10 best player duos who had a telepathic understanding between them

Football is a team game in which some individuals often stand out with their performances. But when a star player links up well with another star, it usually means ominous signs for the opposition. It’s early days yet, but the ease with which Cesc Fabregas has been creating chances for Diego Costa at Chelsea this season has already made many predict that the duo have the potential to win the league for the club this season.We look at a few pairs of players from the last two decades who linked up brilliantly and had an almost-telepathic understanding between them to spell doom for the opposition and win games for their sides.

#10 Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge

The SAS duo would have been ranked much higher in the list if they had played together for a period much longer than one and a half seasons, before Suarez chose to move to Barcelona this summer.

The strikers terrorized Premier League defences with their brilliant link-up play and Liverpool’s second-place finish last season was largely attributed to the 52 goals scored by the duo (31 by Suarez and 21 by Sturridge). And a goal summary of “scored by Suarez, assist by Sturridge” or vice versa was a very common feature.

Though the two were never the best of friends, and often had a healthy rivalry over scoring more goals, they slotted extremely well into the system designed by Brendan Rodgers and forged a successful partnership in which they complemented each other brilliantly.

#9 Andy Cole and Peter Beardsley

Despite their brilliant goal-scoring run last season, Suarez and Sturridge were unable to beat the record for the maximum number of goals scored by a strike partnership in an EPL season.

And this record still belongs to Cole and Beardsley for Newcastle United in the 1993-94 season with 55 goals between them (34 goals by Cole and 21 goals by Beardsley) in the league and 66 goals in all competitions.

The two complemented each other well with Beardsley’s creative abilities linking well with Cole’s clinical goal-scoring prowess. The two enjoyed another good season in 1994-95 before Cole opted to sign for Manchester United.

#8 Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton

The original SAS, Shearer and Sutton established a strong strike partnership at Blackburn Rovers in the 1994-95 season which won the Premier League for the club ahead of Manchester United on the last day of the season.

The summer of 1994 saw a young Sutton joining Rovers from Norwich for an English record fee of £5 million and the player replaced Mike Newell in the first team to become Shearer’s strike partner.

This decision by manager Kenny Dalglish paid rich dividends as the SAS duo scored 49 goals (34 by Shearer, 15 by Sutton) between them to seal Rovers’ first league title since 1914. The two linked up brilliantly and always seemed to know where the other was, and almost every shot at goal ended up in the back of the net.

The dream run ended in the following season with Sutton losing form and with that his place in the first team. Sutton managed to re-establish himself in the team after 1997, but by then Shearer had left for Newcastle and the SAS duo was split up leaving the fans with memories of 1994-95 to cherish.

#7 Mateja Kezman and Arjen Robben

Arjen Robben (L) and Mateja Kezman (R)

Before making his name for Netherlands, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Arjen Robben first came into prominence at Dutch club PSV.

The winger was regarded as one of the most talented youngsters in Europe and formed a successful partnership with Serbian striker Mateja Kezman.

The duo was dubbed “Batman and Robben” as Robben created the bulk of the 81 goals that Kezman scored over three seasons at PSV. Their good performances meant that big-spenders Chelsea came calling, with the hope that the two would recreate their magic in EPL as well.

But it wasn’t to be as, even though Chelsea won the league that season, Kezman couldn’t make much of an impact and was sold to Atletico Madrid the following season, thus splitting the Batman and Robben team.

#6 Raul and Fernando Morientes

The strike-partnership of Raul and Morientes began in 1996 in the Under-21 Euro Championships in which Spain finished as runners-up.

The duo soon became the strike mainstays for Spanish national team as well as Real Madrid. Morientes was an ideal number 9 striker, and he linked very well with Raul, who played the role of the support striker to perfection.

The strikers scored 277 goals between them for Real Madrid in the period between 1997 and 2003, during which the club won three Champions League and two La Liga titles. The two played up front for Spain in the 2002 World Cup and impressed with their performances before the side was controversially knocked out by hosts South Korea.

