Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the football world over the last decade with their amazing attacking ability. But football is a team sport, and it should not be forgotten that those all-time greats also played with some outstanding team-mates up front.
Messi and Ronaldo led unbelievable attacking trios that scored a stunning amount of goals during their time together. But how do they stack up with other awesome threesomes over the last few years?
SBOTOP has crunched all the most up-to-date numbers to come up with the comprehensive list of attacking trios that have scored the most goals during the past decade.
5.Lewandowski-Muller-Gnabry (Bayern Munich, 2018-present)
Bayern’s trio of Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, and Serge Gnabry is easily the most lopsided of the lot, with Lewan-goal-ski contributing a whopping 156 of their 239 total goals to date, which is a staggering 65 per cent.
The prolific Pole scored an incredible 55 goals in just 47 appearances in Bayern’s treble-winning 2019-20 season and finally won the European Golden Shoe with his record-breaking 41 Bundesliga goals last season.
But make no mistake, Muller and Gnabry pull their weight in terms of goals. Gnabry’s arrival in 2018 finally gave Bayern the reliable third forward they’d been missing for some time. Meanwhile, Muller gets goals and is also responsible for assisting many of Lewandowski’s and Gnabry’s goals, which is how a cohesive attacking unit is supposed to work.
With Lewandowski and Muller showing no signs of slowing down, Bayern’s football 2021 odds of claiming more honours remain quite high.
4. Salah-Mane-Firmino (Liverpool, 2017-present)
Speaking of cohesion, the famed Liverpool trio of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and Roberto Firmino is arguably the most united one on this list.
Yes, they have been playing together for half a decade and are still producing fabulous football 2021 highlights to this day. But even in their early days they built their success more on their unified pressing and teamwork as opposed to sheer individual brilliance.
Not to say that they aren’t brilliant players, of course. Salah, in particular, is perhaps one of the most underappreciated greats in recent memory. The Egyptian Pharaoh has scored 134 of the trio’s 290 goals since arriving at Anfield.
But what makes him, Mane, and Firmino so special is that under the guidance of Jurgen Klopp, they have come together and formed an attacking trio that is greater than the sum of its parts.
3. Neymar-Mbappe-Cavani (PSG, 2017-2020)
After leaving arguably the greatest front three in history (more on that later), Neymar was quickly part of another amazing attacking trio at Paris Saint-Germain. Kylian Mbappe also arrived in the same summer in 2017 as they teamed up with Edinson Cavani to form one of the most fearsome front lines in Europe.
In terms of cohesion, these three were clearly not the best. One infamous report in 2018 found that Neymar and Mbappe hardly ever passed the ball to their Uruguayan centre-forward.
But despite the dysfunction within this front line, they still got the job done. They banged in a total of 294 goals in 408 games – at an extraordinary rate, putting themselves in truly elite territory.
2. Messi-Suarez-Neymar (Barcelona, 2014-17)
Barcelona’s famed MSN (Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar) has a legitimate claim to being the greatest attacking trio of all time. Aside from being three of the handful of best players in the world at the time, their respective styles also meshed perfectly as they created some magical football together.
Thanks to MSN’s 122 goals in all competitions, they won La Liga in 2014, their first year together. And they got even better in Year 2, with 131 goals leading to a coveted continental treble. They scored 111 more goals in their third and final year together to finish with 364 goals in 450 combined games, an absolutely absurd rate.
Messi has reunited with Neymar in Paris to form the MNM trio with Mbappe. But even if Mbappe – who has admitted he wanted to leave PSG for Real Madrid – decides to stay, they will struggle to match the once-in-a-lifetime magic that was MSN.
1. Bale-Benzema-Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, 2013-18)
While Barca’s MSN had arguably the greater peak, the statistics show that Real Madrid’s own star-studded attacking trio of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, and Cristiano Ronaldo – collectively known as the BBC – hold the title as the highest-scoring trio of the last decade.
Of course, the BBC scored more goals because they played together two seasons longer. But despite having a less impressive goal-to-game rate than MSN, the BBC’s total of 442 goals in 654 games is nevertheless astounding.
Thanks to their goals, Real Madrid made even more history as they won an unprecedented hat-trick of Champions League titles – four in total – as well as a La Liga title in 2016-17.
So while many will consider MSN as the GOAT, the BBC certainly deserve their share of respect for the many titles they won – and the many goals they scored along the way.
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