Has Leeds been defined by great strikers?

[Mountain]

Viduka and Hasselbaink would have been quite a combination - I thought that Smith was overrated, probably because he was a local lad.

Didn't even include Smith. Which was possibly unfair. I just never really regarded him as an out and out striker. He always seem to suffer from that "is he a really an advanced midfielder who scores a lot...or a striker who works very hard to bring others into the game but isn't a natural goalscorer"

[1964white]

I really liked Michael Bridges, he really slotted into the role after JFH left. His injury at Besiktas was such a tragedy. I guess it did leave the door open for Smith.

I was a big admirer, too.

Scored one of the best hat tricks I've seen down at Southampton's old ground, The Dell

[Musicman1965]

Mark Viduka Hes the man, strong, good with both feet, brave in the air and a team player
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink - Had a fierce strike, good speed and ability on the ball
Chris Wood - Old fashioned type striker, still doing a good job
Lee Chapman lethal in the air
Jermaine Beckford - Great Natural Striker that had the ability to make something from nothing
Luciano Becchio - Classic poacher - positioning

Yes there are others on the list but these are my choices

[velo]

Slightly off topic, I've always thought we were better known for our support, especially away, we rock up and sing loud and proud, win , lose or draw ! just my twopenneth

[1964white]

Slightly off topic, I've always thought we were better known for our support, especially away, we rock up and sing loud and proud, win , lose or draw ! just my twopenneth

Our support is second to none, Velo

[Chilli D]

There is a media image of Leeds as a dour club.
But if you look at the list of strikers over the last 3 decades you'd be hard pressed to think of a club that has had better players up front. Even in very dark times, Leeds seem to pop up with goalscorers that were amongst the best at whatever level the club was at...

Patrick Bamford
Chris Wood
Ross McCormack
Luciano Becchio
Jermaine Beckford
Mark Viduka
Michael Bridges
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Tony Yeboah
Lee Chapman

And that does not include Roofe, Healy, Wallace and others who put in good shifts.

Have we been very lucky or am I biased in favour of Leeds strikers?

Viduka the best from that list by some distance followed by Yeboah and JFH.
As others have said Michael Bridges looked a class act but was so unlucky with injuries.
The others were good not great but in the case of Beckford, Becchio and McCormack, it was at a lower level.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Didn't even include Smith. Which was possibly unfair. I just never really regarded him as an out and out striker. He always seem to suffer from that "is he a really an advanced midfielder who scores a lot...or a striker who works very hard to bring others into the game but isn't a natural goalscorer"

I agree Mountain.

[Byebyegeegee]

Is there?

I wasn’t particularly aware of that Mountain. Where does that assertion originate?

You may have got the wrong end of the stick with this comment Mountain, I wasn’t being facetious it was a genuine question.

I’ve not been particularly aware of any media led dour image for Leeds United. We’ve had a media generated “dirty” tag for as long as I can remember mainly due to London and Manchester press bias and jealousy of Revie’s great team, but not dour as far as I have been aware. Perhaps it may be so in Ireland for some reason. I’d be genuinely interested to know where this impression comes from.

If natural strikers are defined by purely being in the team to score goals and not do much else i.e. not create or help in transition etc. then top of that list for me, would be Lee Chapman. Loved the guy and was as brave as a lion but contributed little else - didn’t need to as his goal scoring was prolific, always right place right time. Wood is in the same vein but a poor man’s version.

Yeboah was an exciting, explosive player, a large percentage of his goals being spectacular and generally created out of nothing.

Viduka was as strong as an ox but also had quick feet - unusual for such a big man. Could be lazy at times but when he was on his game boy was he on. Becchio was in the same vein but not quite as good imo.

Bridges had all the potential in the world, the type of player who was capable of doing something special/out of the ordinary, like the Peter Beardsley’s of this world. It’s a shame he couldn’t fulfill that potential being plagued by injury.

