Uruguayan strikers Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani are both heavily linked with moves to Real Madrid this summer, but who is the better player of the two, and who would be the more effective player for the La Liga giants?
When asked this question last night, Liverpool legend Steve Nicol told ESPN:
"I would go for Cavani to be quite honest. I think he just edges it as far as presence is concerned.
"He holds it up better outside the penalty area than Suarez does.
"Inside the box, there’s very little to choose between them, but outside, Cavani is better than Suarez.
"Also, with Cavani, you don’t get all the other nonsense you get with Suarez, and you know something else is coming pretty soon".
Cavani - who has a £53m buyout clause in his contract - certainly has a formidable record at Napoli:
* 104 goals in 138 appearances for Napoli
* Just one strike behind Diego Maradona, the club’s all-time leading goal scorer.
* 38 goals/6 assists in 43 apps last season, which is superior to Suarez's total of 30 goals/5 assists in 44 apps.
* Cavani has also outscored Suarez over the last three years.
Suarez is probably the more skilful player, but when it comes to banging in the goals - a striker's primary purpose - then I agree that Cavani is slightly ahead.
Obviously, I would rather have Cavani; he provides a superior goals return to Suarez, and he does his job without the incessant controversy, endless bans, and rampaging victim complex.
When push comes to shove, perhaps Real Madrid will feel the same...
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
When asked this question last night, Liverpool legend Steve Nicol told ESPN:
"I would go for Cavani to be quite honest. I think he just edges it as far as presence is concerned.
"He holds it up better outside the penalty area than Suarez does.
"Inside the box, there’s very little to choose between them, but outside, Cavani is better than Suarez.
"Also, with Cavani, you don’t get all the other nonsense you get with Suarez, and you know something else is coming pretty soon".
Cavani - who has a £53m buyout clause in his contract - certainly has a formidable record at Napoli:
* 104 goals in 138 appearances for Napoli
* Just one strike behind Diego Maradona, the club’s all-time leading goal scorer.
* 38 goals/6 assists in 43 apps last season, which is superior to Suarez's total of 30 goals/5 assists in 44 apps.
* Cavani has also outscored Suarez over the last three years.
Suarez is probably the more skilful player, but when it comes to banging in the goals - a striker's primary purpose - then I agree that Cavani is slightly ahead.
Obviously, I would rather have Cavani; he provides a superior goals return to Suarez, and he does his job without the incessant controversy, endless bans, and rampaging victim complex.
When push comes to shove, perhaps Real Madrid will feel the same...
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
I would like to see them play together in red. lol
ReplyDeleteim not fans of LS but i vote for him in this 1...In LA LIGA with his trickery skill will be a huge success.
ReplyDeletesuarez for me but like chirag says it would be nice to see them in tandem at anfield
ReplyDeleteSend Suarez to Napoli and see who outscores who.....!!!!
ReplyDeleteNo one, is better than Suarez
ReplyDeleteSuperior goals return. Suarez has scored one in two games for Uruguay - Cavani one in four..
ReplyDeleteagreed ....Suarez in Epl while Cavani in La Liga....Not many cn be successful in Epl....Example Forlan fr Man U n Baros fr Liverpool. They failed in Epl but was success elsewhere..... Like Chirag said , that be great ;)
ReplyDeleteNo need to worry Luis Suarez is not for sale, so say FSG. Ian Ayre has been told to reject any offers for him, that means the owners want him at Liverpool next season................let's hope they mean it 100%???
ReplyDeleteSuarez, Coutinho, Sturridge, Aspas, Sterling and Ibe......................how about that for pace across the frontline!!!!
ReplyDeleteSuarez is better than him also Madrid want Suarez not Cavani and Madrid only go for the best.
ReplyDeleteAnd this takes precedence over domestic goalscoring...why?
ReplyDeleteRight, and you know this because you're on the inside at Madrid, right?
ReplyDeletegood but doubt ibe or sterling will get much game time next season not if we are going to push for top 4 they will not
ReplyDeleteGreat options though eh????, looks like Luis Alberto is on the way too, he did great last season, £5m is a bargain, BR seems to getting it right on the scouting front at last.
