Is Fernando Llorente best target man in the world?

First of all ,Calling him a target man is bit unfair because his technical skills are excellent for any standards.A player with excellent finishing,movements,header and strong physique..To top it all unbelievable dribbling and pace for a player of his posture.Im struggling to find a better target man oh and ibra is not a targetman for nth time.

If by Target Man you mean a player who is able to bring down or flick long/hoof balls, heading, and playing back to goal, I definitely think he is the best at that.

In Spanish league there are no strikers like him, in England there are quite a few, but I think that since Drogba has declined, and Torres is in lame form, Llorente is above them. The likes of Zamora, Caroll or Ba are not on Llorente's level IMO.

Gomez perhaps is good at that but I have barely watched him. Don't know any other target man from BDL.

Ibra is not really good at playing back to goal, neither at heading or bringing balls down. Klose I think is not on Llorente's level now and I don't know any other target man in Serie A.

So yeah, I would say he is the best.

Yeah,there is none close to his level at the moment.Drogba is finished.

Gomes is a lone striker.Only competition he has is klose imo.

Adit, I applaud your acknowledgement on what a player Llorente is.

And I do agree its unfair calling him a target man but this is because the fact is a true 9 is pretty much dying. Rarely will you see a target man as in Serie A I can name maybe only Osvaldo and Aquafresca while in the La Liga.... no one as well and in the RPL, Carroll, Ba, Zamora,Best as you aptly put it and quite a few others as in the EPL they still need someone to win aerial battles.

Gomez is more of a fox in the box and relies more on off-the-ball movement.

I disagree with Free that Ibra is not good at playing his back to the goal as in Inter he did this for pretty much all his games and scored plenty. Inter's tactics involved passing or crossing it to him while his world class chest control put it down and slotted it in. I also feel his heading ability is highly underrated. I mean he scored 2 world class headers against Roma 2 weeks ago.

Llorente is confused as a target man because of his height and physique as if you watch his games with Capparos in charge you will see he played a deep lying forward role closer to the 10 and created many chances to compensate for the more defensively inclined mid.

Same with Bielsa's team as Fernando has even less burden to score and while he is scoring plenty, you can see by his in box vision and passing his chances created for his players and overall, the whole team is scoring even more.

Ibra does this for Milan recently and has been doing it for Sweden his whole career.

But overall I would rate Llorente world class and the CF Espana need to play.

Just one thing Ba isnt really a target man he is a ss/lw that is good in the air.....

Leon Best is our target man.

Now this is the right thread

Arquitecto wrote:

I disagree with Free that Ibra is not good at playing his back to the goal as in Inter he did this for pretty much all his games and scored plenty. Inter's tactics involved passing or crossing it to him while his world class chest control put it down and slotted it in. I also feel his heading ability is highly underrated. I mean he scored 2 world class headers against Roma 2 weeks ago.

Well, for Barça he was crap controlling long balls with his chest or head, he missed and was very likely to foul the defender. He never used his head: he was more likely to use a taekwondo kick than head the ball from a perfect cross. Also was poor playing back to ball.

For now, but if Drogba can find some revival when he goes to ACON then it will be a different case :dance:

free_cat wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:

I disagree with Free that Ibra is not good at playing his back to the goal as in Inter he did this for pretty much all his games and scored plenty. Inter's tactics involved passing or crossing it to him while his world class chest control put it down and slotted it in. I also feel his heading ability is highly underrated. I mean he scored 2 world class headers against Roma 2 weeks ago.

Well, for Barça he was crap controlling long balls with his chest or head, he missed and was very likely to foul the defender. He never used his head: he was more likely to use a taekwondo kick than head the ball from a perfect cross. Also was poor playing back to ball.

Well to be fair to him he was confused on his role over there as along with his confidence being low due to internal conflicts. I don't feel Barca days can be counted as Ibra simply wasn't Ibra there simply due to many reasons. His times at Juve, Sweden, Inter and currently Milan would be a better indicator.

So Negredo's not a Target Man? Kanoute?

Lord Hispano wrote:So Negredo's not a Target Man? Kanoute?

Llorente is leagues above both of them

Dzeko, anyone? He's still adapting to the PL, but in the Bundesliga he was totally beast at it.

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

Lord Hispano wrote:So Negredo's not a Target Man? Kanoute?

Llorente is leagues above both of them

notsureifserious

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

Lord Hispano wrote:So Negredo's not a Target Man? Kanoute?

Llorente is leagues above both of them

notsureifserious

come on man,Negredo is average footballer but a great fox in the box.

and kanoute???

come on man,Negredo is average footballer but a great fox in the box.

and kanoute is just average.

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

Lord Hispano wrote:So Negredo's not a Target Man? Kanoute?

Llorente is leagues above both of them

notsureifserious

We know Llorente's the best of the bunch but to say La Liga has no Target Men.

@Hispano.

Well yes it is arguable Kanoute is a target man but I see him interchanging positions vertically all to often to classify him as a proper target man as he did so in his first year but after that I see him using a more free role. but its arguable and I apologize.

Negredo on the other hand is no where near being a target man.

Fact is, you all know my thoughts on Negredo as I personally rate Kanoute but feel Llorente is simply better.

Sushi: Dzeko? I had him in mind and rate him as the best forward in the BPL, but especially in his Wolfsburg days his role was all over the pitch and at city you can see him shift out of the box all to many times to call him a target man as well.

As mentioned above, the target man is only truly seen in the BPL and in some cases, the Bundesliga.

Sorry for calling him Target man. He is a absolute moster with great technical qualities.

amazing player

Yes, he has wonderful technical ability, but he is also carrying some serious baggage at the moment. Either due to injuries, some sort of mental block, or a combination of the two, he hasn't been able to hit the broad side of a barn since the first half of 2010...

You can be an amazing player, but as a striker you can't be top-class without the ability to score.

donttreadonred wrote:Yes, he has wonderful technical ability, but he is also carrying some serious baggage at the moment. Either due to injuries, some sort of mental block, or a combination of the two, he hasn't been able to hit the broad side of a barn since the first half of 2010...

You can be an amazing player, but as a striker you can't be top-class without the ability to score.

donttreadonred wrote:Yes, he has wonderful technical ability, but he is also carrying some serious baggage at the moment. Either due to injuries, some sort of mental block, or a combination of the two, he hasn't been able to hit the broad side of a barn since the first half of 2010...

You can be an amazing player, but as a striker you can't be top-class without the ability to score.

This isnt about Torres btw

Hunterlaar imo