#2 Alan Shearer
In today’s Premier League, the ‘traditional’ English centre-forward is no longer in vogue – witness the lack of respect for Andy Carroll – but any of today’s Premier League teams would kill to have a striker like Alan Shearer.
His goal record is still unmatched in the Premier League – he still holds the record number of hat-tricks in the league’s history with eleven, and is still the league’s record goalscorer overall with 260 in 441 games. To put it into perspective, Wayne Rooney is second with 195, but he’s already played twelve more games than Shearer. The Toon hero averaged 18 goals a season over 14 campaigns, which is insane.
A horribly aggressive player for defenders to face, Shearer was physically powerful and was adept at using that to his advantage, often accused of over-use of his elbows inside the penalty box. But he was also highly skilled, using his right and left foot – as well as his head – to score his many goals.
In terms of goalscoring, nobody comes close to Alan Shearer. With his physical style of play, would he still bag as many goals in today’s Premier League? I don’t think there can be any doubt about it.
