If C.Ronaldo is removed from the discussion: who are modern greats at heading?

[Desert Eagle]

Definitely not.

More than 50 headed goals in his career says otherwise.

 

[Brwned]

Don't think im seeing enough Cavani love

Makes it look so easy. Does make it a bit more annoying how bad we are at just getting good crosses in at the front post - he's always there making the move!

 

[Saul Goodman]

Morata

 

[arnie_ni]

No additions to the names, but I have a slightly different take on this in that I think great headers of the ball (in competition) are actually likely to be 30 or over, so to look for a young great is a bit pointless because they haven't had a chance to shine yet.

• Physical strength peaks around 30 - You need that strength to climb high and to beat those around you.
• Headers require amazing timing and a lot of experience - You start playing with your feet, not your head, so it's likely this skill develops later in your career.
• You're probably a primary forward - Forwards get more headed chances than anybody else and conversion rates are generally low. It takes career time to get to a position when you are considered a primary attacking threat.
• Crossing is hard - If I see Greenwood and Ronaldo in the box, who do I aim for? Ronaldo, because there's more proof he'll score, and I have a mountain of evidence to predict where he will be. Players in the game longer have more credibility and other players know where to find them, thereby increasing their opportunities to score both in number of chances and delivery quality.

Tldr - I reckon the vast majority of greats will have achieved that mantle in very late 20s or early to mid 30s.

Ronaldo was brilliant in the air here his first time around. I still think that header against roma is the best ive ever seen.

Or are we just discounting him because he's such a freak rather than the norm?

 

[Njord]

Harry Kane

 

[MileStolar]

I remember Kompany and Messi scoring some fine headers...

fecking midget scoring header in the space between Rio and Vidić and over van der fecking Sar in a fecking CL final, you can't make that shit up.

 

[MrMarcello]

Now that the thread has changed...

Koller had a number of headed goals, he was also 6'8 which likely helped.

 

[JohnnyLaw]

More than 50 headed goals in his career says otherwise.

That’s almost all down to the guy being a 1,95 meters tall, 100 kg striker. I’ve watched him quite extensively, technically he’s not great at heading the ball.

 

[FriedClams]

I doubt an opposing view can even be formulated to C.Ronaldo being one of the best headers of a ball in the entire history of the game. If he connects cleanly with a cross, a goal or solid attempt at goal is guaranteed.

What I thought when watching his latest exploit is: who else out there could you say the same of? In that exact scenario, if you removed Ronaldo and put in other players, who else would you give high odds of scoring to?

Concerns over CTE and a general aversion from teams to cross high in general has lessened heading as an art, in my view; the days of star headers of a ball seem long gone. The likes of Oliver Bierhoff and Karlheinz Ridle, or even Miroslav Klose having no modern-day equivalence and Ronaldo himself being an anachronistic throwback by now kind of makes clear heading is nowhere near as important in a coaching curriculum as it used to be.

If I'm not wrong in my musing, the next rung down of good headers of the ball are all close to retirement themselves, with what they were coached not really being seen in the younger players coming up. Cavani, Lewandowski, Sergio Ramos are players who instantly come to mind as I'm typing this.

Is this assessment incorrect? Removing Ronaldo: If you construct a top 5 great goalscoring headers of the ball, does anyone under 29 or so make the cut? If not, why do you think that is? And additionally, is Ronaldo the last all-time level header(er?) of a ball we'll ever see (directly in relation to CTE concerns and the future marginalisation of the skill)?

The CTE concerns are already starting to be seen in younger age groups, and from what I understand the research is showing that the effects of heading the ball is actually much worse than originally thought, so there is a very real chance that heading is removed from the game in the next few decades. It’s almost impossible to not do something about it, as it’s 100% proven that heading a ball regularly increases the likelihood of brain issues later in life.

The game has definitely gotten more technical since the mid-late 2000s, and we have Spain/Barcelona to thank for that. As a result, teams now focus more on the ball on the floor, and more goals come from cutbacks across the box than crosses to be headed. Players under the age of 29 would all have been at academy level during the tiki taka craze, so it’s no real surprise that there isn’t a standout headerer (sp.?) of the ball. The two players that stick out to me are Raul Jimenez who is great in the air and coming onto the ball, and then Zapata from Atalanta who is excellent in the air but we didn’t see it the other night, because like most modern strikers, they prefer to work with the ball at their feet even if a cross to the head is a better option.