The arrival of Ronaldo and later Michael Owen at Real Madrid, coupled with a public spat with manager Vicente del Bosque, meant that Morientes had to move away from the Bernabeau. And with the emergence of David Villa and Fernando Torres in the national side, it meant that the two now-veteran strikers didn’t get much game-time together for Spain.

#5 Michael Laudrup and Hristo Stoichkov

As Johan Cruyff set about building his Dream Team at Barcelona, he signed Michael Laudrup from Juventus in 1989 and Hristo Stoichkov from CSKA Sofia in the following year. The Dream Team played entertaining football and enjoyed unprecedented success in Spain as well as in Europe, which included four consecutive La Liga titles.

One of the major reasons for the success was Cruyff teaming up with Stoichkov, who played as a striker, with Laudrup playing in an advanced midfield role.

Laudrup’s skills in dribbling and creating goal-scoring chances led to the phrase “Made in Laudrup” being coined, and Stoichkov developed a brilliant understand with the midfielder and was very good at latching onto chances that Laudrup created and putting the ball in the back of the net.

#4 Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp

Although Dennis Bergkamp had enjoyed success at Arsenal in the 1998-99 season as he played a pivotal role in the team’s league win, it was the arrival of Thierry Henry in the summer of 1999, which would later prove to be the defining moment for both Bergkamp and Henry.

After initially finding himself behind Henry and Wiltord in the pecking order, Bergkamp soon established himself as the support striker behind Henry.

The duo of Bergkamp and Henry played alongside each other for over six years and scored over 200 goals between them as Arsenal won two Premier League titles, including the unbeaten Invincibles run in 2003-04.

The players complemented each other brilliantly, as Bergkamp used his skills of vision and accuracy to create goal-scoring chances which were expertly converted into goals by Henry.

#3 Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres

Fernando Torres arrived at Liverpool in the summer of 2007 from Atletico Madrid with a reputation of being a world-class goal poacher.

But the player surpassed all expectations and made an instant impact at the club, forming a potent partnership with Steven Gerrard, who played in the attacking midfield position. Torres scored 34 goals in all competitions that season, while Gerrard pitched in with 21 goals.

The two continued to combine well in the following season in which Liverpool finished second in the league, and enjoyed an impressive run in the Champions League. With Rafa Benitez using a 4-2-3-1 formation, Gerrard played in the CAM position just behind Torres and the players developed a telepathic understanding as Gerrard’s passes and through-balls would instinctively be picked up by Torres, who would score effortlessly.

The partnership came to an end when Torres decided to move to Chelsea, and without the link-up play similar that to provided by Gerrard, he hasn’t been able to replicate his goal-scoring form ever since.

#2 Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney

The duo has had its share of controversy with many blaming Ronaldo for Rooney being sent off in the 2006 World Cup. But they brushed it aside, and set aside all differences to lead Manchester United to one of the most successful spells in the club’s history from 2006 to 2009 in which they won 3 Premier League titles and a Champions League trophy.

Both players were given the license to roam and attack by Sir Alex Ferguson in a fluid system, and they teamed up brilliantly with both scoring goals in plenty.

The 2007-08 season saw them score 60 goals across all competitions between them, with Ronaldo having an exceptional return of 42 goals.

They split up when Ronaldo switched to Real Madrid, and the two players went on to achieve success in club football separately since then. But their strike partnership is still fondly remembered by Manchester United fans.

#1 Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta

The two players have been at Barcelona since the age of 11 and 12 respectively, and have the Barcelona playing styles of Total Football and Tiki-Taka ingrained in them.

Having played the bulk of their club football as well as international matches alongside each other, they share an excellent understanding of each other’s game and have developed a telepathy in which they seem to know where the other player is and what he will be going to do.

The rich haul of trophies that Barcelona won in the last decade can be largely attributed to Xavi and Iniesta controlling the games from the midfield with their co-ordination with each other, and the ability to find a killer pass for an attacker to score a goal.

The central midfield partnership has had many admirers, including Sir Alex Ferguson who once quoted “I don't think Xavi and Iniesta have ever given the ball away in their lives. They get you on that carousel and they can leave you dizzy”.