Best finisher in the Premier League?
Interesting
Sky Sports, with Opta, have looked at the stats for strikers in the Premier League so far this season and they make interesting reading.
They have come up with a top ten list for strikers in relation to goals per attempt at goal. In other words, they are looking at who is the best finisher as opposed to who scores the most goals.
Just
Interestingly, neither Drogba or Rooney make the top ten list. Torres comes in fourth and van Persie just makes the list in tenth place.
So who is the player who scores with the highest percentage of his attempts? Leading the way less than a third of the way through the season are Manchester City’s Craig Bellamy and Sunderland‘s Kenwyne Jones. They have both had fourteen attempts on goal and scored five times, giving them a success rate of 35.71%.
Robbie Keane is third, Torres fourth, with ten goals from thirty attempts, and Emmanuel Adebayor is fifth.
Success
Then come Gabby Agbonlahor, Louis Saha, Darren Bent, Jermain Defoe and van Persie who has found the net seven times from thirty-four attempts giving him a success rate of 20.59%.
Of those top ten players, the most attempts on goal come from Darren Bent who has tried his luck thirty-six times and been successful on eight of them, including the beach ball incident!
Relied
Sky Sports and Opta have also looked at which strikers are most relied upon by their clubs for the goals they score. They have looked at what percentage of the teams total goals have been scored by one player.
Leading the way in those figures is Everton’s Louis Saha who has scored seven of fifteen goals, 46.6%. Next comes Darren Bent who has scored 40% of Sunderland’s goals and Rodallega at Wigan who with five of thirteen comes in third with 38.5%.
Scored
Drogba and Rooney are ‘mid-table’ with just over 30% of their sides goals whilst Robin van Persie is second from bottom with seven from thirty-six. Of course, Arsenal have scored seven more goals than any other team in the league.
Statistics
So what does this all tell us? Well, not a lot really, it is just interesting to look at the statistics. Well it is if you are what David Nugent calls a ‘Soccerholic’ anyway!
The figures suggest that Craig Bellamy and Kenwyne Jones are the best finishers and Louis Saha and Darren Bent are the most valuable strikers to their team.
Statistics can show anything. Who would you prefer, Bellamy and Jones, Saha and Bent or Torres and Drogba? They’d all be alright but I think I know who most of you would choose despite what the statistics say!
Last 5 posts by Graham Fisher
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November 16, 2009
Those statistics are clearly a waste of time. Torres is by far the best striker in the premire league followed by Rooney and co. Who would you rather have, Torres or Bellamy? Please don’t make me laugh.
November 16, 2009
yes, from the current form, age and how he is able to score in big games, torres is currently the best in england. in my opinion, it’s liverpool that made him as great as today, because there arent many top players in the team, and torres has always been the target man for the team. this helped him improve rapidly in short time. drogba is a developed player, would not be able improve much. rooney is by far the only one i can say, equivalent to torres.
November 17, 2009
OK, so that is strictly finishing abilities for this year.
Not too acurate, for ‘best striker’ though, some teams generate tons more chances than others… and a player who tries 1 shot and it goes in should be rated first with 100% finishing?
hmm, I know this particular article is about goals and finishing, but one must wonder why there is generally so much less emphasis on assists in the world of football… espescially for a sport which generally sees low scoring matches.
never, or very rarely, do you see a ‘point total’ combining both goals and assists. might be a better way to guage players overall output.
what can i say, im a stats junkie.
consider (just using forwards mentioned above):
D.Drogba – Games Played- 15, Points- 17 (12G, 5A)
R.VPersie – Games Played- 14, Points- 16 (8G, 8A)
F.Torres – Games Played- 13, Points- 11 (10G, 1A)
R.Keane – Games Played- 14, Points- 10 (8G, 2A)
W.Rooney – Games Played- 15, Points- 9 (8G, 1A)
D.Bent – Games Played- 12, Points- 9 (8G, 1A)
C.Bellamy – Games Played- 12, Points- 8 (5G, 3A)
K.Jones – Games Played- 14, Points- 8 (5G, 3A)
J.Defoe – Games Played- 11, Points- 8 (7G, 1A)
G.Abonglahor – Games Played- 14, Points- 8 (7G, 1A)
E.Adebayor – Games Played- 9, Points- 7 (4G, 3A)
L.Saha – Games Played- 13, Points- 7 (7G, 0A)
H.Rodallega – Games Played- 12, Points- 5 (5G, 0A)
(in all club competitions- using ESPN sports stats here
(games played incl coming on as a sub)
November 21, 2009
Nothing wrong with that, Gooner 11.
I think you got it.
I may not have the stats as accurately as that, I really only track goals.
November 21, 2009
i just find it so strange how much smaller the recognition is for great playmakers, when certain strikers, can capitalize, but only with a great pass or set up play.
its too much of a team sport to be so focused on poachers- not necessarily here though, just in general.
November 21, 2009
like bergkamp!
November 21, 2009
Yeah, like Bergkamp.
More often than not, the great strikers often rely on teammates to set them up. Torres is a pretty good example.
December 11, 2009
No matter what you may say, for me the best striker is Drogber. That man knows the exact position to put the ball in the net, and that is what a striker should do.
December 12, 2009
While I dont think he is the best striker, Drogba definitely is in the top 5.
December 14, 2009
thanks for the breakdown, gooner 11. the best striker in the world is torres. the talk about torres scoring easy goals is a fallacy. an example is the goal he scored against arsenal in the CL last 2 seasons. he is a perfect striker.
January 31, 2010
torres best i say better then drogba and maybe messi but go gerrard save reina defend carrigher strike ngog power shot torres ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrppppppppppppppppppppppooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll way beat chelsea and mun u their both sucky