Zlatan v. Eto'o: Who's better?

Zlatan Ibrahimovic switched from Inter Milan to Barcelona. This is an awesome pick up for Barcelona. But the catch was…..they gave up Samuel Eto’o. Eto’o will now call the San Siro his home for the foreseeable future. There have been people claiming various things from Barcelona have gotten the better end of the deal to both teams will benefit equally. I even read one article where the author called Eto’o (28) “old” and Zlatan (27) “young”. They are one year apart!!! Watching both these players play with their respective club teams over the past two years, I have noticed some things about these two world class players.

When watching Zlatan play with Inter Milan the past two years, I noticed that he disappears in big games. He just does not have that killer drive to finish off big teams most of the time. Eto’o, on the other hand, consistently shows up in big games with big goals for Barcelona. Let’s look at the stats from the past two years.

When talking about Zlatan, we will rate his play in big Serie A games. He will be judged against the four other big teams in Italy: AC Milan, Juventus, Roma, and Fiorentina. In two Serie A seasons (16 big games total), he scored 5 goals. 4 of those goals came in two games and another one was a penalty. So he did not score in 13 of the 16 biggest league games for Inter. Even worse, he hasn’t scored league goals against AC Milan OR Juventus in this time frame (8 games).
Now let’s look at Eto’o. We will compare him to the same standards in La Liga. The teams I used were Real Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla, and Atletico Madrid. Eto’o has scored 9 goals in the 16 biggest La Liga games for Barcelona, with one being a penalty. Plus, he has scored at least one goal against all of the big teams. He did, however, fail to score in 7 of those games. But he was injured two seasons ago (07/08) and missed 3 of these big games. So he, technically, went 4 games without scoring.

Still don’t think Eto’o is a big game player? Let’s look at the UEFA Champions League. Barcelona have 3 titles in their history and Eto’o has been on two of those teams. Not only that, but he has scored in the two finals that he has played in. Zlatan has yet to play in a semi-final and is always criticized about his lack of goals and overall production in the Champions League.

Let’s now look at overall league goals. In 08/09, both players did not have injury problems and were available for all 38 league games if their coaches chose to play them. Zlatan scored 25, the most in Serie A. Eto’o scored 30 goals, but he only registered second place in La Liga goals scored! First went to Diego Forlan with 32.

In 07/08, both strikers had injury problems, with Eto’o’s keeping him out for the longer period of time. Eto’o scored 16 league goals in 18 games. Zlatan scored 17 goals in 26 games. If Eto’o played the same amount of games Zlatan did two years ago, he would be on pace to have scored 23 goals.

Individually these players are quite different. Zlatan is a target man and is used to being out of the play for as long as 10 minutes. He doesn’t do a whole lot of movement to get the ball either. He usually stands between the two center backs and throws his hands up in disgust sometimes if he doesn’t get the perfect pass. He is allowed to be very selfish with his decision making as well, being he is the focus of Inter's attack. Eto’o comes from a team where it is all about total team movement. He drifts out wide on both flanks and comes deep if it means it will help the team offensively. Need examples? His two Champions League final goals came from him making runs from the wide position. Matter of fact, he was positioned out wide right in the 08/09 final and he played that position well because he knew what was on the line. Could Zlatan do that? I can seriously see Zlatan pouting and not trying if Guardiola told him to start anywhere besides central striker. Barcelona plays with constant team movement, even if the ball is on the other side of the field. This is a concept that many people are fans of called “Total Football” (Speaking of Total Football, shout out to the ’74 Holland World Cup team, the best team to never win the World Cup). When watching Zlatan, he stands still if there is no chance of him getting the ball with little regard for cutting passing lanes between the center backs. This total football will not work for him because he does not have the industry, hustle, and drive that Eto’o does. Barcelona will have to change their style of play to better suit Zlatan.

Now many will ask “Why did this switch even happen?” I believe this is Guardiola trying to make this Barcelona team HIS team. They did win the Spanish treble last season, but it was all with Frank Rijkaard’s boys. This Zlatan acquisition is the first big step in the Guardiola-era. He wants the team to be built around Lionel Messi and sees Zlatan as the perfect strike partner for him. Good Luck having two selfish players as strike partners.

As for Inter’s new hit man, manager Jose Mourinho can get the best out of a lot of players. Example? Eidur Gudjohnsen. While at Chelsea, Mourinho got a lot out of Gudjohnsen, but not as a striker. It was as a midfielder with Drogba as a lone striker. That’s right. Eidur played in the midfield for Chelsea for two years and to great effect, despite the naysayers who said playing him in the center of midfield was a crazy idea. So I’m sure Mourinho can take Eto’o and get the most out of him, even if it sometimes means not being a central striker. But I’m almost certain that Eto’o, as long as he is helping the team, is ok with that.

So I believe that Eto’o/Inter got the much better end of the deal. They have a big game player who has won a lot and still looks hungry to win more. Now don’t get me wrong; Zlatan will get his fair share of goals with Barcelona. Double digits? More than likely. 20+? A good solid maybe. But how many will be big, important goals? Especially now that he is not the main focus of his team’s offense. You can watch all the YouTube clips of Zlatan you want, but over a 90 minute game, I’ll take Eto’o.