversation for strikers

Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane qualify ahead of him, like

tom1ie

Big Ears wrote: »

The problem with ratio for Kane is he's not finished and if recent seasons are to go by, it'll probably decrease.
If he doesn't manage to get the 100 goals required to match Shearer, which is a big ask, things won't look so good for him there.

Kane’s 27. He’ll probably play until 34.
That’s 6 more seasons.
He’s 17 goals with 9 to play.
He’ll end up with at least 20 this season.
Assuming 17 for the remaining 6 seasons that’s 102 goals and shearers record broke.
Best of all time.

Shanotheslayer

tom1ie wrote: »

Kane’s 27. He’ll probably play until 34.
That’s 6 more seasons.
He’s 17 goals with 8 9 to play.
He’ll end up with at least 20 this season.
Assuming 17 for the remaining 6 seasons that’s 102 goals and shearers record broke.
Best of all time.

Lot of assumptions there

tom1ie

The Floyd p wrote: »

Henry had the playmaking that Shearer, Aguero & RVN didn't have. Kane doesn't have any PL titles so that rules him out, at least for the moment.

I'm not an Arsenal fan but it's Henry and it's not overly close. He's the archetypal modern #9 and hit 20+ goals and 20+ assists in 02/03. Come back when another PL striker does that, because it hasn't been done by a PL striker since and likely won't for years and years. All round best PL player of all time.

So you have to win a premier league title to be considered the best? Surely that’s a team title?

tom1ie

Shanotheslayer wrote: »

Lot of assumptions there

Solid assumptions backed up by recent history.

The Floyd p

tom1ie wrote: »

So you have to win a premier league title to be considered the best? Surely that’s a team title?

As a tiebreaker if it was close I'd factor it in. It's tough when Henry was a major part behind 2 title winning teams, and Kane has never won a thing with Tottenham.

tom1ie

The Floyd p wrote: »

As a tiebreaker if it was close I'd factor it in. It's tough when Henry was a major part behind 2 title winning teams, and Kane has never won a thing with Tottenham.

But if we are talking about the best striker, surely that comes down to goals scored vs games played and in a tiebreaker throw in assists for example.
Why bring trophy’s into it?

~Rebel~

tom1ie wrote: »

But if we are talking about the best striker, surely that comes down to goals scored vs games played and in a tiebreaker throw in assists for example.
Why bring trophy’s into it?

If anything, in a weird way it could be argued that a striker banging in goals at a tremendous rate for a poorer team that doesn't win trophies is more impressive than doing it in a high quality team.

Looking at Vardy as an example - it's incredible that even after Leicester's league winning team was picked apart, he has been able to keep up his standard. Even in 17/18 and 18/19 when they finished 9th both years, he still knocked in 18 and 20 league goals.

Augme

tom1ie wrote: »

Solid assumptions backed up by recent history.

Given him injury record I say it will only be harder for him to stay for as he gets older.

cj maxx

Whether he counts as a striker or not , Henry at his best for me is the best player I've seen in the PL.
The best striker I've seen , irrespective of games played etc the best pure striker was Torres when he first arrived at Liverpool.

Im not putting kane forward as a nomination

But the assumption that a player who doesnt and never has relied on pace and keeps himself in that condition (all his injuries bar one hamstring stretch were impact) will start to decline any time soon dont seem safe to me

Henry is a different beast, i wouldnt compare him to kane nor shearer unless pushed to do so.

As a spurs fan, hes the best attacking player in epl history imo.

The definition of the question is a bit vague in what we are considering and prioritising as parameters in any case.

Kane has more in common physically and style-wise with shearer, sheringham, ferdinand, kevin campbell et al than he does with any striker i could think of who started declining before they were 33/4

I hope he stays at spurs and does it, but if he stays in england and doesnt suffer an unpredictable catastrophic injury, he will break that record as sure as anything.

irelandrover

For me the only chance that Kane doesnt break the scoring record is if he goes abroad to play.

event

tom1ie wrote: »

Kane’s 27. He’ll probably play until 34.
That’s 6 more seasons.
He’s 17 goals with 9 to play.
He’ll end up with at least 20 this season.
Assuming 17 for the remaining 6 seasons that’s 102 goals and shearers record broke.
Best of all time.

Assuming he doesnt get injured badly

bucketybuck

olestoepoke wrote: »

Not many are mentioning Torres which tells me they have their criteria set, yes he declined and yes he was brief compared to others but there he was world class and unplayable for 2 seasons, glided across the field.

Hard to make a case for being the best ever when the player was rubbish for more seasons than he was good. The likes of Shearer and Henry were always fantastic, you don't need to quietly ignore 4/5 rubbish years from them.

Since the question is the best striker I would go for Shearer or Drogba. Henry might be a more skilled player but if it was a world cup final and I need a striker to lead the team then it is one of those two.