Kris Boyd – The Most Lethal Striker You’ve Never Heard Of

A phenomenon in every sense of the word, Henrik Larsson‘s pace with the ball and agility in tight spaces meant the frontman was dangerous all over the pitch. He could score 30-yard screamers, take his man on and dink it over the keeper or lay it off to a teammate in space. Kris Boyd is a completely different type of striker. Typically defined as a goal poacher, whose key attribute is his strike rate, Boyd has scored an average of two goals for every three games since his arrival at Rangers. He prefers to work in and around the penalty box, where he can play off the shoulder of the last defender. When he fails to score, however, his overall contribution to the team is often questioned. Rangers manager Walter Smith has dropped Boyd on numerous occasions due to his lack of contribution to the overall team performance. With a tendency to become isolated as a lone striker in a 4-5-1 formation, Boyd‘s style of play relies on good service from the rest of the team and a pacy, determined strike partner in the mould of Kenny Miller who will chase down lost causes. Although Boyd pips Larsson on the scoring charts, trumping the great Swede’s record of being in the right place at the right time, Larsson is considered a more rounded team player.

When Kris Boyd hangs up his boots on what already promises to be an historic Scottish football career, what goal will he look back at as his greatest, his most important, the one he’ll never forget? How about that cracker he scored against Celtic at Ibrox? Unfortunately not; of the 160 league goals Kris Boyd has notched for Rangers and Kilmarnock only one has come against the Auld enemy – against a reserve Celtic side who had already won the title in May 2007. Kris Boyd is continually criticised for going missing in the big matches.  (Less than half of his goals come against top six SPL opposition.) And this is where Larsson rules supreme. Larsson scored 158 goals in the SPL, nearly half against top six opposition, 15 against arch-rivals Rangers and achieved the total in 95 less games than Boyd. It’s no good scoring the final goal in a 4-0 nil thrashing. Henrik Larsson understood that, with 46 of his strikes, nearly a third of his total, being the first goal in each match.

A closer look at the comparison:

Kris Boyd (160 goals in 283 SPL matches)

- 48 goals against Top 6 (283 SPL matches)

- 112 goals against Bottom 6 (283 SPL matches)

- 1 goal against Celtic (20 matches)

- 3 goals in Europe (19 matches)

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Henrik Larsson – (158 goals in 187 SPL matches)

- 76 goals against Top 6 (187 SPL matches)

- 82 goals against Bottom 6 (187 SPL matches)

- 15 goals against Rangers (30 matches)

- 59 goals in Europe (108 matches)

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