There is often much debate about who the greatest Premier League striker of all time is. Of course, the frontrunner in many debates is Alan Shearer. The former England striker is the all-time top goalscorer in the top-flight, with 260 goals in 441 games.

Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney are second and third respectively on the all-time list. Former Tottenham man Kane scored 213 Premier League goals before his move to Bayern Munich last summer, and Wayne Rooney 208 goals in his illustrious career.

Players with shorter times in the Premier League are often thrown into the mix, too. Currently, the main name in that bracket is Erling Haaland, who has been in England for almost two seasons and currently sits on 56 Premier League goals.

Another name mentioned when it comes to shorter Premier League careers is former Liverpool man Luis Suarez. Whilst the Uruguayan legend only played 110 times in the competition, scoring 69 times, he left an astronomical impact.

Despite having left in 2014, Liverpool haven’t had a classic striker to fill the boots of Suarez since. They have replaced his goals with Mohamed Salah, and Roberto Firmino was signed as the centre-forward but was more of a false 9.

However, the Reds have recently been linked with someone who is a very similar player to Suarez and could prove to be the striker they have been looking for since their former number nine left.

Liverpool’s summer transfer plans

It will be all change in the summer for Liverpool, with Jurgen Klopp set to leave the club. Rumoured incoming manager Ruben Amorim, who denied agreeing personal terms with the Anfield club recently, could look to bring in his striker from current club Sporting, Viktor Gyokeres.

According to journalist Graeme Bailey, Liverpool are now showing interest in Amorim’s star man at Sporting, which could well “scupper” a move from arch-rivals Manchester United for the 25-year-old Sweden international.

Previous reports from CaughtOffisde suggest a fee in the region of £68.5m would be enough to prise the forward away from Sporting, with Arsenal another side that are thought to be considering a bid for the 25-year-old.

How Suarez and Gyokeres compare

Football analyst Ben Mattinson on X once described Gyokeres as “a very physical striker”, before simply going on to say he is a “powerhouse”. Certainly, it is easy to see why he has said this.

Gyokeres’ strength is a big feature of his game, assisting in his wonderful hold-up play. This shows in his 1.82 key passes per 90 minutes, which rank him in the top 5% of strikers across Europe, according to Fbref.

Gyokeres’ 1.07 goal involvements per 90 minutes place him in the elite bracket amongst Europe’s centre-forwards too. The 25-year-old, who also has six goals in 25 appearances for Sweden, places in the top 1% for goals plus assists per 90 minutes. He is an elite all-round centre forward.

With Liverpool’s pursuit of Gyokeres signalling a potential out-and-out replacement for Suarez a decade since he left the club, it is worth seeing how their goal and assist tallies stack up against each other, when Suarez was 25 years old, as Gyokeres is now.

It has been a superb term for for the former Coventry man, who has scored 36 goals and has registered 16 assists in 44 games for Sporting in all competitions. In the league, that breaks down to 22 league goals scored. Remarkably, at the age of 25, Suarez scored 22 Premier League goals, which, like Gyokeres, is a superb return.

The similarities between the two don’t end at their goalscoring numbers. Like Gyokeres, Suarez was a superb all-round player, and managed to register nine assists in the Premier League at age 25, just one less than Gyokeres, who has ten.

With Suarez noted as one of the fourth most similar player to the Swede in the last year, as per FBref, the likeness in stats and style of play between the two players is incredible.

Capable of dazzling defences, setting up teammates and burying chance after chance, should Liverpool decide to sign Gyokeres for the £68.5m quoted earlier, he could finally be the direct replacement to Suarez that the Reds have been looking for in the decade since the Uruguayan legend left the club.