By Bob Pearce.

Luis Suarez, 2013-14 model. This season he has shown himself to be both a great scorer of goals and a scorer of great goals. I wouldn’t be the first to suggest that Suarez could have his own private ‘Goal of the Season’ competition, such has been the sheer quality and downright audacity of his finishing. With the rate that he keeps adding new masterpieces to his season’s collection it will be a struggle to whittle them down to a short list of ten.

But maybe I’m going to be in a minority in arguing that his first goal at Stoke had such unique qualities that I believe it should seriously be considered for ‘Goal of the Season’ above all others in his collection (so far). Clearly it cannot be for the standard reasons that goals seem to get selected. It was not scored after a flowing passing move of breath-taking intricacy and co-ordination. It was not the result of individual skill of devastating and devilish trickery. It was not even a scintillating and spectacular ‘too-hot-to-handle’ missile of a shot from distance.

This was a goal scored through rarely seen, probably rarely witnessed, and definitely rarely recognised skills and abilities that have nothing to do with actually even having possession of the ball. For this reason of rarity value it has enormous educational value to football fans of all ages, and should be shown again and again until the proverbial video tape wears out.

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