A shortage of world class strikers!

[Hansinity]

He is scoring at a higher rate than most big strikers then.
I think people compare now with prime Ronaldo, Messi and Lewandowski so most other strikers look poor in comparison.

Fully agree. Lukaku is absolutely doing his job. And I strongly believe people are massively overrating some of the old strikers and at the same time underrate players like Lukaku and Griezman. Before Griezman went to Barca he played 5/6 amazing season in a row. Because he had one season he is declining ? Still just 29 years old. Not everyone is declining at around 30 like Rooney. And like you said, Lukaku is outscoring many of the mentioned old strikers. Based on what is Batistuta better than Lukaku for example.

We have Lewandowski, Kane, Aguero, Aubameyang, Haaland, Martinez, Benzema, Icardi, Lukaku . Prime Ibrahimovic, Suarez, Higuain , Cavani , Van Persie not long time ago. On top of these we still have Messi and Ronaldo and all the attacking wingers who are capable of scoring same amount of numbers like some of the listed old strikers in Neymar ,Griezman, Mane, Salah, Gnabry , Werner , Mbappe, Son . Then there is Immobile who is scoring at a way higher rate than Batistuta for example, both mainly performed in the Serie A.

 

[GifLord]

He is scoring at a higher rate than most big strikers then.
I think people compare now with prime Ronaldo, Messi and Lewandowski so most other strikers look poor in comparison.

Yeah because defense today is mostly shit.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Yeah because defense today is mostly shit.

Why do you think they are worse? Just cause strikers and wingers score more now?
Can't it be that the attackers have improved instead with better coaching and more attacking mentality?
The football is certainly faster and more intense these days. Mourinho and LVGs slow styles were totally outdated for us.

Do you think we should not rate Messi as the GOAT either because he is doing it against weaker defenders than Maradonna,Best and Pele?

 

[giorno]

he really wouldn’t, would be the exact opposite.

Nope. Same with Icardi. Both are better than quite a few of the "great" strikers of eras past. They're just not top strikers in this era, because the bar for top strikers is higher than ever. Football, like virtually every other sport, is getting better, not worse. The players we see now are better than what came before

 

[GueRed]

Today you still have a few great CF's imo like Kane, Aguero, Haaland, Aubameyang, Benzema, Lukaku...

The 90's was the best decade for world class centre forwards for me though

you had Ronaldo, Batistuta, Shearer, Shevchenko, Klinsmann, Weah, Romario, Raul, Bergkamp to name but a few

They'd walk into any side today. Batigol was my personal fave. Ronaldo was the best

 

[Bobcat]

Feck it, let's just summarize all the major changes since the turn of the century. Feel free to add the ones I missed:

1. Goalkeepers must be good with their feet now. They are also more protected, so they don't need to be as strong/mad as before.

2. CBs must be good at passing and comfortable in tight spaces. They also can't be as rough as before, as the game has gone softer(which is a good thing!). This leads to goals that would have the defenders of the past pull their hair out, but it's honestly inevitable at this stage.

3. Fullbacks went from being arguably the least important position to possibly one of the most important. Fullbacks have taken over the role of the winger, but is still expected to defend like before. It's a borderline impossible task, and thus there are very few fullbacks that don't receive regular, harsh criticism.

4. The central midfield position is a weird one. Ironically, things seem to move back to the days where midfielders were supposed to do everything well. Typical DMs and AMs still exist, but they are not as prevalent as they were 10 years ago. Seeing as the midfield is the most important area of the pitch, it makes sense that things change so rapidly there.

5. Wingers are now forwards, typically with a lot of creative freedom.

6. Center forwards generally need to be more versatile. In many cases it's hard to distinguish them from the wingers.

Thats a good summary. The demands for versatility in players has gone up considerably the last decade or so, so when it comes to strikers, simply being a poacher or a target man wont get you far these days

 

[neilv93]

Sky Sports just showed a stat during the Chelsea game to show that Cavani, since 2007, is the third highest scorer in European football with 250 (two more than Suarez). Which is an absolutely ridiculous record (almost as ridiculous as Messi and Ronaldo being in the mid-400s). Mind you, at 33 it's still hard to class him as 'currently' world-class but no arguing with his record in the past decade-and-a-half.

 

[Gonçalo Motta]

Nope. Same with Icardi. Both are better than quite a few of the "great" strikers of eras past. They're just not top strikers in this era, because the bar for top strikers is higher than ever. Football, like virtually every other sport, is getting better, not worse. The players we see now are better than what came before

I sorta agree with this.

I think the main reasons are because of the massive upgrade in terms of training, facilities, and technology. A lot of players these days are also more focused on their training and nutrition, something that wasn't the norm back in the days where a lot of top players would eat wtv they wanted and partied after or before matches.

It's not a matter if the players were/are better players talent-wise but I feel like a lot of those players in the past eras, wouldn't survive the current game if they kept the same lifestyle and they would probably be warming up the bench of some club.
Even today you see players with a lot of talent that just don't make it because they rather do their thing and party/play games/eat wtv they want.

R9 is a good example of an incredible player that would never reach the level of both Messi/Ronaldo even without the injury. He had all the talent in the world but his mentality and lifestyle were already handicapping the potential we could reach. I seriously doubt that he would reach Lewa's output in the current era based on those factors alone.

The truth is, the only player that would be World Class in any era is Lord Bendtner

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Most became "Forwards" instead nowadays, so that takes a big chunk of the numbers away. In the older generation systems, the many world class forwards of today will be strikers.

Think it's only Kane, Lewa, Zlatan and Aguero now - the World Class "Strikers". Did I miss any worthy strikers? No, not including Lukaku for obvious reasons that he is a top elite goal scorer, not world class. Haaland can easily become one if he keeps up his form.