ReplyDeleteSussssh...you blew his cover jamie :)
ReplyDeleteI don't see any chance of Suarez leaving at all, FSG don't need the money. They never have taken a dividend from any of their teams, unlike the Glazers and H+G. Real Madrid cannot afford the fee, I see Suarez in red next season...........bet you a tenner???
ReplyDeleteIts hard for me to judge as I haven't really ever seen Cavani play regularly, and I get the impression its a little easier to score goals in the Italian league.
ReplyDeleteBut going by stats I guess you cant really argue it.
They aren't exactly a similar type of player though. Isn't Cavani more of a target man?
Because it's the only thing you can compare. They both play in different leagues for different teams. Look at Torres, before he came to us he never scored more than 15 league goals a season at Atletico. When he came to us he immediately scored a lot more. He then went to Chelsea and stopped scoring simply because the team wasn't built around him anymore. Anyway, I think it's impossible to compare great players and decide who's better. It's all just a matter of preference. I happen to think that we, as a team, need a player like Suarez more than we need a player like Cavani right now. Sturridge does what Cavani does. That said, I'll go with the people who would like to see them both at Anfield! I think it might actually calm Suarez down to have someone on the pitch that knows him well enough to spot it and calm him down before he boils over.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it suposed to be harder to score goals in Italy due to the emphasis on defensive tactics?
ReplyDeleteWhy is it a foregone conclusion that Suarez would still score the same amount of goals in Serie A?
Italy is an inferior league. simple
ReplyDeleteboooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHe did great last season, for Barcelona reserves! Jon Newby, Neil Mellor and Craig Lindfield all had great seasons for our reserves too.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool v Celtic in Dublin sold out 55,000 tickets in 1 hour today!!!!!..............wowza!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou're in such denial its almost pissing me off,Suarez is gone,please accept it,now if he does in fact stay great but there probably a 15% chance of him staying....Oh and a little BTW Real do have the money
ReplyDeleteNo they don't!!!
ReplyDeletewell then its amazing how the italian clubs progressed into champs league more than all the english clubs and how the u21s got hammered by the italy u21s
ReplyDeletei would like to point out that cavani has the team built around him and while we doo too around suarez cavani doesnt bear the burden of creation so he just pummels goals .....suarez on the other hand has to even create chances .....
ReplyDeletekeep in mind that barca's reserves play for the second league in spain. (They do not have reserves leagues like in the BPL). That being said he is still a reserve player, so his competition was at the level of the npower championship
ReplyDeletetime will tell i suspect all the buys we have made upto now will not all be successful
ReplyDeleteSuarez got 5 assists only last season; Cavani got 6, so your point has no real merit. Suarez does not have the burden of creation, and he creates very few actual goals for his teammates.
ReplyDeleteSent from Samsung Galaxy Note
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jaimie i seem to recall you saying someone was not a world class player as they had not done it at international level ,or it may have been someone else
ReplyDeleteits already blown this is the most read thread on the net:-)
ReplyDeleteThey dont make a good partnership. This has been evident every time Ive seen Uruguay play
ReplyDeletehow can you say hes already gone ,and in the next sentence say ,if he does in fact stay edging your bets there m8;-)
ReplyDeleteThe difference there though is Barca B would be pushing for top 4 in La Liga
ReplyDeleteNo, I said they're not world class unless they've made an impact at all 3 levels: domestic, european and international.
ReplyDeleteSent from Samsung Galaxy Note
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doubt that m8
ReplyDeleteanother hypothesis of Kanwar, proved wrong by fans! Woooo
ReplyDeleteyes i stand corrected;-)
ReplyDeleteimo an assist is when you play the ball for a team m8 to score think rah was saying suarez creates his own goals
ReplyDeleteas carr pointed out and creation doesnt just boil down to assist suarez pulls all the defenders to himself thereby creating areas for others to exploit (sturridge does this even better) its not his fault really that downing shelvey and enrique kept blasting them wide
ReplyDeleteCavani is a fantastic player, but Suarez... he is something different.
ReplyDeleteIm from Uruguay and everyone thinks Suarez is the best Uruguayan player, far away from the rest. He is only 1 goal away from Forlan as the top goalscorer in Uruguay´s history, but he is 8 years younger!
