re: David Luiz had some nice words about his time in France

quote:

---

i could just have a huge blind spot but how many strikers transition from being dominant in italy to being dominant abroad?

i'm talking past 10 years or so, obviously

there is obviously zlatan
eto'o was already dominant at barca before he went to inter

if i'm missing guys let me know

---

You're not missing guys because Cavani and Ibra are really the only consistently prolific strikers that have left Italy the last 10 years near their primes, period.

These are most of the players that likely have scored at least somewhere close to 20 goals in more than a one-off season in that time frame:

Ibra, Totti, Milito, Di Natale, Toni, Eto'o, Higuian, Cavani, Miccoli, Pazzini, Di Vaio, Tevez, Icardi, Gilardino


They only other forwards that were really fantastic in Serie A for more than a season I recall leaving are Alexis Sanchez and Jovetic (though he was already injury ridden before leaving Fiorentina).

Sanchez was never really a goal scorer in Serie A though.


Both Cavani and Alexis Sanchez went from teams designed to counter, counter again and then counter some more to more possession based attacks and both players were a lot more famous for their electric style in open, broken field play than being clinical finishers.

Cavani was one of the few most exciting players in the game to watch at Napoli but it's not like he had such a staggering conversion rate as much as finishing 1 amazing counter attack sequence every match and a half that went viral on youtube.


In fact, it's not all that much worse at PSG even though it's obvious that he has lost a lot of confidence. Probably pretty close when you consider that half the PSG minutes saw him played out of position as a winger or 2nd striker along with Zlatan.

Napoli/Palermo 1 Goal /125 minutes
PSG 1 Goal /140 minutes


Really, there just aren't many examples either way.

quote:

---

Cavani-Lavezzi-Hamsik was a joy to watch

---

I agree...





...A joy to watch Chelsea knock them out of the Champions League en route to winning it.