Now that the Landon Donovan debate seems to be dying down a little bit, I have found myself in a seemingly more productive debate. Who should start at striker? Altidore seems to be the logical choice, but after a disastrous season at Sunderland, and Aron Johannsson’s excellent form at Alkmaar, there is certainly room for discussion (Wondolowski seems to be relegated to 3rd choice by most). I have my own opinions on the subject (Jozy), but have decided to look at things more objectively. I decided to do a statistical comparison on the three forwards (I did not include Dempsey since his spot behind the striker is pretty much cemented). Additionally, I decided to weigh each statistic based on the IFFHS league ranking system, as well as weigh each statistic against the other two strikers. Finally, I added the totals of the 12 different statistics to create a “Total Striker Score”. The highest a player could score in each category was 1, so the best total score would be 12, meaning that player led in every statistic. Here were the results I found:
| Name | Adjusted Striker Score |
| Jozy Altidore | 8.96 |
| Aron Johannsson | 7.75 |
| Chris Wondolowski | 4.45 |
It appears as though Jozy still remains the top choice striker moving forward since his numbers are inflated due to the higher level of competition. Johannsson is a close second, but his great numbers are minimized due to a much weaker league rating. If only Jurgen found a way to play both….
Update (6/2)
I have been working on a weighted score for the striker position in order to further compare the 3 strikers on the squad. The reasoning behind this is that clearly goals scored should be the most important stat for a striker, much more important than things such as long passes and crosses. This stat attempts to weigh each of these 12 statistics based on the importance to the striker position. However, these weights are completely arbitrary. I have not been able to do any statistical research into these weights, rather I have just applied my own bias and reasoning. I have included these weights, as well as both total and league-adjusted scores below.
| Name | Total “Weighted” Score | Adjusted “Weighted” Score | |
| Aron Johannsson | 89.5% | 83.1% | |
| Chris Wondolowski | 71.6% | 40.1% | |
| Jozy Altidore | 35.5% | 53.6% | |
| Weights | |||
| Aeriel Duels Won | Passes Per 90 | Pass % | Crosses Per 90 |
| 10 | 15 | 15 | 5 |
| Long Passes Per 90 | Through Balls Per 90 | Key Passes Per 90 | Assists Per 90 |
| 5 | 10 | 10 | 50 |
| Goals Per 90 | Shots Per 90 | Shot % | Dribbles Per 90 |
| 100 | 30 | 30 | 15 |
Nelli Analytics 