Hasselbaink had a lot more to his game than just scoring goals but he scored plenty and was a past master at one on one’s with goal keepers - never missed. Beckford was similar but of course Jermaine was generally playing at a lower level.

Not sure I’d class McCormack as a striker more an all round good footballer, a creator and incidental scorer of goals, if you see what I mean.

Bamford is supposedly our main “striker” currently but he’s certainly not a natural striker imo. He’s an attacking player, a harrier, a chaser, a defenders nightmare but not a natural striker.

[Byebyegeegee]

P.S. someone mentioned Rod Wallace earlier. He was more a winger than a striker but in my opinion is one of our most underrated players ever, never seemed to get the credit he deserved - still doesn’t!

[Mountain]

You may have got the wrong end of the stick with this comment Mountain, I wasn’t being facetious it was a genuine question.

I think there is an image of Leeds as this gritty club, a club that everyone else hates and whose fans revelled in the hatred, typified by club legends like Bremner and Batty. Take this paragraph from a newspaper here from a journalist who supports Leeds at the time of David O'Leary's appointment...

"Dourness in success is a virtue. The Scottish school of Management preaches this in Management 101. Dourness flowed in beautiful abundance from all the great Leeds managers. Carter through Revie through Wilkinson through Graham. The great Leeds team were the dukes of dour, the sultans of sullen, the maestros of misery. From Madeley to Charlton to Sniffer Clarke and with Gilesie in between they went 12 years without cracking a smile, a record which will never be broken"

[Byebyegeegee]

Ok fair enough Mountain but I think that journalist has got it wrong or at least has used the wrong word.

Raich Carter was before my time so can’t comment but certainly under Don Revie Leeds United were I would say professional, determined, sometimes resolute, sometimes hard even (but no harder than a lot of other top teams at the time) but not dour. The rise under Wilkinson was achieved, I believe, by again being professional, playing good football intermingled with a bit of flair but not being dour. O’Leary brought on a lot of very good young players and created a team who were gifted and adventurous, perhaps a little vulnerable but, again, not dour. Under George Graham the term dour might perhaps be appropriate, defensive certainly, pragmatic, risk averse which, to be fair, might add up to being dour.

Since those times there may have been periods where we might have been dour but certainly no more so than most other clubs and certainly recently under Bielsa we’ve been fêted as a breath of fresh air and great to watch even by the usually hostile media.

That’s my take on it anyway - I just think dour is not a description that defines Leeds United over the years any more than any other club. I would concede that generally, as you say, we seem to be disliked, even hated, more than any other club but that’s ok because we thrive on that but it’s not the same as being dour.

[joelufc20]

Yeboah, undoubtably my favourite striker over the last 30 years.

He had everything, didn't need the ball laid on a plate, created his own special magic

Agreed

[mentalcase]

Chapman , Wood & Bamford, all 3 similar, similar in that their records are around 1 in 2 maybe !!!! But, its the ones they missed on a far regular basis, they've all scored some crackers, but all 3 are guilty of missing many many sitters.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Ok fair enough Mountain but I think that journalist has got it wrong or at least has used the wrong word.

Raich Carter was before my time so can’t comment but certainly under Don Revie Leeds United were I would say professional, determined, sometimes resolute, sometimes hard even (but no harder than a lot of other top teams at the time) but not dour. The rise under Wilkinson was achieved, I believe, by again being professional, playing good football intermingled with a bit of flair but not being dour. O’Leary brought on a lot of very good young players and created a team who were gifted and adventurous, perhaps a little vulnerable but, again, not dour. Under George Graham the term dour might perhaps be appropriate, defensive certainly, pragmatic, risk averse which, to be fair, might add up to being dour.

Since those times there may have been periods where we might have been dour but certainly no more so than most other clubs and certainly recently under Bielsa we’ve been fêted as a breath of fresh air and great to watch even by the usually hostile media.

That’s my take on it anyway - I just think dour is not a description that defines Leeds United over the years any more than any other club. I would concede that generally, as you say, we seem to be disliked, even hated, more than any other club but that’s ok because we thrive on that but it’s not the same as being dour.

