Ewan Roberts & Ben Hayward
They are two of the top centre forwards in world football at the moment. Barcelona bought one and have been long linked with the other. But should the Catalan club have signed Sergio Aguero instead of Luis Suarez?
The South American strikers prepare to do battle in the Champions League on Tuesday and Aguero will be key to the hopes of Manuel Pellegrini's side, who face Barca for a second season running. Suarez, meanwhile, is still finding his feet at Camp Nou following his summer switch from Liverpool.
Being a Barca striker can be a thankless task. Zlatan Ibrahimovic impressed initially but ultimately made way as Lionel Messi moved inside, while David Villa shone for a season but was forced to operate wide on the left.
Suarez, since returning from a four-month ban for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup, has racked up assists aplenty, but has hit just seven goals so far in his 22 appearances. Aguero, by way of comparison, has netted 22 in 28 games for City in 2014-15. So should Barca have signed Messi's mate or were they right to snub their long-time target and move for Suarez instead? Here, two Goal experts take up the debate ...
Aguero
Luis Suarez may have netted a record-equalling 31 goals last season but he still could not establish himself as a darling of the Premier League. Controversy made the Uruguayan hard to love, but English football has no trouble embracing another South American, Sergio Aguero.
The Argentine is many of the things Suarez is not: classy, subtle and completely removed from his counterpart’s antics. He fits the ‘Mes Que un Club’ motto, whereas Suarez is rarely more than his latest incident.
The Manchester City forward lets his football do the talking and again leads the Premier League’s scoring charts, level with Diego Costa on 17 goals and with over double the Chelsea frontman’s assists despite starting just 18 times. He even has a hat-trick against Bayern Munich.
Injury has again hampered his season – a sign of his enormous importance is that a team of City’s resources need to rush him back so quickly. Last season, before picking up a succession of calf and hamstring problems, he would finish the campaign with a better strike rate than Suarez, scoring five minutes more regularly.
Of players with 20 or more Premier League goals, none have recorded a goal or assist at a quicker rate than Aguero. Not just explosive, dynamic and deadly, but extremely consistent.
Suarez, as Barcelona are finding out, can be more erratic. There are 57 Liga players with a better strike rate than the £70 million man, whose form is more akin to when he first arrived in England in 2011. In his first half-season at Anfield he converted just 7.3 per cent of his shots, a third of the figure he would post last season. Currently he is scoring just 11.4% of his chances.
Was last year the real Suarez, or merely a player at an unsustainable peak, the focal point of free-scoring, momentum-driven Liverpool? Is Suarez suited to playing in the shadow of Lionel Messi and not as the main man? Certainly the chaos factor he relishes feels at odds with Barca’s more placid style.
Aguero has never had any problems playing with Messi for Argentina and would have been a quicker, slicker, sharper foil at club level. That said, it is impossible to escape the fact that City never would have allowed Aguero to leave no matter how hard Barca had tried – instead, the 26-year-old is playing a key role in their own charm offensive to lure Messi to Manchester.
By Ewan Roberts
Suarez
The 28-year-old is taking time to settle at the Catalan club, but was expected to hit the ground running following his four-month ban. That, perhaps, was too much to ask. Adjusting to Barca's playing style can be difficult, especially for foreign footballers, and Suarez must play a more sacrificial role alongside Messi.
He is doing that. His seven goals in 22 games is not the expected return, but it is not a disaster either. The goals will come when the confidence returns and there are signs of improvement, such as the stunning scissor kick in the recent 5-0 win at home to Levante.
"It was a beautiful goal, a great piece of play," Luis Enrique said afterwards. "He is a pure striker." But the Barca boss also added that he is happy with the forward's contribution even if he is not scoring.
That's understandable. While goals have been hard to come by for the former Liverpool man, Suarez has turned provider with 12 assists already for his new club. Such generosity was unexpected from a man many looked at as a single-minded, selfish striker who would supposedly compete with Messi for goals at Camp Nou and perhaps even upset the applecart with his uncompromising approach.
Far from it. The Uruguayan understands his role at the Catalan club and as soon as the goals start flowing, his importance will be duplicated.
Aguero, meanwhile, has more goals but less assists this term (six in total). The Argentine's scoring record in La Liga with Atletico Madrid was excellent of course, but where he has struggled at times is with his national team - alongside Messi.
The 26-year-old's undoubted quality means he would likely make it a success at Camp Nou, but Barca have no reason to regret signing Suarez last summer. The Uruguayan is proving he is more of an all-rounder than Aguero and, as soon as he starts scoring freely, there will be no debate.
By Ben Hayward
QUICKER, SLICKER AND SHARPER"
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