The national team is the only place were you can really compare each other performances. Is difficult to compare people in different leagues and teams, like Napoli and Liverpool. But if you have two players in the same team, is easier to judge.
Anyway, they are both world class players and anyone would be a great signing for any team in the world.
They have been downright disappointing and not proof of any ambition from our side in fairness. Touré was a stroke of genius but Aspas is a signing that you make once you have your first team sorted. Which we do not.
ReplyDeleteBy that logic, should they not have won segunda division hands down? Which they didn't. They finished third in 2011 which was their best result ever.
ReplyDeleteHard call this one. Both are world class players in the truest sense of the meaning. I would give it to Cavani but only just.
ReplyDeleteTrue, and would you get really excited if our big signings this year would have been Touré, a striker/winger from the Sunderland squad and a midfielder from Charlton? All that said, having the reserves able to promote all the way to the championship would do wonders for the youth development of the England national team. It works very well in Spain and we do it anyway by loaning players to Championship clubs. But imagine the entire team enjoying a higher level of opposition than they do now and building on their system and team spirit all the way from the age of 9 until they get to the reserves.That would be a much better situation that you have now.
ReplyDeleteHa okay you got me there but the fact remains Suarez is going to go but what I meant is theres always a chance the deal falls through so there still is a chance he could be here albeit a very slim one
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily. My point was they are no mugs and would be highly placed in La Liga
ReplyDeleteWell the papers that you quote all the time , Marca et al , think they are.. and he's just saying what they're saying .. Are they wrong that Suarez is their no.1 target ?
ReplyDeleteBut that makes no sense. If they were good enough to rank highly in La Liga, they would be good enough to top the table in segunda division. Obviously they are no mugs and I wish our entire reserve team could play Championship matches every week and finish 9th to boot. But it's still just their B team and only a select few of them will make it to the first team and reach the level required. Which is the same level we require.
ReplyDeleteThey dont make a good partnership take it u didnt watch copa america then
ReplyDeleteIf your going to ban me , ban me , and explain to me and other regular posters why.. Don't just keep deleting my comments .
ReplyDeleteYou have no right to treat me like this, and everything you pertain this website to be about you are in breech of yourself in your dealings with me.
I don't wish to engage in your website anymore but at least be man enough to explain what your beef is with me..And why you feel you can treat me in the manner in which you are ..
I NEVER ONCE breeched your comment policy and the only reason for your behaviour towards me points towards the Reina issue which I have challanged within the terms of your comment policy
Cavani ends up playing a lot on the wing for Uruguay, as well as some up front. Suarez is seen as more important over in Uruguay, so he is higher up the pecking order when it comes to who gets to play in what role. So a somewhat flawed argument (Yes I know, JK's argument isn't flawless either).
ReplyDeleteThey don't regularly play as a partnership. Sometimes they play up front together, sometimes Suarez is up front and Cavani is doing a shift on the wing.
ReplyDeleteI go with Cavani, not by much though. I know Serie A is only 4th best league now but Suarez has just one season of good form in one of the top leagues, whereas Cavani has more, in a side that isn't one of the usual top Italian sides in the last two decades. Add that to Cavani's ability. Suarez has that something special about his game, which makes him unique but in terms of the finished package, Cavani. I think he would do great at Chelsea. A very good hard working centre forward that can be so consistently deadly.
ReplyDeleteSuarez by a bit. Different qualities, Suarez more creative (would have way more assists if the likes of shelvey, sterling, downing etc. didn't waste their chances.) has 3X more key passes, is a better dribbler. Cavani is wicked in the air, has a little more pace, and makes a lot of defensive contribution (sometimes too much).
ReplyDeleteHowever it goes to Suarez, at least half a dozen of Cavani's goals this year have been penalties, and he also has Hamsik at a service - liverpool do not have a comparable provider. Suarez does more on his own, and also provides more - though sometimes its squandered.by himself or the team, end result is still better.
The two have built a partnership from time to time, I hope to see them connect for the Confederations cup.