At the time, the media, pundits and even the fans of other clubs were raving about O'Leary's side - they were considered to have the exuberance and fearlessness of youth and an attacking swashbuckling style of play. There was a lot of praise throughout English football for how they took on some of the giants of European football - especially in the Champions League during the run to the semis. Two European semis in 3 seasons. Nobody described them as being dour. Kewell was regarded as a real flair player in the George Best tradition, as was Eddie Gray in Revie's team.

As far as Revie's team is concerned - I never hear anybody criticising the Liverpool teams of the 70s and 80s for having hard players such as Souness or Tommy Smith - Shankly once said "Tommy Smith wasn't born, he was quarried."

[Cjay]

Patrick Bamford
Chris Wood
Ross McCormack
Luciano Becchio
Jermaine Beckford
Mark Viduka
Michael Bridges
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Tony Yeboah
Lee Chapman

So given it some thought and I think I have my order now.

Will start with a disclaimer, I never saw Chapman play and I don't really remember Yeboah either.

So those two are largely based on YouTube.

I never felt Luciano Becchio or Patrick Bamford were natural goalscorers.

Becchio never had a 20 goal league season for us and only managed 1 in his career and that was in the Spanish 3rd division. He was a real warrior but of that famous partnership Beckford was the more natural goalscorer as the stats prove.

Patrick Bamford has also never had a 20 goal league season and has consistently been around the top for missed chances in every season for us.

Therefore those 2 are my bottom 2.

Bamford edging it over Becchio because of the higher level he managed to score at.

10th Luciano Becchio
9th Patrick Bamford

Next I went for Chris Wood. A leader of the line, bit of a throwback. Had thay one prolific season in his career but has never really been able to match it. Not a bad player but not a natural finisher

8th Chris Wood.

Next I put Ross McCormack, a talented player who managed 3 20 goal seasons in the Championship. A scorer of great goals and a great record but I wouldn't say he was a proper striker and natural goalscorer.

7th Ross McCormack.

Next I went for Jermaine Beckford. A lower league goal machine who probably was robbed of his potential by injuries. He did show his goalscoring potential briefly for Everton at Premier league level managing a goal every 165minutes (8 goals in total) The first of the more natural goalscorers imo.

6th Jermaine Beckford.

Next I went for Lee Chapman. He looks to me to be a proper old fashioned number 9. A big target man who scored a lot of headed goals in and around the 6 yard box, that shows a proper poachers instinct. He had many 20 goal seasons at the top level and deserves to be top 5.

5th Lee Chapman

Next I went for Michael Bridges. The sample size is smaller than any one else but his record that 1 season was elite level. A goal every 123 minutes that season is exceptional (for comparison Harry Kane was top scorer last season with a goal every 138 minutes). Without injuries he could easily have won this.

4th Michael Bridges.

Next I went for Tony Yeboah. I wasn't sure if he was a great goalscorer or just a scorer of great goals. His record though suggests both, he was a 1 in 2 goal scorer in 2 of the top 5 European Leagues. His wonder goals get all the acclaim but having looked at his highlights he scored plenty of poachers goals.

3rd Tony Yeboah.

Next I went for Mark Viduka. He was a bit of a hybrid. He had the strength and aerial ability of a Lee Chapman but he also had the technical ability of McCormack. A wonderful player and a proper number 9 who had multiple 20 goal seasons in his career.

2nd Mark Viduka.

Number 1 for me was Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. He had absolutely everything. He could score headers, volleys, 1v1, free kicks, from 6 yard or 30 yards. Most complete goal scorer I've seen at Leeds.

1 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
2 Mark Viduka
3 Tony Yeboah
4 Michael Bridges
5 Lee Chapman
6 Jermaine Beckford
7 Ross McCormack
8 Chris Wood
9 Patrick Bamford
10 Luciano Becchio

My number 1