Top 10 worst strikers in the world right now

Leading the line for a football team is perhaps the most privileged role for a footballer. Being a striker gives a footballer a lot of scope to bathe in glory. After all, he is the nearest to the goal and has chances aplenty to find the net.

Even when a striker misses, he has a chance to make the fans forget about the mishap with a goal somewhere during the game. However, even then, there are some strikers playing in the top-level that miss more than they score.

While it is not a good practice to name and shame, here are the top 10 worst strikers playing in the top-tier of world football.

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#10 Alvaro Morata

For someone who has already scored 12 goals in all competitions this season, his inclusion might come as a bit of a shock to some. However, it is not just a random name that I had to pop in here and, as a result, used Alvaro Morata in the process.

Instead, it is because of the inconsistency with which he has played for the Blues that has put him here. In his first 8 games for the London outfit, he scored 7 goals and also created 2 assists. At that time, he was looking like one of the best strikers in the world.

In the next 23 games, however, he scored only 5 goals and created 2 assists. This isn’t really a great return from someone who cost Chelsea their club-record transaction. Antonio Conte’s over-reliance on him means that he isn’t really getting a breather that a long season requires.

As a result, he is suffering.

#9 Romelu Lukaku

Flop against the top

Another controversial inclusion in the list. However, there are quite a few reasons for adding the big Belgian here. For starters, his performance against the top 6 of the Premiership is terrible, to put it simply.

In the six games that he has played against the top six sides, he failed to score a single goal against them. He may have scored 18 goals this season, but they came in 35 games. For someone who cost £75 million, that is simply not good enough.

Like Morata, he started brilliantly with his new club, scoring 11 goals in his first 10 games for the Red Devils. Since then, however, he has only found the net 7 times in 25 games. It seems as though the blast of goals in the beginning can be regarded as premature galore.

#8 Gabigol

Gabigol's fall from grace has been shocking

Gabriel Barbosa, AKA Gabigol, took the world of football to storm when he broke through. Indeed, out of the two Gabriels to come out from Brazil at the same time, Barbosa was regarded as the more talented one than his compatriot.

Right now, however, Gabriel Jesus has not only outpaced him but is also one of the best strikers in the world. And Gabigol? Well, he is back to Brazil after a horrendous time in Europe. He joined in Inter in the summer of 2016 amid much fanfare.

However, it was in February 2017, when he scored his first goal for the Italian club. And that was it as that was the last time he found the net in competitive football, even though he played half of this season on loan for Benfica.

Ever since he was bought by Inter, he couldn’t start a single match from the starting XI as he was restricted to only bench appearances. This is why he isn’t ranked higher on this list as there is an argument to be made about the lack of chances.

#7 Andre Silva

Yet to open his account in Serie A

For someone who has been labelled as the heir to Cristiano Ronaldo’s throne for Portugal by the Real Madrid No. 7 himself, he has done pretty badly since joining AC Milan in a big-money move last summer.

While he may have scored 6 goals in six Europa League games, he is yet to open his account in the Serie A. In 15 league and Cup games combined, he has returned with zero goals.

While the talent is there in him, he lacks the application—which is why he finds himself on this ominous list.

#6 Peter Crouch

A Premier League veteran

Watching the lanky striker play reminds me of my childhood. Partnering Michael Owen in the 2006 World Cup, he stirred up some controversy for pulling Brent Sancho’s hair during the build-up of his first competitive England goal against Trinidad and Tobago.

At 37, he doesn’t have much fuel in the tank. It is not that he was a great striker at any point of time, with the highest tally he ever reached being 18 goals in 49 appearances for Liverpool in the 2006-07 season.

However, his job wasn’t really to score goals, rather it was to assist his team-mates. And he is not that great at it anymore either. His speed is slow which is completely normal for a 37-year-old.

In 23 games this season, he has only come up with 4 goals. Ouch.

#5 Andy Carroll

The former most expensive English player

Some mysteries can never be solved, one of which is Liverpool opting to pay £36 million for Andy Carroll to price him out of Newcastle. He was a decent striker then but was nothing worth anywhere near what Liverpool paid for him.

And now, he seems to have regressed. Indeed, the Englishman has played in 14 games this season and has come up with only 2 goals in return. Certainly, for someone playing in the top echelons of English football, that is a very poor return.

#4 Vincent Janssen

The Dutchman was disappointing for Spurs

For someone who scored 31 goals in 49 games in all competitions for AZ, Janssen came to Tottenham with a lot of hopes and expectations placed on his shoulders. And he returned it with nothing but disappointment.

He was signed in the summer of 2016, but it took him till February 2017 to scores his first goal from open play for the Lilywhites. He ended the season with 6 goals from 35 appearances in all competitions. However, 4 of those goals came from the penalty spot.

After a terrible first season in the top-flight of English football, Spurs opted to let him go out on loan as he now plies his trade at Fenerbahce, where he has scored only 3 times in 12 games.

#3 Munir El-Haddadi

He was very highly rated

When he broke through into the first-team of Barcelona, many Cules labelled him as better than Cristiano Ronaldo. However, his fall from grace has been almost fascinating. After being let go by Barcelona, he is now playing for Alaves.

Alaves are known for their ability to groom talented players—look at Marcos Llorente and Theo Hernandez—but even there, the young Spaniard hasn’t been able to turn any screws.

Indeed, in 22 appearances for the Spanish outfit, he has scored only 8 goals, 4 of which came in Copa Del Rey. In the league, he scored 4 goals in 19 games, something that isn’t too great for a striker. His ability to stay onside and hold up the play has also been questionable.

#2 Michy Batshuayi

Chelsea's Twitter mascot

In his 24 appearances for the Blues, he scored only 10 goals. Out of which, two came in the league from 12 appearances. One could argue that he didn’t get enough chances, but even during Diego Costa’s constant flirtation with the Chinese League last year, he couldn’t cement a starting spot at the Bridge.

He scored only 5 times in 20 appearances last season, of which he started only 1 game. He might be a decent finisher, but apart from that, he is a very limited player. Neither can he hold onto the ball, nor is he a great passer of it.

He has begun his Dortmund career with a bang, scoring two goals and an assist on debut. It could be a path to redemption, but he needs to do it consistently.

#1 Karim Benzema

Probably the worst striker in the world right now

Benzema is the only striker here that is unarguably going through the worst patch of his career. How Real Madrid still trust him with their No. 9 role is baffling, to say the least.

In the 20 games he has played for the Galacticos this season, he has only scored 5 times. Much of the scoring responsibility has always been on Cristiano Ronaldo, with the Frenchman in a support role, but even then the number of easy chances that he misses is unforgivable.

Prior to this season, there was at least some respite to be found in the fact that he could make some crisp passes to link the play up in the final third. But even that has disappeared this season. Real Madrid are in a rut right now and Karim Benzema is perhaps the biggest reason for it.