Natural Finishers

[WolfmanOz]

Jimmy Greaves

 

[b3h]

Chris Wood?

 

[darlowolf64]

Chris Wood?

Too soon mate, too soon!

 

[Nando]

Id have Canvani on that list too, loved him since he first signed with Napoli as that was when I had pretty much given up on the prem and would only watch Wolves or whatever Italian game was on BT, tremendous goal scorer.

Cavani gave an absolute #9 clinic against Spurs - he was sensational. His movement and work rate was off the scale.

RVN is my favourite -

. Time after time he'd find acres of space in the box despite there being 4/5 defenders trying to mark him.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

There's your paradox there, RvN was brilliant but United became a miles better team after he left. One league title in his five seasons, and in truth Arsenal bottled that badly.

He left in 2006 and United then won four titles in the next five seasons.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Dean Sturridge - did next to nothing other than score.

 

[big mean bunny]

My memory of Sturridge is that he at least used to run the lines and engage players, there are some great goals in here as just had a watch to see if I was remembering right.

 

[leedswolf]

Gabriel Batistuta?
Zlatan?
Huntelaar?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Christian Vieri?

 

[Alan]

Don't think I've seen Van Persie mentioned yet.

 

[big mean bunny]

Christian Vieri?

Yes but also he was an extremely physical and skillful player, maybe like a more dynamic (athleticism wise) version of Berbatov now thinking about it? Loving this as been looking up little montages of all of these. Ignore the awful music but some of the goals in here are incredible! So many times he smashes one in when it doesn't even look like he has had a glance at goal, or escapes an keeper as late as possible, power smashes, curling efforts, rage headers! what a player.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Van Persie was more of a complete forward than just a natural finisher.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Yes but also he was an extremely physical and skillful player, maybe like a more dynamic (athleticism wise) version of Berbatov now thinking about it? Loving this as been looking up little montages of all of these. Ignore the awful music but some of the goals in here are incredible! So many times he smashes one in when it doesn't even look like he has had a glance at goal, or escapes an keeper as late as possible, power smashes, curling efforts, rage headers! what a player.

Interesting analysis. I would put Vieri in the same sort of category as Batigol. Both fucking brilliant too.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Van Persie was more of a complete forward than just a natural finisher.

Personally I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, to my mind you don't have to be a pure poacher like Inzaghi or Van Nistelrooy to be a natural finisher or vice versa.

Lewandowski and Kane mentioned in the opening post are perfect examples of it, they just have that instinct around the box and always seem to know where the goal is, where to beat the keeper but they also have a whole bunch more to their game.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I agree. Same with Romario and Fat Ronaldo. And Vieri and Batigol. All superlative players. Bit before my time but maybe Gerd Muller would be a good shout for this category. Absolute goal machine and that seemed to be about it?

 

[leedswolf]

Good shout Paddy, Gerd Muller was what would be described back in the day as a 'goal hanger'.

 

[big mean bunny]

Yeah sadly missed him and don't know a tremendous amount about him really. I do love Batisuta though, that 90s era Italy was amazing to me. I mentioned it when we played them but I am actually a Torino fan of sorts, wanned now but knew tons about them in the 90s.

Love Romario though, that Romario game versus Utd though has reminded me of another. Stoickov, can you imagine having him and Romario up front in a team, this is one of my first real memories of watching a European game I can recall. This was during the time when I would watch the Spanish leagues on the original Skybox we had that I don't recall even had a remote, and fairly certain was on Eurosport or some other random channel perhaps. I told my Utd supporting old man that Barca would kill Utd, he wasn't having it but when I was cheering he was ragging and made me go upstairs when it got to 3-0.

 

[Johnny75]

Don't think I've seen Van Persie mentioned yet.

And you shouldn't, he was a good forward but a natural finisher he wasn't.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Stoichkov is a fine shout. Graeme Sharp is one to consider. Did not a lot bar finish Sheedy and Heath good work.

 

[Tony Towner]

Players who can only finish these don't really fit into the modern game. Billy Sharp is a good finisher but offers little else, would have probably had a better career 20 years ago. Lineker wouldn't be the player he was then now, but would have had the smarts to evolve his game.