Noticed against west brom we had Lambert on Olson and then have since noticed at corners Lambert always takes the best header of the ball and marks him. Is he our best header of the ball? If we think about how many Fonte gets from corners not forgetting the 6 foot 4 Hooiveld either. This got me thinking about the best headers of the ball for saints and in the premiership. Saints: Lambert Prem: Carroll, Lambert or maybe Holt. Must stress that it has to be an attacker not a big centre back like Richards.
Best in air and best header of the ball are different. To be good in air for flicks ons or clearing you only have to win the header. A good header of the ball needs to win the ball and put it away. Steven Fletcher would be the best header of the ball imo Defensively I'm not sure who would be the best in the league in the air. But for us Lambert is the best for both for me I'll go with Carroll for winning the ball. He is poor at scoring headers however
Why does it have to be an attacker? Clearly our best header is Hooiveld although he's not much good at anything else Lambert's not far behind him though. Best headed goal of the weekend was Mertesacker's, he's very much in the Hooiveld mould isn't he? I enjoyed Hernandez's diving header for United against Villa last weekend as well. He's a great header considering his small stature.
Saints would be like you say Rickie, Fonte or Hooiveld. Hooiveld is a big chap but Lambert and Fonte get off the ground better. Not sure I'd pick one out of the three. Probably Lambert. Once Carroll actually starts scoring I'll rate him up there as one of the best headers, at this stage it's all reputation and mostly free headers that go 10 yards over the bar, although obviously it depends on how you rate it between amount of headers won and then the accuracy of those headers. Most accurate would probably be Steven Fletcher. Best at winning them, Carroll, Crouch, Benteke. Lambert probably has the middle ground in that he's fairly accurate and good at winning them, but not quite at the top of either category for me.
Yeah but Hoovield isn't going to get back in the side I don't think so I excluded him. He'd be the strongest in the air if he played I agree
I wouldn't be surprised to see him back for certain games. He had a rough start to the season but he'd still be very useful against the odd big lump of a forward you occasionally come up against.
I agree, I advocated him for the West Ham game and he dominated Carroll well apart from giving a few too many free-kicks away, before we decided to shoot ourselves in the foot. Then shoot ourselves in the other foot. Then the head. Would be happy to see him in against Stoke and the like, Maya isn't bad in the air but doesn't have the size or power for some of the big boys.
The next game will be an indicator if Hoovield will be used much this season as we are playing Newcastle who statistically play more long balls per shorts passes than anyone. just to add I don't want him to play over Fonte or Yoshida whoever we play at the moment
Was thinking much the same and almost said the same about Cahill. Throw Kevin Davies and Shearer in there, too.
I always thought Tim Cahill,when he played for Everton was very good in the air,seemed to have perfect timing and would regularly beat big centre backs to a cross. too slow...sorry
I was going to say him in terms of winners of the ball, but thought you limited it to strikers when I see now you said attackers. He can control balls with his feet which are head height, he's massive but still has a three foot jump. I bet he can manage a fancy slam dunk!
Indeed. And, by some margin, the highest leaping footballer I've ever seen. There were times when he was stooping in mid-leap, and his head was still above the cross bar. Currently, I think Rickie has the best heading ability in the Saints team. Not only can he jump, but he can do power headers, flick ons, glances, knock downs, you name them. Quite a range, IMO. Jos is very good and powerful with headers, but very much in the CB tradition where he defends crosses and attacks them at set-pieces to score.