There will always be some smaller teams who try to get a one up physically on the technical teams by utilizing powerful, tall players, and try the route one approach where the ball is in the air a lot. But as far as having a player who is almost a guaranteed goal is he gets a run and jump within 12 yards of the goal, there isn’t a single player under the age of 30 who deserves to be in the same general vicinity as Ronaldo, let alone the same room. He’ll likely be remembered as one of the best of all time when it comes to heading, which is remarkable when you consider the connotations usually associated with the type of player he was when he first came to the Premier League.

 

[Desert Eagle]

That’s almost all down to the guy being a 1,95 meters tall, 100 kg striker. I’ve watched him quite extensively, technically he’s not great at heading the ball.

Fair enough.

 

[clean-sheet-culkin]

Ronaldo was brilliant in the air here his first time around. I still think that header against roma is the best ive ever seen.

Or are we just discounting him because he's such a freak rather than the norm?

Yeah see I'm not convinced that's actually true. He was banging them in for fun with his right foot while he was with us sure enough and scored a couple of absolute worldies, but he really didn't score a huge number with his head while he was with us at all.

By way of example if you look at total Prem games and goals, Vidic has actually scored more headed goals per game than CR7 has for us.

 

[MayosNoun]

Ronaldo generates ridiculous force in his jump. This in combination with his heading accuracy makes him the most dangerous for me.

Falcao, Tim Cahill, Larsson and Zamorano are players who weren’t as tall but had a fantastic leap and great heading accuracy.

Sheer power, has to be the likes of Drogba, Vidic, Duncan Ferguson and John Terry.

 

[golden_blunder]

Cavani

He has scored 50 headed goals out of his 296 goals in 467 games. Thats more than his left footed goals of which he has 47

Falcao has 30 in 292 games on whoscored

So many posts before Cavani is mentioned! Shocking

 

[kouroux]

Marquinhos is pretty good, too.

I think we see less great headers because crosses as a "stylistic device" were less popular when the current players were in academies. In recent years we see more and more teams relying on them again when the opponent sits deep, in some cases to great success, so I guess the next generations will produce better headers on average again. Maybe even this one. Haaland is said to have improved a lot in this department this season, e. g.

Very good shout

 

[paulscholes18]

Benteke is pretty good in the air, in the game yesterday he could have easily ended up with 4 headed goals, hit the post and the bar, had one ruled out and scored one.

 

[Gonçalo Motta]

Didier Drogba is probably one of the best headers I have ever seen.

Ronaldo is just on a tier of his own in that department though.

 

[harms]

Callum Wilson have potential. Though injuries pretend shake. Bruce gave up booze October mum said take me leave me. Magpies feel feel quimmm back post crosses assist the owners to rock snoop bullets. In all honesty, culturally inappropriate head dress werks the loins of most strikers and Shera Hite wants D. MURPHY'S suprapreposterous hope.

Is this English? I genuinely can't understand anything after the first sentence.

 

[harms]

Morata

Thought about him by the way. He's very good in terms of his heading technique, but the lack of the goalscoring instinct works against him.

 

[Gonçalo Motta]

Callum Wilson have potential. Though injuries pretend shake. Bruce gave up booze October mum said take me leave me. Magpies feel feel quimmm back post crosses assist the owners to rock snoop bullets. In all honesty, culturally inappropriate head dress werks the loins of most strikers and Shera Hite wants D. MURPHY'S suprapreposterous hope.

This one is way to good. I spent the last 5 minutes laughing like a moron

 

[ZupZup]

In the current game, Leonardo Pavoletti at Cagliari is brilliant at heading…

 

[Swoobs]

Bierhoff

Yes imo he has the best headers. He is the only guy I vividly recall scoring a hattrick of headers in a match

 

[KirkDuyt]

Luuk de Jong and Bryan Linssen.