Luis Suarez – Simply the best?

“I’m starting to dislike Suarez. He’s making ex-Liverpool strikers look less impressive every time he plays,” said Robbie Fowler last night.

He’s right.

Suarez will never be as loved as Fowler or a Kenny Dalglish. He’ll never have the longevity of Ian Rush and he probably won’t win close to as many trophies at Liverpool as those illustrious forwards did. But this doesn’t change the fact that he is one of the greatest players to ever grace the Anfield turf.

This week, no superlatives could do justice to what the Uruguayan produced. Ridiculous, supreme, phenomenal, outrageous…take your pick, none will suffice.

Suarez, in general play, wasn’t at his best v Norwich, as scary as that is to believe. He misplaced most of his passes in the first quarter of an hour and he’s certainly produced more dribbles, nutmegs and body swerves in previous games than he did against the Canaries.

He’s tormented defences far more over the past few years than he did under the lights on December 4th. Despite that, it remains difficult to remember a striking performance punctuated with so many moments of such outlandish brilliance occurring at Anfield.

There were three moments of genuine inspiration and one of technical striking at it’s best. The first came when a ball bounced up forty yards from the Kop goal. This was to be no hit and hope. Suarez saw John Ruddy off his line and lashed the ball exactly where he wanted it to go – the top corner of the net. The second was a near post poachers goal from a set piece but technically brilliant. Not a goal to take the breath away perhaps, but one that Fowler, Rush et al would have more than approved of.

Then came the coup de grace. Picking up another difficult bouncing ball 30 yards out and with four defenders around him, Suarez ambled forward, flicked the ball over Leroy Fer, feigned to shoot as defenders panicked and backed off him and then unleashed a half volley that was hit as well as any at Anfield since Steven Gerrard’s strike against Olympiakos.

When that went in Suarez jogged backwards with a sheepish grin and raised his hands to his face, seemingly embarrassed by what he had done. The icing on the cake came with yet another powerful, swerving and perfectly placed free kick at the Anfield Road end. Trademark Suarez but still utterly brilliant.

It was a quartet of goals that will take a lot of beating for pure aesthetic brilliance, imagination and precision. It was the work of a genius. It was the work of the best player in England and the best player in the world after those two statistical freaks Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi. Brendan Rodgers believes Suarez breathes the same rarefied air as those two players. Last night that was a position difficult to argue with.

Suarez is roundly disliked by anyone outside of Anfield who doesn’t posses a Uruguayan passport and he is usually overlooked when it comes to people discussing the elite footballers on the planet. His absence from the Champions League hinders him, of course.

In truth, Liverpool hinder him, for he hasn’t won trophies recently like Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben or Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Those who watch him regularly know, though. They know that they wouldn’t swap him for any other player in world football outside of La Liga’s dynamic duo Ronaldo and Messi.

Suarez is not as refined as Messi and Zlatan nor is he as powerful and quick as Ronaldo and Bale. He is though, completely unique. Take the way he dribbles, for example. It is like no one else in the game. So often the ball seems destined to leave his control only for him to wrest it back with a bobble or three. It’s not luck, it’s determination, awareness and anticipation. He’s a step ahead of those trying to stop him.

No player in the world embarrasses defenders with the number of nutmegs that Suarez does. Those nutmegs aren’t for show either, they are simply his weapon of choice when it comes to beating people. He isn’t blessed with searing pace, nor is he a great exponent of the step over. Going around players is difficult without such gifts so he simply chooses to go through them.

By hook or by crook he gets in positions to shoot and his finishing is now no longer in question. His 30 goals last season have been added to with 14 league strikes in just 10 appearances this term. The Premier League is witnessing a special, special footballer at the peak of his powers.

As he left the pitch last Wednesday after illuminating Anfield once more, 40,000 people stood up and rightly acknowledged a masterclass. Those in the crowd who saw Rush, Fowler, Owen, Torres, Keegan, Dalglish and even Roger Hunt and Ian St John clapped Suarez off the pitch. In their heads they may have been thinking what Robbie Fowler articulated on Match of the Day:

“This fella might just be the best of the lot.”