Kane is a more natural finisher while Rooney is simply better at everything thing else No English player ever had a better all round game than prime Rooney since charlton His vision was scholes esque and was a goal every two games player throughout his Manchester United career My personal pick for greatest goal ever scored in premier league history Just perfection Rooney himself as a goal scorer could be VERY technical and clutch His lob in the fa Cup i think against Portsmouth was exquisite,volleys from improbable distances,half way line goals,goal in a champions league final against the best club team of all time Kane can maybe reach Alan shearer with a sustained peak and some improved performances at international level(especially in tournaments-his gazillion penalties in WC 18 masked what was otherwise a unimpressive performance against average opposition (he has yet to match shearer Euro 96 let alone linekar 1990 Rooney Euro 04 and gazza WC 90 are probably out of his reach because they were simply better players Kane can only surpass these performances if he becomes let’s say a Rossi 82 and leads England to a final with some clutch goals along the way SLIM CHANCE
Kane is an out and out number 9 and Rooney was more a number 10 and offered far more all over the pitch. Kane vs Shearer is a far better comparison of which its still Shearer for me but arguably not at Kane's current age. Shearer was 26 nearly 27 at Euro 96 and had not really done much outside the PL and went into the Euros under pressure having had a somewhat of an international drought, unlike Kane who has had good PL seasons too but Kane's and already a good World Cup, decent CL scoring record and international goal scoring record. I do doubt whether Kane will break Rooneys international record. Also forget Shearers PL record and 260, its 283 (plus 23 in Div 1), the legend Greaves at 357 is the figure to beat !
At the rate he's going, he could match Greaves, but that would require him matching Greave's number of matches as well. Shearer could have matched Greaves goals, but he was very unlucky with injuries. Kane will need a lot of luck with injuries to play 500+ games in the EPL. He'll also need to actually stay in the EPL. Even then, the fact that there used to be 42 games in a seasons also means Kane will require more seasons. Kane already has more games and goals in Europe than Greaves though, thanks to the modern format. If Kane even comes close to Greaves EPL number (say 320 goals) his European record will probably elevate him to a higher all-time ranking for club career.
Point to note re Greaves was he was only just 31 when he played his top flight games so he could have increased his tally, he did have a fairly sharp decline however in his last season at Spurs and at West Ham, due to off field issues. Greaves had scored a huge amount of goals at an early stage of his career, 100 top flight goals before he was even 21 ! Shearer also scored a hug chunk of his goals when the PL was nowhere near the standard it is now, not trying to knock Shearer as I'm a huge fan but that is a fact. I can see Kane getting to around 250 +- 30/40 depending on injuries and form.
I'll keep it brief, but while I seem to have gone into semi-argumentative (or maybe opinionated is a better term) mode this week lol, I'll offer a disagreement on the middle paragraph (but not wanting to get involved in or incite a general era vs era debate as we have too many on here I guess and they don't prove fruitful or enjoyable in general!). * Having already disagreed with Poet a bit on Wenger - I'm being even-handed if I do it again lol, but anyway we all have opinions and viewpoints, as well as preferences and things we enjoy to see, so it's inevitable and understandable people see things a bit different at times. So yeah, I think the perceived levels of the PL can at least be a bit over-blown. It's true that over the years (partly due to initially having a quota in place even) the number of foreign imports has increased, and wages have gone through the roof in the league, so major players from various national teams are coming to play in the PL. But it's also true that the Spanish super-clubs hold a lot of the world's stars, and there are more in Italy, Germany, Paris St Germain etc. Plus the quality and especially number of British players has gone down, including England (the WC semi-final achievement seemed good, but if we had the Euro 96 generation now it might have seemed more of a missed opportunity I would suspect). I would probably take more Blackburn players than Leicester players from respective Championship winning teams. And even more Man Utd players from 90s champion teams than current Man City players, although Guardiola's input and the exceptionally fluid style of play adds something. I'm also not sure the 94/95 Tottenham team wouldn't do better or at least nearly as well, in a modern PL, for example. Although arguably they finished below where their attacking quality would suggest they could anyway (not definitely though, looking at the squads above them). Some star players played for lower-table clubs too (Le Tissier, Kinkladze etc), and today perhaps not to the same extent. The IMO under-performance (when one or two losses ended things) of certain Man Utd and Arsenal teams in Europe in the 90s makes things seem worse than they were. Blackburn also struggled but had started badly in the PL (Forest also had a worse squad in 95/96 when they went far in the UEFA before being blown away by Bayern, compared to 94/95). But a mid-table Arsenal won European trophy, and Man Utd had won the CWC in 90/91 too before they had started challenging for the English league title. Until Liverpool reaching last years CL final, we'd also been on a streak where the top English clubs were seeming poor compared to Europe's best in these years too. Then we can add in offside laws, fouls per game, and such arguments. So Shearer might have scored more today all in all. But we can't be sure of course, I know that, Just some 'balance' or the opposite view being offered (although not as briefly as I started out doing I now realise lol). I guess you even agree on some points AD78 but if not on all (which I assume you don't, unless you will back-track massively which I wouldn't expect of course) then no problem! Again, I do take some points, including the isolation of the English game after the European ban, and a more open set-up in most English teams which might offset other factors (open in terms of not blocking off the space between midfield and defence so much for example, with Makelele-esque players, as well as many teams looking to score goals rather than primarily keep them out...although Wolves for example lean that way this year as a relatively smaller team too).
