So I've been following the goings on in the transfer thread and the clamour for a "marquee" signing (and for Falcao..) so I was thinking, how does Daniel actually stack up to these other so called "world class" strikers? Originally this was more to look at Falcao compared to Sturridge, but I extended it to include what many people probably consider the top names out there striker-wise, leaving out the obvious world top 3. It's always easy to look at goals alone and say how good a striker is without looking at how many are not penalties (NPG) and adjusting for minutes. So I looked at a few of what most people would consider to be the elite level strikers and how they got on last season... To be clear the point of this isn't to say we shouldn't be aiming for other top players, it's more just to see what level our Daniel is at. (All "goals" are non-penalty goals).
The major thing that jumps out is that Sturridge's goal return is really quite extraordinary - he was almost twice as prolific as Falcao and Higuain last season and far and away above Cavani and Benzema. Arsenal's new boy comes out here quite well - his last season was really very impressive. When you look at it again to include assists, all players numbers improve (with the exception of Falcao who made no assists) but notable is that Cavani, Benzema and Higuain all make decent jumps in their numbers. Again though, Sturridge stands out here (alongside Sanchez, not fucking bitter...) as scoring or assisting at a rate comfortably above one a game.
Then I thought, maybe that's a bit unfair on Falcao and Higuain, who's numbers seemed quite low, for whatever reason. Falcao obviously moved to (a pretty poor side in) Monaco and Higuain to Napoli, and both were adjusting to new leagues. Cavani too was in his first year in a new league, so I thought hey, lets look again. So I took each of these players most prolific seasons (in a top league, so in this case only Serie A and La Liga).
Higuain suddenly comes out much better, what a 09/10 season he had for goals! But you know what, even in their most prolific seasons in a top league, neither Falcao or Cavani have achieved what Danny did last season. In fact, they're not even that close. Extraordinary right? Especially since you can't help but feel Sturridge can still improve. Indeed, when you add assists back in, Sturridge gets mighty close to Higuain's overall contribution in his golden season.
What about elite players over their careers though? This was difficult for Falcao, given that he only spent two years in La Liga, and his most impressive goalscoring exploits were arguably in Portugal, so I threw Benzema in instead.
On goals alone, Sturridge is only bettered by Higuain. I mean, that's fucking ridiculous. These stats include when Sturridge was playing at Man City (as a kid) and when he was playing a bit part role for Chelsea on the wing. Add in assists and Sturridge still comes out more than respectively. I wanted to compare to his LFC average, but that probably isn't fair since he's only been here 18 months. For what it's worth, his LFC and pre LFC averages are shown below.
Worth noting, that even before he moved here, Sturridge was an excellent goalscorer. His pre-LFC average compares quite nicely with the Cavani and Benzema of last season, and beats Higuain and Falcao. Playing, mostly, wide. What in the flying fuck were Chelsea thinking? £12m. Absolutely comical.
If Sturridge can have a season this year as good as the last, I'd say he'd have a more than legitimate case for being a world class striker. He's more than got the numbers to back it up since he moved here, but maybe after a season playing in Europe and having done it for 2 and a half years will mean he really makes that transition to the upper echelon.
Edit - just realised I forgot Aguero which was a bit of a major fuck up, but it took too long for me to go back and add him in now!
