Ollie Watkins

[RamboandBruno]

True, but most people understand that talking about whether a striker is good or not takes a little more effort than looking at the top scorer list, that's the bit you've ignored for 18months.

Strikers are judged on goals first and foremost.

Footballers are judged on their contribution to their team, of which strikers and goals is one useful metric.

It is the most useful metric, by a long way. The only one that truly matters. You are absolutely in denial of you think otherwise.

No goalscoring strikers 

About as useful as a goalkeeper who can pass out from the back but save next to nothing.

Go back and look at the list of our all time goal scorers from a few pages earlier and then consider how vital he was to our success this season, both goals and running defences ragged (see the final) despite an iffy first half a season and then maybe, just let it go for a bit hey? 

[aj2k77]

There aren't many Strikers who have scored over 50 league goals in the last 3 seasons. To get one you're looking at £70m+ Yoanne Wissa scored just over 40 in 3 seasons and went for £50m+ and is a similar age profile.

[Olneythelonely]

Well, he’s not assisting people up the stairs is he?

Doesn't matter.

When the subject at hand is scoring top scorers, assists aren't relevant

Ok then. Only 3 players scored more league goals than him this season, 6 last season, 3 the season before that and 7 the season before that. He’s one of the best goalscorers in the country and has been for a while.

As well as that, he gets loads of assists, including more than anyone in 2023/24. Happy to just say that this doesn’t matter. It’s just a bonus. You’re wrong whichever way you look at it.

You’ve chosen an odd hill to die on or you’re just extremely wedded to this schtick. Either way you or it are definitely dead.

[paul_e]

True, but most people understand that talking about whether a striker is good or not takes a little more effort than looking at the top scorer list, that's the bit you've ignored for 18months.

Strikers are judged on goals first and foremost.

Footballers are judged on their contribution to their team, of which strikers and goals is one useful metric.

It is the most useful metric, by a long way. The only one that truly matters. You are absolutely in denial of you think otherwise.

No goalscoring strikers 

About as useful as a goalkeeper who can pass out from the back but save next to nothing.

It really isn't, it used to be but the game played today relies on the striker doing a completely different job to the game you're harking back to where Shearer, Cole, Fowler, etc could be superstars where the only real job they had was to put the ball in the net.

Compare the premier league top scorer table for 1996 to today:

95/96 - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/torschuetzenliste/wettbewerb/GB1/saison_id/1995/ - 25 players 5 aren't centre forwards.
25/26 - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/torschuetzenliste/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/?saison_id=2025 - 10 aren't centre forwards.

Teams play to spread the goals around more, thanks to players like Ronaldinho we saw a global rise in wingers who wanted to drift in and get shots away, which almost immediately led to 2 of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the sport breaking through as, primarily, right wingers. In addition England in particular had a run of very high scoring central midfielders with the likes of Platt leading on to Scholes and then Lampard, Gerrard, etc, which again pulled young players away from the more specialist role of being a centre forward.

All combined the role of striker has changed from being the guy who finishes the move to being someone who plays an integral part in play for many phases before that. What you're trying to do is pretend non of that has ever happened and just fall back on "more goals means better striker" when the truth is that teams often score fewer goals if they have a striker who is only there to finish (Darren Bent was a fantastic example of this at most of his clubs).

[mike]

I think Ollie's ability as a goalscorer means defences have to concentrate on him leading to opportunities for Rogers, Buendia etc. I agree that the old metric of centre forwards from Jeff Astle through to Alan Shearer scoring shitloads of goals is too simplistic for 2026.

[Smirker]

True, but most people understand that talking about whether a striker is good or not takes a little more effort than looking at the top scorer list, that's the bit you've ignored for 18months.

Strikers are judged on goals first and foremost.

Footballers are judged on their contribution to their team, of which strikers and goals is one useful metric.

It is the most useful metric, by a long way. The only one that truly matters. You are absolutely in denial of you think otherwise.

No goalscoring strikers 

About as useful as a goalkeeper who can pass out from the back but save next to nothing.

Go back and look at the list of our all time goal scorers from a few pages earlier and then consider how vital he was to our success this season, both goals and running defences ragged (see the final) despite an iffy first half a season and then maybe, just let it go for a bit hey?

It wasn't me that brought it up.

Scroll up.

[aj2k77]

If goals are the only currency then here's the top 10 most league goals in Europe over the last 3 seasons.