Interesting little fact: both from the same city, born just a few days apart- must be something in the water.
how many chances created has suarez? if you could give him cavani's finishing and attitude then you'd have a better player than messi.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree with you. It's hard to pick between two players with exceptional goal scoring records at club level. Cavani is doing great for Napoli but Suarez is clearly the hero for Uruguay. When the two of them are together it's usually Suarez who shines the most, his dedication and effort are just constant, never ending. He might be crazy but that's part of what makes him an incredible football player.
ReplyDeleteTry checking key passes on opta. Suarez made 90 last season, way more than £85m Bale for instance, so your assist point holds little water either. Hwhilst also scoring more despite no pens.. Cavani does.
ReplyDeleteOne thing you all are over looking when it comes to Alberto is he was very good at Seville and Barca deemed him good enough to play for them.
ReplyDeleteSo not only the ability but the potential is definitely there.
It's not about assist only, it's about the the number of goals created for others too. I did not get exact statistics, but I feel suarez had created lots of goal scoring opportunity. However, we are bunch of such players who can not convert those opportunities. Jamie, do you have statistics- suarez vs cavani in term of goal opportunity created?
ReplyDeleteThe difference between the reserves in England and the reserves in Spain is that the reserves in Spain, especially for Barcelona and Real Madrid, play a full competitive season as seniors in the second flight. This is something Rafa advocated during his time at LFC, and it's why so many players from the Real and Barca academies are now playing in the top leagues for the top clubs.
ReplyDeletelol point taken
ReplyDeletewere buying the squad places before we have the 1st team sorted
ReplyDeleteSome of our all-time best players were bought from "lesser" leagues. Ian Rush, our all-time greatest goalscorer was bought from Chester City. Steve Nicol was bought from Ayr United. Danny Murphy was bought from Crewe Alexandra. John Aldridge was bought from Oxford United. Bruce Grobbelaar from Vancouver Whitecaps. The list goes on and on. This proves that if you are smart, you can get talent from any league.
ReplyDeleteWhen are all buys successful? Name me one club or one manager who has had success with 100% of his purchases.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, if Suarez has a release clause in his contract, then if some club comes with an offer that activates that release clause, Ian Ayre and FSG have no say over it.
ReplyDeleteThe Spanish papers, like Marca also said that Reina had signed for Barca, no evidence of that, the Spanish papers are extremely bias, more so than the British papers.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why Shevchenko was knocking them in for fun in Italy, but couldn't score to save his life in England, same as Crespo.
ReplyDeleteNot to put words into rah's mouth, but I believe what he meant was create goals for himself, if that is the case, then he wouldn't get assists, and the assist is only the final pass, which is not a true indication of creation. An example of this was a game when KD was in charge, we were playing a game against Arsenal. Lucas played a brilliant through ball, Kuyt picked it up inside the box and instead of shooting, played it square to Meireles, who scored. This goal wouldn't have been possible without the through ball from Lucas, therefore, Lucas was the creator of the goal, even though Kuyt got the assist.
ReplyDeleteWith the ball at his feet and turning players inside out, I believe Suarez is better at Messi than this. Messi is excellent at running at defenders, but how many times do you see him turn and nutmeg a defender? Suarez does this to defenders even when the defender knows it's coming.
ReplyDeletelet Liverpool know if there is some youngster growing up drinking the same water.
ReplyDeleteI have seen few uruguay matches,,..and they did quite well but Suarez always looked class apart.
ReplyDeleteThey don't convert those opportunities? Really? Last season, Liverpool scored 71 goals in the EPL alone, Suarez scored 23 league goals. Napoli scored 73 goals in the Serie A, Cavani scored 29. Suarez scored 32% of Liverpool's league goals, whereas Cavani scored 40% of Napoli's league goals. This shows that Liverpool aren't as reliant on Suarez to score goals as Napoli are on Cavani. Napoli were the overall best scorers in Serie A last season, hypothetically without Cavani's goals, they would have had the same amount of goals as mid-table teams, that is 44 goals. On the other hand, Liverpool were the 4th best scorers in the EPL last season, and if you hypothetically take out Suarez's goals, they would end up with 48 goals, which is close in league position to where we finished. Swansea finished in 9th with 47 goals. Yes this is all hypotheticals, but it shows that we wouldn't be in that much of a worse position with our current squad without Suarez and that we do score plenty of goals without him.
