Gerard Pique is one of the winningest defenders alive. The Spaniard has won the World Cup, UEFA Euro and Champions league, a career treble the likes of which makes the more commonly known treble of the Champions League, domestic league, and domestic cup look pedestrian (he’s won two of those as well, by the way).
Such a successful career has meant Pique has faced, and beaten, some of the best strikers in the world, and in a recent interview with Unscriptd, he shed some light on who he thought was the toughest.
Barcelona's Gerard Piqué has defended a lot of strikers, but these are the 3 toughest ones he’s ever faced https://t.co/yOVdZr2ZMz
— Unscriptd (@UnscriptdSport) March 21, 2016
His choices of Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Robert Lewandowski are perhaps not surprising. Along with Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez (players he intentionally left out) no one would argue that they are world-class. But despite that, it is interesting to hear him confirm what makes those three so hard to defend: they can do everything.
“It’s really tough when you have to mark these kinds of players that…can do everything, because you don’t expect, ‘oh, he will do always this.’ No, no, they can change and it’s really difficult for the defender when you don’t know what they will do.”
Pique doesn't always come out on top. Photo: @thesix_laliga | Twitter
Pique is explaining why unpredictability, often simply called creativity, is such a valuable asset for a striker to have. The battles that take place between center-backs and strikers are such a cerebral ordeal: they are always trying to read, predict, and react to what the other is doing. By being creative, by being unpredictable, strikers gain a huge advantage over defenders.
For us, the fans, these battles can be incredibly entertaining to watch once you come to appreciate them. They are why hard-core fans can appreciate a 0-0 draw as much as a 4-3 victory, which is a kind of open mindedness that I admire.
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