Thread by @ChelseaJF5, Didier Drogba: One of the most complete strikers of his era. [Thread]: [...]

Didier Drogba: One of the most complete strikers of his era.

[Thread]:

04/05 season

Drogba’s debut season 10 Goals and 5 Assists in just 1,631 minutes. Missed 17 games. Averaged a goal or assist every 109 minutes. 24 goal contributions in all competitions in just 2,677 minutes. Scored in the League Cup Final and won the PL Title.

05/06 season

12 Goals & 14 Assists in 1,988 minutes in the league. Averaged a goal or assist every 76 minutes. 16 Goals and 15 Assists in all competitions averaging a goal or assist every 89 minutes. Won another PL Title and had the most Assists in the entire league.

06/07 season

Drogba’s first season for Chelsea where he was able to play over 2000 minutes in the league. He scored 20 goals in 2,937 minutes and won the Golden Boot. He had 44 goal contributions in all competitions in 4,823 minutes averaging a goal or assist every 110 minutes.

07/08 season

Another injury hit season. Drogba missed 18 PL games. He had 8 goals & 6 assists in 1,528 minutes in the PL averaging a goal or assist every 109 minutes. Drogba’s injury problems and going to the AFCON was the main reason why Chelsea didn’t win the league.

08/09 season.

Another injury hit season where Drogba played only 1,547 minutes in the PL. Drogba had 9 goal contributions in just 15 starts in the PL. Anelka became the main ST for PL games due to Drogba’s injuries which allowed him to save himself for the big CL & FA Cup games.

09/10 season.

Drogba back fully fit and imagine my shock, another Golden Boot. 29 Goals & 13 Assists in 2,775 minutes. One of the best individual seasons in PL history. 52 goals contributions in 3,673 minutes in all competitions averaging a goal or assist every 71 minutes.

10/11 season

Probably the first season where Drogba was past his peak at 32 years old. He still produced 11 Goals & 15 Assists in 2,790 minutes In the PL averaging a goal or assist every 107 minutes. He had the 2nd most assists in the PL & 32 goal contributions in all comps.

11/12 season.

Drogba was 33/34 years old and past his prime at this point and would save himself for the big games. He put in some iconic monsterclasses en route to winning the CL and FA cup that season. Simply incredible.

So to conclude during Drogba’s prime (2004-2010) he only played over 2000 minutes in the league in 2 out of 6 seasons. Both times he did he won the Golden Boot. The season where he played close to 2000 minutes in 05/06 he finished the season with the most Assists.

One of the biggest myths about Drogba is that he wasn’t consistent & only had 2 good seasons

Goal contributions per minute:

04/05: G/A every 109 mins
05/06: G/A every 76 mins
06/07: G/A every 122 mins
07/08: G/A every 109 mins
09/10: G/A every 66 mins
10/11: G/A every 107 mins

In every season that Drogba was Chelsea’s 1st choice striker in the PL he averaged a goal or assist every 122 minutes or less. This shows outstanding consistency to do that while having to deal with multiple injuries and time out the team throughout his Chelsea career.

In total though Drogba retired with 167 Goal contributions in the PL in 17,525 minutes so averaged a goal or assist every 105 minutes.

Compare that to another complete player/PL great, Wayne Rooney, he averaged a goal or assist in the PL every 119 minutes and he took penalties.

Drogba is arguably the most complete Striker in PL history. He could do it all.

I feel sorry for the 12 year olds on twitter who never saw Drogba play & will never understand what he bought to the team, he offered so much more than just goals.

I haven’t even had to speak about Drogba’s big game record in this thread we all know he is one of the best big game strikers in history. But hopefully now people can understand that Drogba could influence games in many different ways not just by scoring a goal.

End of thread.

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