Bendtner - Goal-scorer or Target man?
Well obviously Bendtner picked up form later in the season after January, when he went on a mad scoring spree and was Arsenal's top scorer for the second half of the season, with 14 goals in total. An impressive tally for the lanky striker.
He scored some phenomenal goals but had a couple of sitters as well. Goals against Kiev, Newcastle and of course West Brom capped up a fantastic 2nd-half season for the Danish hit-man.
But is he really a goal-scorer? Or is he simply a target man?
He takes shots with aplomb but sometimes he simply drags the ball pointlessly. The former is a trait of a goal-scorer ( Messi, Henry ) and the latter a target-man (Drogba, Adebayor).
A goal-scorer is one who finished most of the chances given to himself. The target man is very Adebayor-esque and holds the ball for a large amount of time. He gets a decent amount of chances but sometimes can fail to finish the easiest of chances.
A good mix of two would be Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but Nicklas at times has too much of either.
So we take a look at the raw statistics. Nicklas is 191cm tall and has improved his goal-scoring each season. He is also only 6 goals short of van Persie's goals and scored only 1 out of 14 goals against any of the big 6.
He is moderately quick but not as fast as some of his counterparts. Slower than Adebayor and Walcott, but obviously faster than van Persie, Denilson and Cesc.
He is right-footed and his left-foot is weak. Being 21, this is not too big a hindrance but the goals he scored were pretty good.
He isn't the type of player to roam around (Nasri) or inside (Inzaghi) the box but spreads himself towards the wings and cuts in. Another mix.
Not a poacher he is, but he does not keep the ball for as long as a standard target man might. Yet another shady comparison.
But here comes the defining stat: Nicklas Bendtner often scores only when next to a Flamboyant striker like van Persie or Vela, not Adebayor or Eduardo.
This is exactly what a target man does not do. He does not poach the goals from his teammates. Rather, he lets the RVP / Vela get the goal. What does this show?
AW probably thinks of him as a Kanu. The guy with the interesting flicks who can play with any type of striker.
But for me, he is a profilic goal-scorer in the making. Comments?
(Aaron Ramsey)
