On MOTD they asked Hansen and Shearer who they thought was the best of the three currently.

Shearer said Rooney.

Hansen said Torres.

You could argue a point for all three. Personally I'd take Drogba.

Who do you think is currently the best though

I know they all offer something a bit different, but factor that in!

Not much in it between the 3 of them. I'd say Rooney and Drogba are stronger, Torres is quiker. All 3 of them can finish from pretty much anywhere and can change the game in an instant.

I wouldn't swap Nando for the other 2.

Interesting to see Drogba's goalscoring ratio is virtually on a par with Rooney's considering he gets to play as the main striker for Chelsea and most people would say Rooney hasn't been as prolific as he should have been in the past as well.

Drogba - 64/145
Rooney - 72/167

I'd put them on a par tbh.

If you want an out and out goalscorer though it's got to be Torres at the moment.

If we're talking about current form, why not include Van Persie (yes, I was just reading F365's Winners and Losers column) ?

Rooney for me. Can create as well as score, and has an excellent work rate for his team.

Rooney sometimes, but he annoys the fuck out of me as well. Van Persie would be the one i'd go with right now don't like Torres or Drogba much.

Was about to mention RVP already Then again he aint a real born finisher like Torres is. Also injury prone, but the others are injured often as well.

How about Adebayor?

kas wrote:If we're talking about current form, why not include Van Persie (yes, I was just reading F365's Winners and Losers column) ?

Rooney for me. Can create as well as score, and has an excellent work rate for his team.

"This column was criticised for the suggestion
that Van Persie's nationality counts against him when the league's
pecking order of strikers is determined but there was partial
vindication this weekend when Gary Lineker asked of his panel Match of
the Day, "We've seen three great strikers this weekend: Drogba, Rooney
and Torres. Which one would you choose?"

Agree he's being harshly overlooked there, but it's frankly bizarre to say nationality is the reason. Are the BBC pro Spaniards and Ivorians but anti-Dutchmen

Yeah they are, you dont know how it feels Debbie! They are pro-German but anti-Dutch, unlike what Otto tells you.

Isn't more to do with the fact he's never even had a great season yet, where as the other 3 have.

Don't see how he can be compared with the other 3 yet, only on a talent basis.

Higuain.

Van Persie is the best EPL striker based on last season and joint-top with Drogba so far this season. Scored more, and created more. A shame that there is no defence behind him who could keep 10 clean-sheets in a row.

kas wrote:If we're talking about current form, why not include Van Persie (yes, I was just reading F365's Winners and Losers column) ?

Rooney for me. Can create as well as score, and has an excellent work rate for his team.

Re Van Persie, you're quite right but the old 'he always injured so he can't realy be judged in the top bracket' arguement can be rolled out.

He needs a 20+ goals season IMO. I know Rooney hasn't had that yet, but he's now the main man for the three times EPL champions and I know Drogba also hasn't but his record in 'big games' is phenomenal.

Rooney hasn't necessarily been the "main man". United defence is one of the best. It kept so many clean sheets in England and Europe. Record-breaking in fact.

Attacking play is measured with goals (scoring) and assists (creativity). A statistical guideline is needed:

RVP has about 20 goals and 13 assists. 36 starts, 6 substitutions. 0.78 goals/assists per game.
Rooney has about 17 goals and 12 assists. 37 starts, 8 substitutions. 0.64 goals/assists per game.

But this neglects nuances of the game, Rooney work-rate and defensive play when asked to play LM. That couldn't be measured. Hence why it's not a far fetched assumption to say Rooney had been "better" than RVP. But "better" at what is to be posited clearly.

Dualist wrote:Rooney hasn't necessarily been the "main man". United defence is one of the best. It kept so many clean sheets in England and Europe. Record-breaking in fact.

Attacking play is measured with goals (scoring) and assists (creativity). A statistical guideline is needed:

RVP has about 20 goals and 13 assists. 36 starts, 6 substitutions. 0.78 goals/assists per game.
Rooney has about 17 goals and 12 assists. 37 starts, 8 substitutions. 0.64 goals/assists per game.

But this neglects nuances of the game, Rooney work-rate and defensive play when asked to play LM. That couldn't be measured. Hence why it's not a far fetched assumption to say Rooney had been "better" than RVP. But "better" at what is to be posited clearly.