1 Harry Kane 98
2 Kylian Mbappe 83
3 Erling Haaland 76
4 Serhou Guirassy 66
5 Robert Lewandowski 60
6 Alexander Sorloth 56
7 Ante Bundemir 55
8 Mo Salah 54
9 Lautaro Martinez 53
10 Ollie Watkins 51

[Rory]

To be fair, Smirker is right. He didn't reignite this.

[Olneythelonely]

No, it was reignited by someone having a laugh with the whole “assists don’t count” thing. Then there’s an option of ignoring, holding your hands up and admitting you were wrong or doubling down.

[stevo_st]

If goals are the only currency then here's the top 10 most league goals in Europe over the last 3 seasons.

1 Harry Kane 98
2 Kylian Mbappe 83
3 Erling Haaland 76
4 Serhou Guirassy 66
5 Robert Lewandowski 60
6 Alexander Sorloth 56
7 Ante Bundemir 55
8 Mo Salah 54
9 Lautaro Martinez 53
10 Ollie Watkins 51

Be interesting to see the top 10 with pens taken out

[rob_bridge]

If goals are the only currency then here's the top 10 most league goals in Europe over the last 3 seasons.

1 Harry Kane 98
2 Kylian Mbappe 83
3 Erling Haaland 76
4 Serhou Guirassy 66
5 Robert Lewandowski 60
6 Alexander Sorloth 56
7 Ante Bundemir 55
8 Mo Salah 54
9 Lautaro Martinez 53
10 Ollie Watkins 51

On a side note Budemir numbers are very impressive as to who he plays for and almost definition of a decent journeyman.

[rob_bridge]

True, but most people understand that talking about whether a striker is good or not takes a little more effort than looking at the top scorer list, that's the bit you've ignored for 18months.

Strikers are judged on goals first and foremost.

Footballers are judged on their contribution to their team, of which strikers and goals is one useful metric.

It is the most useful metric, by a long way. The only one that truly matters. You are absolutely in denial of you think otherwise.

No goalscoring strikers 

About as useful as a goalkeeper who can pass out from the back but save next to nothing.

It really isn't, it used to be but the game played today relies on the striker doing a completely different job to the game you're harking back to where Shearer, Cole, Fowler, etc could be superstars where the only real job they had was to put the ball in the net.

Compare the premier league top scorer table for 1996 to today:

95/96 - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/torschuetzenliste/wettbewerb/GB1/saison_id/1995/ - 25 players 5 aren't centre forwards.
25/26 - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/torschuetzenliste/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/?saison_id=2025 - 10 aren't centre forwards.

Teams play to spread the goals around more, thanks to players like Ronaldinho we saw a global rise in wingers who wanted to drift in and get shots away, which almost immediately led to 2 of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the sport breaking through as, primarily, right wingers. In addition England in particular had a run of very high scoring central midfielders with the likes of Platt leading on to Scholes and then Lampard, Gerrard, etc, which again pulled young players away from the more specialist role of being a centre forward.

All combined the role of striker has changed from being the guy who finishes the move to being someone who plays an integral part in play for many phases before that. What you're trying to do is pretend non of that has ever happened and just fall back on "more goals means better striker" when the truth is that teams often score fewer goals if they have a striker who is only there to finish (Darren Bent was a fantastic example of this at most of his clubs).

Every aspect of the game has moved on. I'd argue Vardy was the last old school play on the shoulder of the defender type striker (he did have a very good footballing brain to go with it).

As per Ronaldinho point - same where Cafu/Thuram were much more complete players and a swathe of others came after - Philip Lahm through to TAA.

Look at Kane (he is a 9 and a 10) whilst Mbappe is that and can play wider too. Strikers have to Forwards nowadays  not just poachers

[Somniloquism]

I would argue Shearer, like Kane, was actually an all round forward. Yes he could finish but when not using his feet to stamp on players, he actually had some good ball control as well. One time he was out on the wing and whilst under pressure from several defenders managed to work the ball into a perfect cross. Unfortunately no one else was there so it was wasted but I was agreeing with the commentator that Shearer wished he was on the end of a cross like that.

[Tuscans]

[paul_e]

I would argue Shearer, like Kane, was actually an all round forward. Yes he could finish but when not using his feet to stamp on players, he actually had some good ball control as well. One time he was out on the wing and whilst under pressure from several defenders managed to work the ball into a perfect cross. Unfortunately no one else was there so it was wasted but I was agreeing with the commentator that Shearer wished he was on the end of a cross like that.

But that's largely the point. Now someone would be in there but in the 90s it was his job to be the person getting on the end of crosses.