The fight for a starting spot in Mauricio Pellegrino’s Premier League side next season is well and truly on.
With the start of the 2017/18 coming up in just over two weeks, Pellegrino needs to decide who will be the first-choice number nine for the coming season.
Mayweather v McGregor, Batman v Superman, Iron Man v Captain America, none of these compare to Charlie Austin v Manolo Gabbiadini.
Now, Austin and Gabbiadini probably won’t be attacking each other inside a bunker in Sokovia, but it will be an interesting showdown all the same.
In pre-season this summer, Austin and Gabbiadini have featured in all three games, Austin starting all three and Gabbiadini one.
So far, Austin has scored twice, with Gabbiadini on one, which surely has the Englishman in the lead at present. Both of Austin’s goals came in the 2-2 draw with Brentford last weekend, whilst Gabbiadini scored against Saint-Etienne on Saturday.
I think if you were to ask every Southampton fan to choose their favourite, it would split down the middle. There are plenty of Gabbiadini lovers out there, along with those who favour Austin.
How did they compare for Southampton last season?
On the face of it, Austin scored six Premier League goals and Gabbiadini scored four. Austin in 15 games, Gabbiadini in 11.
Along with his six league strikes, Austin was also able to register an assist – which Gabbiadini was unable to do.
There are so many different facets to playing the striker role, especially as the lone striker in any variant of the 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. The main ones are; finishing (obviously), movement, passing, strength and aerial prowess.
We are going to take a look at each of these key components and see how they compared against each other in the Premier League last season.
FINISHING:
As already mentioned, in terms of goals, Austin scored six in the league, whilst Gabbiadini scored four. Austin netted his six goals in 942 minutes. Gabbiadini scored his four in 724.
In terms of the accuracy of their shots, Austin had a 53% success rate (on target), compared to Gabbiadini’s 55%. This was from Austin’s 37 shots and Gabbiadini’s 29.
When looking at how they scored their goals, Austin scored four with his right foot, one with his left and one with his head. Gabbiadini scored two with his left foot, one with his right and one with his midriff.
All ten of their combined goals came from positions inside the penalty area. Worth noting that Austin scored two penalties and Gabbiadini missed a spot-kick.
Gabbiadini wins this one for me, but it’s close.
MOVEMENT:
Movement is a much harder area of their game to judge by statistics so I have to go by what I’ve seen for this one.
In terms of movement to create chances for himself, Gabbiadini takes this section hands down. The runs that he makes off the ball go largely unnoticed, but they are certainly there. Every time a midfielder picks up the ball he is looking to spin in-behind and create space.
However, you could argue that this leaves Southampton without a target to aim for to hold the ball up and bring others into play, which is where Austin is key. Austin is superb at showing for the ball and keeping the play ticking over. He can hold off defenders and make sure that attacks are not broken up prematurely.
If you look at their movement in the box when a cross is about to come in they are fairly well matched. Both can sense a chance and are excellent poachers. A great striker needs to be able to ready play and get in front of defenders to score the ‘easy’ goals, both of them are adept at that.
This one is a draw for me.
PASSING:
Looking at pass completion percentage alone; Charlie Austin 63% / Manolo Gabbiadini 70%.
Judging by just that you would think Gabbiadini marginally wins on this front, but it gets interesting when you take into account how many passes they completed.
Austin completed 254 passes in his 15 games, whilst Gabbiadini only completed 117 in his 11 appearances. Of these, 135 of Austin’s were forward passes and only 46 of Gabbiadini’s were played further up the pitch.
Chances created is another close statistic. Austin created eight chances for his teammates, registering one assist, whilst Gabbiadini created six opportunities – although he was unable to set up a goal. It is worth mentioning that Gabbiadini essentially set up Oriol Romeu’s goal against Chelsea but as his shot-cum-cross was deflected it did not go down as an official assist.
Austin wins this one for me.
STRENGTH:
Now, I touched upon this is the movement section but I will elaborate more on the point. When it comes to physicality and strength, Austin beats Gabbiadini hands down.
There isn’t really a stat to illustrate this, although Austin did win 22 free-kicks compared to Gabbiadini’s ten, if that means anything to you.
But, if you have watched the pair play it is fairly easy to see that Austin is the strong player. Just looking at their bodies in general, Austin is slightly more well-built. He is a classic English number nine, whereas Gabbiadini is a modern forward, concentrating more on his movement and ability on the ball.
Austin also had a take-on success rate of 67%, compared to Gabbiadini’s 50%. Though it is not directly related to strength, you could argue it takes strength to beat your man and hold him off.
Austin wins this one for me.
AERIAL PROWESS:
Aerial prowess, although an important aspect on its own, is related to strength as well. You need to be able to hold off your man and rise above him to win the header.
This is an area Austin dominates, as with strength. Percentage wise, Austin won 47% of his aerial duels, whilst Gabbiadini won 31%. In terms of actual totals, Austin won 41 headers compared to Gabbiadini’s nine.
Austin also scored one header, whereas Gabbiadini was unable to net in the air. Saying that, you will all be aware of the fantastic header the Italian scored in the most recent pre-season friendly against Saint-Etienne.
If you were to be asked who the best of Southampton’s forwards in the air is you would probably say Shane Long. But, comparing his stats to Austin’s is even more interesting.
Long only won 42% of his aerial duels, with Austin’s 47% trumping that. Long also won 42 headers, one more than Austin. Though, Long played 17 games more than the English centre forward.
Austin wins this one for me.
CONCLUSION:
Winning three of the five key areas, Austin wins on paper. I’d concur with that, though Gabbiadini makes a very strong case.
If you asked me to name my line-up for the opening day right now I would have Austin ahead of Gabbiadini, without a shadow of a doubt.
The only issue with his Austin is his injury record, but if he can stay fit he is a 15+ goal striker for sure.
The Premier League is a very physical division and Austin, at the moment, is far more suited to lead the line than Gabbiadini.
A special mention does have to go to Gabbiadini’s performance in the League Cup final for Southampton under Claude Puel last season. He scored two fantastic goals on an unfortunate day for the Saints, but deserved all the plaudits that day.
The Italian still has plenty of time to adapt and is a superb player in his own right. He just isn’t the best option for Mauricio Pellegrino at this point in time.
But don’t worry, Southampton always have Batman to save the day…