Yes Rooney is quite versatile but if you are a team like Arsenal who doesn't need a front striker that does the kind of work that Rooney does then it is kind of besides the point. Ultimately debates about who is the best with regards to players on the level of Torres/Drogba/Rooney/RVP should more be about who would add most to your team. Otherwise I don't think there is a big difference between them.

With that in mind I would like Rooney or Drogba for Real Madrid.

Drogba is red-hot at the moment. He looks determined this season.

But in entirety and with his best days ahead of him, I'd take Rooney over Drogba. I hope Fergie plays him to his strengths, like with Ronaldo (in fact restructured the entire squad around Ronaldo's goal scoring ability). Rather than force Rooney to take up unusual no.9 role or a pure winger, he should be asked to play a support striker role.

Rooney is the most proven over a sustained period and is the second most talented of the four. I would definitely say he is the best. He can do pretty much everything the other three can do and only lacks hight. And he nearly makes up for that with a great leap.

Unfortunately for Rooney, he's playing is a very uncreative team and has done so for the last 2 season. Just to emphasise, in the 07/08 season, before the first goal was scored allowing ManU to counter attack thereafter, VDS was the third most creative player for ManU after Rooney and Evra.

If Rooney was playing for Arsenal in any of the front three positions right now, his goal scoring and assisting stats would easily be up there (if not surpassing) with the rest.

Seems to be a lot of rooney love on here so I would temper that with the opinion that out of the four he is the least likely to beat his man one-on-one than the others (torres with pace, drogba with strength, rvp with quick feet).

I would say that is why his strength is actually dropping into the midfield where he can make telling passes, do a clever one-two to get defenders out of position or get a running start. It does on the other hand make him the best passer of the 4.

That's a very good point

rooney to madrid lol dont make me laugh are they short of a water boy he would never get in the team

drogba is the most effective player in the league this season, been directly involved in 17 of chelseas goals, fabregas is 2nd with 14.

by that i mean goals and assists (8 +9) in DDA's case.

Ballack wrote:by that i mean goals and assists (8 +9) in DDA's case.

At his best it is drogba but he does seem to have an attitude problem and can go off sulking instead of working for the team.

Maybe I just don't appreciate RVP but I don't consider him at the same level as the other 3. Even though his stats look good this season he still seems to me more a scorer of great goals than a great goal scorer. If he finishes the season as top scorer or thereabouts then I might reconsider this.

110% wrote:

Ballack wrote:by that i mean goals and assists (8 +9) in DDA's case.

At his best it is drogba but he does seem to have an attitude problem and can go off sulking instead of working for the team.

Maybe I just don't appreciate RVP but I don't consider him at the same level as the other 3. Even though his stats look good this season he still seems to me more a scorer of great goals than a great goal scorer. If he finishes the season as top scorer or thereabouts then I might reconsider this.

That tends to happen when a manager exiles you.

and when you have an attitude problem.

Some players would've still played for the fans.

Or for the fact that they're contractually obliged to do a job, and are getting paid millions for it.

Scolari brought it on himself, so much so that other players complained about it. Drogba was more devastated than anyone when Mourinho got the sack but he still worked for Avram Grant.

Did he? I remember reading regular leaks to the press about how the players at Chelsea were disillusioned with Avram Grant's outdated training methods and lack of personality, and how they had a players-only meeting where they agreed to fight for each other and do the best they could in what was left of the season.

kas wrote:Did he? I remember reading regular leaks to the press about how the players at Chelsea were disillusioned with Avram Grant's outdated training methods and lack of personality, and how they had a players-only meeting where they agreed to fight for each other and do the best they could in what was left of the season.

If that's true then I guess the whole squad has an "attitude problem".

Sorry but Drogba plays for Chelsea not for Mourinho, so what if Mourinho left, he should have just got on with it, instead he wanted to leave, made a big fuss, couldn't be arsed etc.

So the new manager thought he had an attitude problem like me .

Drogba's "attitude problem" was directed more at the board than at Grant. Despite getting some (incredibly unfair) stick from a minority of the fans in his first 2 seasons, he carried on playing for the team. The only time I've seen him look disinterested is when Scolari was playing 4-5-1 and leaving him out of the team. Suddenly Hiddink turned up, showed faith in him and he had a period last season where he was almost unstoppable again.