The poacher. The fox in the box. The super sub.
The primary job of a striker is to score goals, and each of these three terms is coined from players that tend to do so but rarely offer much else. Whilst Luis Suarez is a goalscorer who drops deep for possession and is thus very involved in Liverpool's build up play, others contribute far less to the team but still chip in with plenty of goals. A player such as the Uruguayan will often be considered more valuable to his team, but that is not to play down the importance of those there to finish moves off.
Suarez has averaged 89.5 touches of the ball for each of his 23 goals in the Premier League this season, highlighting just how much he is involved for his side, while high scoring midfielders such as Napoli's Marek Hamsik - for obvious reasons - has had as many as 239.1 touches per goal in his 37 Serie A appearances. At the other end of the scale, meanwhile, there are players that fit the mould of the above player types, scoring goals thanks to clever movement in an around the penalty box, rarely straying from the area occupied by the opposition centre-backs.
Of players in Europe's top 5 leagues to have scored at least 10 goals this season, Bayern Munich's sparingly-used Mario Gomez has averaged the fewest touches per goal. The German has lost his place in Jupp Heynckes' first choice eleven this term, with the form of Mario Mandzukic enough to oust the man who was their top scorer last season with 26 Bundesliga goals. That Mandzukic is significantly more involved than Gomez in the German champions' build up play could well be much of the reason that he has made the starting spot his own. Gomez averages just 26.5 touches per goal, while the Croatian touches the ball 45.2 times for each of his goals, despite scoring 4 more times (15) than the German (11).
Gomez has only made 6 key passes in 20 Bundesliga appearances this season, with only the defensive-minded Luiz Gustavo and defenders Jerome Boateng and Dante laying on fewer chances per game than Gomez (0.3) of all players in the Bayern Munich squad. In a team's like Bayern, who have averaged 16.9 shots per game this season - fewer only that 5 of the 98 teams in Europe's top 5 leagues - it speaks volumes that only 6 of them have been set up by Gomez.
Interestingly, though, while Mandzukic has almost twice as many touches of the ball for each of his goals, he only ranks 6 places lower than his teammate across Europe's top 5 leagues in terms of touches per goal, highlighting just how Heynckes utilises a lone striker. It is rare for a Bayern centre forward to get on the ball, while the midfield control possession and probe, looking for an opening for the likes of Toni Kroos or Bastian Schweinsteiger to exploit, with Gomez or Mandzukic then piling the box to pick up any scraps. Further backing up this view of the Bayern strikers is the fact that all 26 goals of the duo's goals this season have come from inside the penalty area. As can be seen from their respective heat maps (based on the concentration of areas in which they touch the ball), Mandzukic's touches are more spread out than those of Gomez, though there is an obvious trend amongst both players to stay in central, attacking areas.
Averaging slightly more touches per goal and second in the standings in Europe's top 5 leagues this season is AC Milan's Giampaolo Pazzini. Having started life as a key player on the red and black side of Milan after his summer trade with Antonio Cassano, Pazzini has become less essential to his side of late with Mario Balotelli's arrival. He is, nonetheless, the Rossoneri's second highest scorer this season with 15 goals. Having scored 27.8% of his chances, he is lethal in front of goal, netting every 30.7 touches on average. The Cassano-plus-cash swap deal with rivals Inter seemed at first glance an odd deal for Massimiliano Allegri's team, but his goals have been invaluable in Milan's march up the Serie A table towards probable Champions League qualification.
Following on, super sub Adam Le Fondre, with a goal every 40.1 touches, ranks third in Europe's top 5 leagues. Having scored more goals as a substitute (7) than any other player in those competitions, the Reading striker has been a great asset to his side in changing games as time wears on, clearly finding life easier with opposition defenders growing tired late in the game. His role is simple; get in the box and pounce on any loose balls. He is by some distance his team's top scorer, even though he has only started 11 Premier League games all season, but with only 1 assist and a pass success rate of 72.4% he is evidently rather limited as a footballer.
As such an integral member of the Udinese side, captain Antonio Di Natale is a surprising inclusion so high up this list. He has never been one to set up many goals, but his tallies of 6, 7 and 7 in the last 3 seasons has reduced yet further to just 4 this season despite remaining their primary corner taker, while he has scored 22 goals at a rate of 43.8 touches per strike. With an average of just 29.7 touches per appearance, he spends most of the on the periphery of a game, in true poacher style biding his time before looking to take advantage of any potential goalscoring opportunity that arises. What is so incredible about Di Natale is that 13.5 % of his touches of the ball are in fact attempts on goal; of those players in Europe's top 5 leagues to have had at least 10 shots this term, only Tottenham's Jermain Defoe shoots with a higher proportion of his touches (14.4%). Always looking to give his side the edge, Di Natale has more of a 'shoot on sight' policy than most.
Edinson Cavani and Radamel Falcao are two of the most in demand strikers going at the moment, with summer moves for both widely expected this year. There is good reason for such widespread interest, too, with each having scored 28 league goals this season, fewer only than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo across Europe's top 5 leagues. Highlighting further the goalscoring focus on their game, the duo have just 5 assists between them, while Cavani averages just 43.8 touches per goal and Falcao 44.5. A workhorse like Cavani might be expected to have more touches of the ball for his goals, but Napoli are a counter attacking side who have also scored the second most goals in Serie A this season from dead ball situations (22), behind Fiorentina (29). As a team they average the 7th fewest touches per goal (338) of all 98 sides in Europe's top 5 leagues, and all these facts go a long way towards explaining Cavani's low touch count.
Despite touching the ball relatively infrequently between goals, each player is undoubtedly extremely key to their sides, if not only for their goal count, but for the overall threat they pose to the opposition goal. While the likes Suarez may arguably be more entertaining to watch and is more important to Liverpool's overall play than the likes of those mentioned above, ultimately, goals win games, and fewer touches per goal really just means a more efficient goalscorer.