ReplyDeleteWith the u21 thing, this is down to two main reasons, number one is that like Spain, the Italy reserve (u21) teams play full seasons in the lower leagues against seniors, which is unlike England. Secondly, the Italian League has a lot more Italians playing in it, likewise the Spanish League, the Dutch League, the German League, which is a reason why their national teams go so much better than the English side.
ReplyDeleteI cannot deny that it didn't work for us in the past although I wouldn't include Danny Murphy in an all-time best list. Times have changed though. I wouldn't say that you cannot get decent players from smaller clubs, Hyypia came from Willem II after all and Xabi came from Sociedad which is a decent club in its own right but not quite in the league of the bigger Spanish clubs (anymore). What I am saying though is that this summer should be about strengthening our first team and, in effect, strengthening our bench. If you replace Downing with someone better, you will improve not alone your first team but also your bench because you replace a current backup with a stronger one. And anyway, when Murphy signed, when Grobbelaar was signed, how many supporters were extremely excited? Time will tell if Aspas and that guy from Sevilla will be good players for us, they just might be. But right now I'm not overly excited by the prospect of all of our summer shopping being of their pedigree and once againt bringing in a host of players when all we really need is four. A CB, a LB, a DM and an AM.
ReplyDeleteHe played 7 games for Sevilla...
ReplyDeleteWas my point exactly
ReplyDeleteWho says they have to be? I can only say that I expected a lot from this summer and so far I'm feeling a bit disillusioned.
ReplyDeleteTrue, position is everything. But why is it that they prefer Suarez up top over Cavani? And as a matter of fact, a lot of Suarez's goals start with him drifting out wide anyway.
ReplyDeleteReason for Cavani having more of an impact is simple.. he will play more games as Suarez will do something stupid and get banned :)
ReplyDeleteSuarez maybe the better player but it wont help if he continues to get banned and it doesn't matter whether he stays in England or moves to France/Spain/Italy, past history tells us that he will continue to do stupid things.
exactly why i said their leagues are better too
ReplyDeleteThey think Suarez is better and different, especially tactically for their system in a central role. Cavani is more orthodox when he plays up front, whereas Suarez is a different kind of animal as we know, as he moves around all over the show as like you say. Although Suarez wouldn't be able to do the shift that Cavani does out wide though, when starting from wide (so not roaming from wide but starting the game from wide). When out wide, Cavani is quite good defensively, tactically and a lot better team player than Suarez. Suarez isn't always guaranteed to start through the middle as sometimes Forlan plays through the middle, flanked by Cavani and Suarez as seen against Paraguay in the second half but even then, Suarez blatantly had a more free-er role, whereas Cavani was dropping more deep to help more defensively. Their roles for Uruguay do fluctuate but Suarez more often than not gets the more attack-minded role than Cavani and more often than not, Suarez will usually get the central forward role over Cavani. They are two very different players, when it comes to executing the central striker role and so it isn't necessarily who is the better striker in general, but sometimes down to who fits the system better (but don't get me wrong, they seem to rate Suarez as a player better than Cavani).
ReplyDeleteThat's why I said to JK, it is impossible to compare two great players. The way I see it, Suarez is like Messi, you don't put him in a position, you just let him do his thing. Cavani is like Sturridge, you put him up top and he'll score for you. Both great players that need to be played to their strengths and Uruguay know that. If only consecutive England managers would have had the same insight on the Gerrard/Lampard dilemma :-)
ReplyDeletea point well made :-)
ReplyDeletedid i say they were ,just we lose out more than others
ReplyDeleteWe got the message a long time ago. You don't like Suarez and take any opportunity to spread your opinion. Time to find another subject before your articles, well written as they are, become repetitive and boring.
ReplyDeleteHe's a great player; he has his faults and he polarises opinion. That's it, finito.
Urgh, don't even mention the Gerrard/Lampard-England thing to me. Amazing and bloody annoying how many England managers have tried to force it. Anyway, I rather not go further into that as it gets on my nerves! ;)
ReplyDeleteYes I did and Cavani was mostly left out of the starting line up the majority of the tournament
ReplyDelete