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25th Sep 2017

Thierry Henry reckons only one Premier League striker is world-class

Paul Moore

Thoughts?

Given the fact that he scored 175 Premier League goals for Arsenal and won the biggest honours in the game,  Thierry Henry is as good a judge as any to comment about the latest hot-shots in the Premier League.

So far this season, Alvaro Morata, Sergio Aguero, Romelu Lukaku and Harry Kane have scored 22 league goals collectively, but with all of these strikers finding the back of the net over the weekend, Henry was asked which of them he would consider as world class?

“The closest to being world class, or is world class, or has been world class is Aguero because of the longevity of what he has done in the Premier League year in, year out. He’s won the league here and got to the final of the World Cup. He’s been doing it the longest so you have to give him a bit of credit. I think we sometimes bypass Aguero like he didn’t happen but we all agree that stats show he’s the best. The other three, they will be [world class] but they are not yet. Lukaku has only just arrived at Manchester United and he’s not played in the Champions League. We always talk about world class and the debate is always there, but Aguero is the closest to it,” he said.

The Arsenal icon believes that the former Atletico Madrid striker is a better player than Kane because of the Englishman’s lack of international and European experience.

“For Kane, unfortunately for him, it was a short Champions League campaign with Spurs and a short Europa League. The Euros were short also for him,” said Henry.

Alvaro Morata has been a revelation since signing for Chelsea and in a week that saw Diego Costa confirm his return to Spain, Antonio Conte will be delighted to see the former Juventus and Real Madrid striker continue his rich goalscoring form against Stoke City.

Despite reaching a Champions League final with Juventus and featuring as an effective bit-part player at the Bernabéu, Henry believes that Morata needs a prolonged period at one club where he becomes instrumental in order to be considered as a world class striker.

“Morata, more often than not, came off the bench for Real Madrid and when he was at Juventus he had a good year but playing with Carlos Tevez or Fernando Llorente that wasn’t his team. He’s trying to make Chelsea his team just like Lukaku is trying to make United his team. With Kane it is his team but we don’t know how good he is in terms of Europe. Aguero hasn’t won the Champions League yet but we all know he’s won the league already and it is his team.”

To conclude the chat, Henry did state his belief that Kane, Lukaku and Morata will all become world class players in the future.

What do you think? Would you have Aguero in your side over the other three?

Topics:

Football