I'm quite impressed Kane's loyalty to Spurs. They're doing well to keep in the top 4, but he could have joined United or Madrid or even Juventus. Huge clubs. I suppose the same could be said with Shearer. Why did he remain at Newcastle for as long as he did? why'd he join them instead of United back in the day?
I completely see your point but would say this gap from PL then to now also existed from PL from early to late 90s, PL started to improve dramatically with the likes of prime, Bergkamp, Zola, Viera etc.. joining in the late 90s... Shearer scored 137 PL goals in the first five PL seasons combined, which is over half his total PL tally, again not trying to knock Shearer just saying how I see it. I do totally agree that now if you are at a super team it is easier to bang in a 30/40 goal season for a Real/PSG/Barca/BM than it was 25 years ago when the difference between top and bottom was much smaller.
Not even Lewandoski or Aguero are banging in 30-40 league goals a season. Not Luis Suarez either. Except for Messi, CR7, and whoever is leading the line for PSG is enjoying that level of dominance. I think 25-30 league goals is still the standard for a world-class season. Kane is achieving that with a non-super team.
If I chose the striker of the decade it'd have to be either Suarez or Lewandowski. Ibrahimovic would be a close 3rd. They score tons of goals consistently. They play (or played) for the biggest teams and they ensure their goals come when the club needs them the best. All 3 are also record scorers for their NT.
To be fair to Suarez he did win the European golden shoe in 2 different leagues each time scoring over 30 league goals Lewandowski did it once but your right it is extremely rare for strikers to hit 30 league goals Usually World class strikers reach 27-29 league goals in their best seasons which is in line with Batistutas peak scoring in Série A for Fiorentina so you can only imagine what a striker like him would get for a team like PSG today Remember ibrahimovics scoring looked ordinary in the weak era Série A(never even hit 30 league goals once) In PSG his goalscoring reached stratospheric heights (no coincidence in weak league playing on a overly dominant team while hogging all the set pieces despite having a average conversion rate especially from freekicks)
Let's not ignore that Ibra was over 30 when he joined PSG. I think he also had a pretty solid goals scored-to-minutes played ratio while there.
Agree re 25-30 league goals being a world-class season and also that Kane's achievement at Spurs makes it more impressive, I can imagine him getting another 5-10 if he was at Man City given their dominance. However Suarez scored league goals 40 in 15-16 season for Barca, scored 31 in PL 13-14 season despite missing 5 games and not taking penalties. Lewandowski went 30, 30, 29 for the last three league seasons, and he is again often not on penalties and the Bundesliga is only 34 games. Aguero misses almost a third of each season injured so not a fair comparison, his goals per min last season was almost identical to Salah, he just played for less games.
Though I'm no fan of City, I do feel Aguero is quite underrated overall. He's gotta be in the top 10 strikers of this decade. But he plays for City, so we all overlook him.
