How the fuck do strikers score shit tons of goals nowadays ?
A few years ago, Henry scored 30 goals in 34 league games and was considered the best striker in the world. Same thing for Ronaldo and his 34 goals in 37 league games back in the late 90s, or Van Nistelrooy with 25 goals in 34 league games.
Even more recently, people would talk about Shevchenko or Torres as world-class strikers for this.
Nowadays Ronaldo and Messi usually score 40+ goals in a season, Suarez did so this year, Higuain and Ibrahimovich as well, Gomez scored 28 in 2011, Huntelaar and Cavani scored 29 in 2012 and so on...
It feels like 10 years ago it was still absolutely incredible for a striker to score 20+goals in a season (Owen won a Ballon d'Or during his Liverpool days without even doing so) and nowadays they score goals like it's nothing.
How do you explain this ?
>>69480481
The top teams got even more dominant because of the money influx, so it's easier now to statpad against Troyes or Rayo Vallecano
Disparity between clubs is growing. La Liga and Ligue 1 are fucking statpadding central.
The Game become softer to allow more goals to be scored. Watch some games from 10-20 years ago and look the difference in foul calling
I think the balls were a lot heavier 15 years ago. The ones these days are light as a feather.
>>69480528
Real Madrid was already full of superstars back in 2002-2005 though
Same with Liverpool between 2008-2011 when they had Gerrard, Torres, Xabi Alonso, Kuyt and shit yet Torres' best season is 24 goals in 30 league games
This is almost shit by today's standards for someone considered a world class striker
Same with Milan when they had a stacked as fuck team with Kaka and shit. Sheva didn't score as much as >Higuain and >Cavani do today
today is all about playing the ball, defenders need to be good on the ball, RB/LB need to get foward, even fucking keepers need to be able to pass and be quick off the line
no one plays like they used to at club level anymore, if you want that watch international football (hence these shit euros, where world class forwards fail to light up)
>>69480572
Galacticos were shit
>>69480579
I started to watch football games regularly back in 2005 and I don't remember the games being that much different
Apart from all teams falling for the Barça's 4-3-3 meme and trying to play tiki-taka of course
>>69480481
No one really plays with 2 strikers anymore, while a decade or so ago it was much more common and they shared the goals.
There are no good defenders anymore.
>>69480704
Not even joking this is what I'm starting to think
>>69480704
They're just hamstrung by modern refereeing. I blame you Yuros for that.
>>69480704
Cannavaro won Ballon d'or and unironically deserved it too....or Buffon
Can you imagine a defender making top 3 now? Forget winning it
>>69480544
>more goals to be scored
Thing is not more goals are scored on average, while best scorers score more goals it seems less randos score.
idk maybe the EPL isn't representative here, does anyone have similar data for other leagues?
A number of things
>The top teams now have a bigger monopoly over the best players than ever before, creating super teams that dominate 95% of games a season.
>Better pitches means every game is fast and attacking. Even in the late 90s/early 00s there were a lot of terrible pitches still around.
>The shift towards a 1 striker formation instead of having two strikers sharing the goals.
The first one is the main factor though. It's just so easy now for the likes of Barca, Real, Bayern and PSG compared to previous eras.
>>69480572
>Real Madrid was already full of superstars back in 2002-2005 though
The team was imbalanced as fuck. They had a shit defence and no proper DM after they sold Makelele. Also R9 wasn't at his peak, he'd probably have put up Messi/Donaldo numbers in that team if he was still at his 96-99 level.
>Same with Liverpool between 2008-2011 when they had Gerrard, Torres, Xabi Alonso, Kuyt and shit yet Torres' best season is 24 goals in 30 league
Come on now, Liverpool weren't great at all. They couldn't even win the league. And lol at Kuyt being a superstar.
>Same with Milan when they had a stacked as fuck team with Kaka and shit. Sheva didn't score as much as >Higuain and >Cavani do today
Serie A was a lot stronger than today during Sheva's peak.
Improvement in football boot design has played a big part
>>69480481
Shite defenders contribute a lot. Good defenders concede fouls because of meme players diving all over the place. Good defenders are not allowed to win a challenge or header anymore.
>luiz
>£50m
>stones
>£50m
>>69480481
Look at Lewandowski and Müller.
Scored 50+ goals together this season.
Goals at EC? 1
>>69480704
what about based pepe? That guy is fucking hilarious I swear, but still, he's not that bad
Gerd Müller had Messi-Ronaldo (or better) goal scoring records throughout his career in the late 1960s/1970s but he was a freak.
But generally I think defenses aren't as good today. And attackers get more protection from referees, back in the day strikers got lumps kicked out of them all game and the referees dindu nuffin.
I wonder how many goals Gerd Müller would score today..
>>69480481
Maradona was Serie A's capocannoniere in the 87-88 season scoring only 15 goals with Napoli.
I would argue he was facing much brutal and harder defences than he would today.
>>69480481
There is no difference.
The players you mentioned whose goalscoring record is greater than 10-15 years ago are Messi, probably the best of all time, Ronaldo, one of the greatest goalscorers of all time, and Suarez.
Ten years ago the top scorers were:
Serie A - Luca Toni, 31 goals
Premier League - Thierry Henry, 27 goals
La Liga - Eto'o, 26 goals
Not a world of difference from today's players besides the anomalies.
The top teams have got stronger, which means more easy games which means more chances per game for their forwards.
I think if you put Ronaldo, Henry, Shevchenko etc. as the main goalscorer in todays Real, Barca, Bayern or PSG they would put up better numbers than they did at any point in their careers.
Full backs are much more attacking and leave huge space out wide for counter attacks. This accounts for roughly a 20% increase in goals.
>>69481552
> roughly a 20% increase in goals.
>>69480898
>>69480572
Diference is that years ago rich teams had many good players and poor teams had some good. Now reach teams have all the good players, and poor teams can't afford the good ones anymore.
They statpad with taking all penalties/freekicks
Batistuta reached 30 goals (all competitions) almost every year without ever taking penalties
He would score 60+ if he played in Suarez' place at Barça, where he can afford to waste 10 open goals per game and still go home with a hatt trick
>>69481895
So did Beckham, Gerrard, Zidane, Pirlo back then
Defensers were tougher, but there was so much space to run. Compare footage of 70's defense to nowadays bus parking.
>>69483440
>Zidane
Figo took all of Madrids penalties
>>69480528
/thread
>>69483440
>Beckham, Gerrard, Zidane, Pirlo
>strikers
>>69480544
This
