Source: these football times Author: trevor Murray
Blackburn fans still miss the good old days. Once upon a time, they were the most generous buyers in the transfer market, targeting the Premier League title every season, with the team's striker twins knocking on the door of any team at will; today, they are a mid-tier team in the Championship and spent a season in League One last season. In short, they miss the days when they had Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton.
In the 1994-95 season, the Lancashire-based team relied on the strong firepower of Shearer and Sutton to beat Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool to win the only Premier League title in team history. The outside world began to call these two of the most prolific and efficient strikers in the early premier league "sas special forces" – sound familiar? Yes, the pair of Sturridge and Suarez can be regarded as their "replicas".
In the season that escorted Blackburn to the top, Shearer and Sutton teamed up to contribute 49 goals to the team, and Shearer won the Golden Boot with 34 goals. Sutton, who has contributed 15 goals in the league, has scored six goals in the cups he has played in (League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup) – three more than Shearer. Although these cup goals have gradually been forgotten by the outside world because of Blackburn's unspeakable cup record, Sutton's agility and bravery in front of the goal are worth remembering for a long time.
Of the 42 premier league rounds that year, only 12 had shearer and Sutton duds, which was enough to highlight their influence in Blackburn's attacking system. It is no exaggeration to say that in the mid-1990s, the pair of homegrown shooters with full firepower were not only the backbone of Blackburn, they even supported the entire Premier League that year.
Despite using the old-fashioned British 4-4-2 traditional formation, Blackburn's then-manager Kenny Daglish was a little careful. In that year's games, we often saw one of Blackburn's strikers retreating into midfield, desperately interfering with opponents and preventing them from comfortably passing through midfield. Tall forwards harass, pull and even shovel the core of the opposing small midfield with slightly clumsy movements, an alternative shot that is not uncommon in Blackburn's game. Sutton — who played as a centre-back during his time for Norwich — is a loyal executor of this tactic. He is a midfield destroyer when the team moves from attack to defence, and once he regains the ball, he will launch a quick counterattack with Shearer in the first place.
In the eyes of many people, Sutton can only be regarded as a person who "lives in the shadow of Shearer". The reason for this conclusion is simple: Sutton has scored a total of 83 Premier League goals in his career, which is far from Shearer, who scored 280 goals. In 1994-95, however, you couldn't have broken up the Sas Special Forces — because without Sutton, the Big Alain wouldn't have won the league gold medal. Although Shearer's "goal machine" has scored countless goals, in his 18-year career, the top league championship has actually won this time.
There were no optas at that time, which left a lot of game stats in the open. Even so, there are still several facts that cannot be questioned. First, "Sutton gave Shearer more assists" than "Shearer gave Sutton"; second, Shearer has the status of penalty shootout in the team, which will challenge the confidence and courage of players, but will also give Shearer the greatest advantage in the Golden Boot competition (11 penalties in a single season).
Therefore, the data can only play a role in auxiliary analysis. Specifically on the green field, the two who fight side by side can play a beautiful game and help Blackburn win, which is the most important thing. Luckily, in the first Premier League game the duo played together, Sutton assisted Shearer in a header that knocked on the ten-finger mark of Southampton's famous goalkeeper Bruce Grobella, and a few days later, in a 3-0 win over Leicester City, Shearer repaid the favor with an assist for Sutton. From the beginning of the season, the two sparked a tacit understanding and maintained this telepathy until the end of the league , the game against Liverpool at Anfield Stadium.
The two strikers both broke out, allowing Blackburn to make a stunning start with 6 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss in the first 10 league rounds, establishing a leading edge early. Sutton scored a total of nine league goals at this stage, and Shearer also scored seven goals. Although Blackburn fans were disappointed to find that the home team had "graduated" early in all three cups during the Christmas-New Year campaign, the stable league performance was enough to make up for the lack of feelings (after 20 rounds, Blackburn's league record was 14 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses).
In fact, in the past three seasons, Blackburn has been part of the Premier League and League One (England's top flight before the 1992-93 season) to compete for the title. Shearer, who transferred from Southampton in the first year of the Premier League, also completely conquered Ewood Park through two seasons of heroic performances. But it was only in the summer of 1994, when Sutton's record £5 million transfer was officially finalized, that Blackburn truly had the hard power to compete for the league title.
In that classic team, there are no shortage of other good members. For example, Tim Flores, a brave and agile goalkeeper at the peak of his career, Tim Sherwood, an infectious captain who always gives the team the right guidance in the most timely and authoritative words on the pitch; Colin Hendry is the anchor of the back line; and Stuart Ripley often uses his speed advantage to make a big fuss on the flanks. And the duo, Shearer and Sutton, who helped the team seal the victory at the most critical moments, have always been the two most admired stars.
Stylistically, the difference between Shearer and Sutton isn't really that big, but we can still use some subtle details to differentiate them. Sutton is involved in "trivial work" relatively often in the game, so he will make more frequent tackles and sprints; Shearer, although not a traditional pile-up center, is still more willing to focus most on the box.
Both have super air combat capabilities, after all, in the era when long passes were still being promoted, the ability to compete for the header was always the most important. In the game, they tend to jump higher than the opposing goalkeeper, stay in the air, waiting for the opportunity to shake their heads and attack the goal...
They are also fast, freed from defenders when necessary, and at the same time, they rationally choose the timing and location of their sprints – often around the penalty area. Both were physically strong — stronger than they looked, strong enough to cope with the entanglement of a variety of different types of (cunning, strong, fast) defensive players.
Shearer scored a total of three hat-tricks in the championship season, while Sutton had just one. "I don't care about that." In an interview with reporter Graham Hunter a few years ago, Sutton confessed, "But when I played with Alain [Shearer] in Blackburn and with Henrik (Larson) in Celtic, I could feel their desire to be the top scorer." They just want to be the top scorer. But the things that bother them don't bother me. ”
The moment you lift the trophy at Anfield is the final pinnacle of the duo. Sutton and Shearer had greater expectations of Sutton and Shearer before the start of the 1995-96 season, but Sutton suddenly suffered a double blow of injury and condition (decline) - only 13 league appearances and 0 goals! Although Shearer scored another 31 goals in the league, he was overwhelmed and moved to leave the team at the end of the season.
All in all, Blackburn, who had never had the experience of defending his title before, made all sorts of mistakes that season. With the "SAS Special Forces" in name only, Blackburn's ranking has also dropped from No. 1 last season to No. 6, and has since been in a slump in the top flight.
It turned out that the "golden age" of the Shearer and Sutton pairs was only a short year away – when Sutton returned to the pitch, Shearer had already moved to Newcastle. But even so, this "good old time of the past" is still worth recalling in some moments.