Luis Suarez - The Complete Striker

Recently I wrote about the two sides of Luis Suarez, the brilliant and the impudent. Along the brilliant side, I’ve been noticing his defensive capabilities, and I have been impressed.


He is an excellent defensive striker, one who puts the tackles in and is quick to get back to defend set pieces. If he loses the ball on one of his dribbles, he busts a gut to chase down the ball-carrier and get a challenge in. In this way he is a bit reminiscent of The Great Ian Rush, who always made it difficult for the opposition to get through him first, before they tried to penetrate the midfield.

I really appreciate his attitude to never give up and keep on fighting no matter the circumstance of the match. This was the major element lacking from Fernando Torres’ game when he was the main striker at Anfield. Whether Liverpool are leading three-nil, or down by a goal, Suarez is constantly running his socks off, trying to make things happen.


He is a handful for opposition defenders with his clever running and wriggling dribbling antics. He is a thinking footballer who has great positional play; sometimes he drops very deep into midfield to fetch the ball, or lose a marker. Other times he pushes right up on to the last defender giving them lots to think about.


In his Liverpool career so far, I have yet to see him have a quiet game, whereas Torres used to ‘go missing’ quite often in matches. Suarez never switches off, he is always lively, always hungry, always moving, and always trying to make some magic happen.


He is truly a defender’s nightmare.




Related posts:
The Brilliance and Impudence of Luis Suarez
The Inspiration: Steven Gerrard
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