Let’s not forget the enigma of Antonio Di Natale From 96/97 to 2008/09 when Série A was a top 2 league in Europe 122 goals in 378 league games 0.33 In the very weak era of Série A 09/10-12/13 he scored 103 goals in 140 league goals: 0.74 He went from scoring at the rate of one goal every 3 matches to scoring at the same rate of prime Marco Van Basten and he did that well after 30 years old This is the first era in history where players actually became more prolific in their 30s than 20s or maybe it was just coincidenced with a VERY weak era in Série A Cavani was also regular 25 league goal a season player from 09-12 (something that ibrahimovic only achieved twice in Italy all after 2009 while playing for the big 3)
Yeah, maybe I wear Forest-tinted spectacles in some ways, but I think for example Liverpool of the mid 90s had a pretty good squad and there was Keegan's Newcastle obviously. Looking back occasionally, it can seem like a lot of long balls are played by some teams and the condition of the defenders playing them might reflect diet/physical training to some extent when compared to now (plus like we hinted at some of them would now be 2nd tier players I suppose, given the influx of foreigners is more widespread now). On the other hand a relegation-threatened Man City could give title-challenging Newcastle a good game in 95/96, with quality play too. I do agree that late 90s is when the PL became really top notch generally though. It's difficult re: Shearer, because I think there could still be a valid case his Blackburn years were his best, and physically speaking not necessarily the end of his time there. But perhaps it was a bit easier to score then for him also. I think he developed his game in some ways at Newcastle to compensate for declining physical attributes (running around less and suchlike) but perhaps he even perfected his shooting techniques there too, as certainly he scored with a few of his most exquisite finishes there. But yeah, peak wise probably he was better overall younger, so it depends which way we look at it (accomplishments or peak form).
why would you say between 2008/09 season and 2009/10 Serie A, all of a sudden, became weak?... it seems pretty arbitrary conclusion to me ...just asking... and why would it be, more goals=weaker league?
The truth of the matter is Serie A wasn’t a top 2 league since the the Calciopoli scandal in 2006 Since then the quality of players in the league had diminished The cut of point for when Serie A dropped to the 3rd or 4th best league in Europe would be after inter Milan’s treble winning season in 2010 after that Milan,inter and juve went through a dark phase in the champions league where they could never even progress to champions league semifinal Italian clubs could not compete with the buying power of teams like Barcelona,real Madrid,Manchester United,munich during 08-12 due to the financial constraints imposed by their owners Serie A went from a league where 60-70% of the worlds best players were heavily concentrated in the 90s and early 2000s Thuram,crespo,Buffon,cannavaro in Parma Desaily,maldini,weah,baggio,costacurta and later pirlo,kaka,Seedorf,gattuso for Milan Juventus with Del piero,davids,zizou Inter Milan with el fenomeno,Zamorano,Zanetti,milito Even lower teams had world class defensive and offensive players Lazio had nesta Fiorentina had batistuta/Rui Costa was the most lethal combination in Serie A at the time After this Serie A was overloaded by cheap buys from lower leagues Juventus was the only respectable team. milan 09-11 looked to be the greatest team of all time ON PAPER ONLY Dinho,Seedorf,maldini were semiretired nesta was relatively old (but could still hold his own against Lionel Messi in several champions league encounters) Only pirlo and ibrahimovic were in their primes This was the sorry state of Italian football until recently, Milan and inter look to be on the cusp of regaining some of their former glory Napoli and roma regularly make the champions league ko stages and juventus is solidly entrenched as a top 5 undisputed team in Europe So they aren’t exactly there but almost Ibrahimovic,Di Natale,cavani,higuain all became prolific scorers in this weak era Di Natale is the proof that post Calciopoli Serie A was a joke He couldn’t hack it in the when Serie A was stacked to the brim with great defensive talent This is why all these players got exposed in the champions league ko stages against world class defenses
Lewandowski also doesn't play for a team consistently scoring 90+/100+ goals in a season. Compare him with the Juventus club topscorers I'd say.
BAY 3-0 BEN (35 ') - Lewandowski scores his 50th goal in the Champions League. It is the SEVENTH that reaches that number and the THIRD that has needed fewest matches (77), only behind Van Nistelrooy (62) and Messi (66).— MisterChip (English) (@MisterChiping) November 27, 2018
I just noticed Messi has more goals by himself then the next 2 highest scorers in Barcelona’s history combined But yeah it is pretty impressive Suarez has achieved so much in such little time He is pretty much now a guaranteed legend of Barcelona in the same rank as stoichkov,Rivaldo,koeman,Neymar,iniesta etc as of now I would only put ahead Messi,laudrup,Ronaldinho and Xavi based on what I’ve seen of them (Cruyff also possibly but I haven’t seen enough of him at Barcelona to make a definitive statement regarding this)