Luis Suarez recently retired from international football, playing his last game against Paraguay on the 7th of September, 2024. He announced his decision to quit playing for Uruguay in an emotional press conference a few days before that clash, calling time on an incredible career. He was unable to score, the clash ending 0-0 – although he did, rather fittingly, collect a booking to go with the red card he was shown on his debut, way back in 2007.
He continues to play club football, having slotted very nicely into a strong Inter Miami side in the MLS. Having Lionel Messi alongside him once again, not to mention Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, has certainly helped. He will no doubt continue to bang in the goals for a few years yet, though he will be 38 in January.
He scored goals everywhere he went, including a record 69 for Uruguay, and also collected silverware with almost every team he played for. His most productive years in both of those regards were with Barcelona, where he netted almost 200 goals in 283 games, and won four La Ligas, four Copa del Rey titles, and the 2014/15 Champions League.
However, he was also brilliant in the Red of Liverpool and that, of course, is our focus here. Suarez had his faults, of course, and even some Reds disliked him, but as a player he was world class and illuminated Anfield. He produced moments of magic and, especially in his final two seasons with the club, was both a great goalscorer and a scorer of great goals. But just how good was he, and where does he rank compared to Liverpool’s lengthy list of all-time greats?
The Stats
Some would say that we cannot, or should not, judge a player only on their football. In many ways to do so feels a little bit to go against the Liverpool way. However, for the sake of this article, we are going to ignore Suarez’s undoubted petulance, gamesmanship, play-acting, diving, ill-discipline, nastiness and racial abuse. Oh, and of course the biting, for which he was caught three times in his career, as ridiculous as that sounds. One of those moments of insanity came during his time in English football, against Branislav Ivanovic, in a game against Chelsea.
So, ignoring all of that, let’s look at the simplest tool of analysis there is, Suarez’s stats. He improved with each season he played at Liverpool, having joined midway through the 2010/11 campaign. He got four goals from 13 games (in all competitions, though all were in the Premier League), followed by 17 from 39, then 30 from 44 and, in his final season on Merseyside, a brilliant 31 goals from 37 matches.
Awards
In that final campaign with the Reds, he recorded 31 Premier League goals from just 33 games, winning the Golden Boot with room to spare. He got 10 more goals than his nearest rival, Liverpool teammate, Daniel Sturridge. He scored three hat-tricks, including four in a 5-1 win over Norwich and was twice named Player of the Month.
He was in the PFA Team of the Year, also winning the Players’ Player of the Year and Premier League Player of the Season awards, as well as claiming the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year. He was really magnificent, though he was pretty special the season before that too when he hit 23 league goals from 33 games and also made the PFA Team of the Year.
Games & Goals
In all Suarez played just 133 games for Liverpool but he contributed an impressive 82 goals. That included 69 from 110 games in the Premier League. Overall, therefore, he averaged a goal every 1.62 games, with a marginally superior rate in the league of one every 1.59 matches. He also boasted 23 Premier League assists, giving him 92 goal involvements from his 110 league appearances for the Reds.
That equates to one every 1.20 games, which by any standard is very impressive. For comparison, it is worth noting that Thierry Henry averaged a goal involvement every 1.04 games, Harry Kane’s figure is 1.24, Wayne Rooney’s 1.58 and the league’s leading goalscorer, Alan Shearer, managed an involvement every 1.36 games. Mo Salah, at the time of writing, is right up there with the very best, boasting 160 goals and 73 assists from his 268 Premier League games (including a handful with Chelsea), for an average of 1.15.
How Should We View Suarez from a Liverpool Perspective?
In many ways, the Uruguayan cannot be compared to the club’s greatest players. He appeared just 133 times in the Liverpool shirt, which rather pales into insignificance alongside the 857 appearances made by record-holder, Ian Callaghan. Modern-day legends and hugely loyal servants, Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard, both played well over 700 games for the Reds, so clearly Suarez is well off the pace in this regard.
If we look to goals, he is (unsurprisingly given his relatively short stint at the club) also not an obvious choice for a place among the Reds’ best. Ian Rush has 346 goals for Liverpool, comfortably more than any other Liverpool player, with Roger Hunt second, Mo Salah fifth (214 and counting), Gerrard sixth (186) and Robbie Fowler seventh (183).
Quality Not Quantity
💬❤️
Darwin Núñez on Luis Suárez’s retirement from international football 🇺🇾 pic.twitter.com/ZCDfRtRwVS
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) September 4, 2024
Longevity and loyalty are often a big part of what makes a club legend achieve that status. However, we must also take into account just how good a player was at their very best and on that basis Suarez is right up there with pretty much anyone who has ever played for the club.
One easy point of comparison is his goals-to-games ratio. As we have noted, Suarez scored 82 goals for Liverpool in 133 games – a goal every 1.62 games. Rush managed 346 goals, but those came from 660 total appearances, equating to a goal every 1.91 games. Fowler averaged pretty much a goal every other game, a figure that is often used as a benchmark for a top striker, but well behind the Uruguayan. Michael Owen was similar (158 from 297 appearances), whilst Gerrard scored a goal every 3.82 games – albeit from midfield.
Of Liverpool’s 10 leading goalscorers, Salah has the third-best record using this metric, netting his 214 goals in 355 games – one every 1.66 matches. Only Gordon Hodgson, who played in the 1920s and 1930s, can better Suarez, with his average of a goal every 1.56 games. Hodgson is also the Reds’ second-highest goalscorer of all time with 241 goals.
Not Just About Numbers
Whilst Suarez was as deadly as any modern striker, he also brought excitement and magic to the table. He regularly provided assists, as seen by his goal-involvement stats, but the way he played also created a lot of space for others. His mazy runs, frequent nutmegs (“Suarez Could Nutmeg a Mermaid” read one Anfield banner) and spectacular goals meant he truly was a joy to watch.
It should also be remembered that players do not work in isolation and Suarez did not generally play in strong Liverpool sides. His brilliance in 2013/14 dragged them into title contention but they finished seventh, eighth and sixth in the seasons prior. So, all in all we would say that Suarez deserves to be classed as one of Liverpool’s best attacking players ever. How about a front three of him, Rush and Salah?!