True or false? A player needs to have form on the board to have a form slump. Which brings me to John Aloisi.
Players tend to find their level over time. Talent scouts often quickly spot a promising junior and the player then goes on to either exceed, meet or fall short of expectations. Ultimately the league they play in and the club they play for are a reasonable indication of the player’s ability at that point in their career. Not so with John Aloisi.
A comparison of the goal scoring feats of strikers from around the world over the last 20 years suggests that there is a chasm between John Aloisi’s reputation and his underlying ability. After plying his limited wares in Belgium, Italy, Spain and England over the “peak” years of his career, he is now creating nothing out of something in his homeland.
Statistics can always be made to dance but for strikers, games per goal tell a pretty accurate story. Other less measurable characteristics include holding the ball up, off the ball runs and pressuring opposition defenders, but let’s focus on games per goal.
A glance at the goal scoring records (league games plus internationals only) shows us that, for instance, Michael Owen scores a goal every 2.0 games, Drogba every 2.3 games and Raul every 2.2 games. Arguably, one of the best all-time records is that of Romario, who scored a goal every 1.4 games he played. Some of the less impressive career strike rates are those of Nicolas Anelka (3.0), Scott McDonald (2.6) and Dean Windass (3.1). John Aloisi? He has managed to put one past the keeper once every 3.4 games (134 goals in 454 games). This is staggeringly unimpressive.
Remember, this is not a comparison of Aloisi and the others as strikers or players. On any measure Micheal Owen, Luca Toni or Didier Drogba are clearly better strikers. The point is that Aloisi, at the level he has found himself at over his career, has been impotent at best, in front of goal. Essentially he has built his career around shanking shots wide of the target when his pace and skill allows him to get a shot in. To further emphasise the point, the top goal scorers in the Gladesville-Hornsby Premier League last season would have scored at a better rate than Aloisi.
So don’t be fooled – there is no “form slump” for Aloisi. The facts show that he has chronically underperformed throughout his career suggesting he has been playing at a level well above where he belongs for the duration. The recent glaring misses are not out of character, they are just more of the same.
Maybe we can find a spot for him on the bench for Normanhurst Eagles.
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December 29th 2008 @ 1:48pm
Kazama said | December 29th 2008 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
SJ – I doubt he’d come home to Adelaide. Too much bad blood after United sacked his brother. I wouldn’t mind seeing him in an Adelaide shirt, but only if he took a huge pay cut.
I think he may be switching clubs soon if Sydney’s new management don’t want him. Maybe he will head back to the Mariners for their ACL campaign?
December 29th 2008 @ 1:59pm
towser said | December 29th 2008 @ 1:59pm | Report comment
Slippery Jim
In a word no. Anymore than why Scott Mcdonald pumps em in for Celtic but cant score for Australia. Or John Barnes was a magical player for Liverpool but crap for England.& so on.
For years I’ve tried to fathom this out but with no real success. The only thing I can think off is that certain players have temperaments more suited to club or International football. So take JA he has an international temperament rather than a club temperament whereas SM has a club temperament. But then again if you said to me that that sounded like a load of crap I wouldn’t argue with you.
December 29th 2008 @ 2:18pm
Mattay said | December 29th 2008 @ 2:18pm | Report comment
As someone said, there’s no chance Aloisi will play for Adelaide. There’s too much bad blood there now. Personally, I don’t like Aloisi. He’d definitely improve our team (we are lacking a decent striker and if Agostino was fully fit against Gamba in the CWC, we may just have had a result against them).
But for me, Aloisi lacks class. He was making all sorts of noise about coming back to Adelaide to play with his brother. His brother was sacked for his disgraceful performance as captain in the final against Victory. I don’t think any AU fan disagreed with that decision. I seem to recall JA saying after that he’d never play for us.
But if he was so keen to play with his big brother, why did he join CCM and not Wellington where Ross was playing? Simple answer, he was following the coin. I don’t mind players making the most out of their careers while they can, but please, try not to bull**** us about having deeper reasons for signing for certain clubs.
(By the way – I think it’s hilarious that all the good publicity and progress AU have been making this year in Asia and the CWC was due to our qualification through that 6-0 grand final loss. Our lowest point as a club has spawned our greatest.)
December 29th 2008 @ 4:04pm
Kazama said | December 29th 2008 @ 4:04pm | Report comment
Mattay, it wasn’t that he specifically wanted to play alongside Ross, it was just that he didn’t want to represent a club that sacked his brother. United never offered him a contract anyway.
Technically we didn’t qualify due to the 6-0 loss against Melbourne, we qualified because we won the preliminary final (or at least the penalty shoot-out that followed it).
December 29th 2008 @ 10:46pm
dasilva said | December 29th 2008 @ 10:46pm | Report comment
I like to see his goal scoring record for just for the spanish league. Sometimes certain players are suited to certain leagues nad certain playing styles. He has scored about 15+ goals for osasuna in a season so he is certainly not a rubbish striker.
I remember Aloisi not for his penalty against Uruguay but his superb performances in the confederation cup against Germany and Argentina.
His performance against Germany was one of the best performance by an Australian striker in an international match and those two goals were pure strikers instinct.
My view on Aloisi is between the two extremes. He is not a rubbish striker and him at his peak was certainly a class above majority of strikers australia produced except for Dukes and Mcdonald. However perhaps he was overated for scoring that penalty and that his performance in the a-league shows the danger of returning to the A-league when you are aging and past your peak.
December 30th 2008 @ 6:23am
cosmos forever said | December 30th 2008 @ 6:23am | Report comment
“SFC hired him on an emotional moment not for his ability as a consistent club striker.” OR SFC hired him simply to price the other East Coast teams out of a big name (regardless of his ability on the pitch). I think this is more the case. Management obsessed with minimising the potential of other clubs in a similar geographic region rather than thinking about how to adequately build their own club properly.
BTW – MA won us that qualifier – I didn’t see JA or any other field player STOP a penalty
December 30th 2008 @ 6:25am
cosmos forever said | December 30th 2008 @ 6:25am | Report comment
MS I mean!
December 30th 2008 @ 7:42am
md said | December 30th 2008 @ 7:42am | Report comment
Great article Junior. Aloisi has ripped us off this year – particularly when the likes of Yorke and Juninho cost the club significantly less and delivered far more.
So much of the blame must lie with Kosmina though.
Cheers
md
December 30th 2008 @ 12:48pm
Brickowski said | December 30th 2008 @ 12:48pm | Report comment
md,
When it all boils down, Juninho actually cost SFC more per season than Aloisi. Apparently Aloisi’s contract is $700k salary and $700k if he scores 10+ goals, since that is not going to happen Aloisi will cost SFC ~$300k less for a season.
Doesn’t make him any less disappointing though, does it?
December 30th 2008 @ 1:23pm
Michael C said | December 30th 2008 @ 1:23pm | Report comment
Junior and Mattay —
it’s like the Warne vs Murali argument. Statistics alone tell stuff all.
Context and weighting is required, or, at least, standard separation.
However, this all implies that the HAL standard of defense is greater than that provided internationally by Solomon Islands and or Tonga,
or, that the standard of supply is not yet as good as was seen by the Socceroos vs Solomon Islands and or Tonga………….or, a bit of both!!!
or, perhaps – - he’s just over the hill.