How Luis Suárez Terrorizes La Liga Defenses

Luis Suárez has been one of Barcelona’s most important goal scorers since he signed with the club.

Barcelona’s star man is Lionel Messi, but the man who is arguably world soccer’s greatest player can’t win matches by himself. For years, Messi has had great players around him. Players like Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry have come and gone, while Andrés Iniesta has always been with him. Most recently, he’s had help from Neymar, and, of course, the controversial Luis Suárez.

Often in the news for the use of his mouth (allegations of racial abuse, multiple incidents involving biting opponents), sometimes it’s easy to forget what Suárez can do with his feet. The man who scored 40 goals and assisted 16 more in the league in 2015/16 has already tallied three goals in two La Liga matches so far this season. He’s been just as good without the likes of Messi and Neymar surrounding him, scoring 81 goals in 110 league appearances at Ajax, and 69 goals in the same amount of Premier League games with Liverpool. He’s got 45 in 84 games for his home country, Uruguay, and, despite creeping up on age 30, he isn’t showing signs of slowing down.

Just how does Suárez do it? He isn’t blessed with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s pace, nor does he possess the size and aerial ability of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic, yet he finds himself among those players and others on the list of the world’s best strikers–perhaps even atop it.

First off, Suárez is relentless, and in every sense of the word. That’s part of what’s made him so controversial is his competitive edge, as it often pushes him over the line in some instances. Nevertheless, it’s made him a fantastic striker.

For instance, against Real Betis in August, Suárez scored a hat trick. Analyzing his touch chart from that match, it is evident that Suárez’s relentless, never-ending running style came into play. If you cut the attacking third into thirds itself (from the corners of the six yard box to the touchlines and the space in the middle, Suárez was ever-present in each third. He had 17 touches on the right side of the pitch, 15 in the middle, and14 on the left.

Furthermore, two of his goals that day came from the central area, while his third was from a free kick on the left side. That only illustrates Suárez’s style further–while he’s touching the ball in all areas of the attacking third, he still manages to find his way into the middle, often making intelligent runs to get into goalscoring position, and that leads to the next trait that makes him a world-beater–instinct.

Suárez, it seems, knows exactly where to be at all times when it comes to scoring in dangerous areas. While he has the ability to shoot from distance, Suárez’s greatest asset is finding space inside the 18-yard box to score goals. Across the 2015/16 season, the Uruguayan scored 40 La Liga goals in total–all of which were scored inside the area. He had 121 shots from inside the box, as opposed to just 16 from outside the area. It’s not that Suárez can’t score from distance, it’s just that he is so good at being in the right place at the right time.

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Part of that also has to do with the skill around him. In his first season at Barcelona, just one of his goals came from outside the area. However, the year before that when he scored 31 goals for Liverpool in the Premier League, Suarez managed seven from beyond 18 yards–while taking a staggering 77 shots from outside the area, just 27 fewer than inside that season. While that was a good Liverpool attack featuring Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho beside Suárez, the service he receives from Messi, Neymar and the rest of the bunch help catapult him into the realm of the world’s best center forwards. Messi and Neymar alone combined for 28 assists and 174 chances created in La Liga last season. Their playmaking ability has bolstered Suárez to new levels of brilliance.

Suárez may continue to toe the line of right and wrong, but it shouldn’t take away from his talents as a player. Whether he is a villain, or just misunderstood, he’s one of the best players on the planet, and he’ll continue to show that in Barcelona colors for seasons to come.