Shane Long’s strike rate compared with Sweden’s, Belgium’s and Italy’s finest is very sobering

And there we thought we were onto a winner too.

Shane Long's form for club and country is really bloody exciting and you can't get away from that. The Southampton attacker scored three and assisted four in his side's last seven games of the Premier League season as he led the line during an unprecedented run of seven wins from their final eight games. Ever since he wrote his name into Irish legend when he hit the net in Dublin against the Germans back in October, he's been carrying himself with a certain swagger on the international stage and he's been thrilling the crowd. But even in his best goal-scoring season to date, the Tipperary man just amassed 10 league goals and, when they're stacked up against the rest of the strikers in Ireland's group, it's probably not what you would've expected to see. Or hoped to see. Ireland's forwards Robbie Keane has only played six games of this MLS campaign so his stats from last season were taken into account as well. The Republic skipper aside, Long's strike rate is the best in the camp and he's been doing that consistently in the Premier League. It should also be noted that for just 18 of his 28 games was Shane Long deployed as the striker - the rest of the time he was in an attacking midfield or wider role. He banged in seven from 18 as the central striker. Sweden's forwards (Ireland v Sweden, June 13) No prizes for guessing who the most efficient goalscorer from Sweden is. John Guidetti has been their least prolific but he's also been playing in La Liga whilst Marcus Berg has been banging them in for fun in Greece with Panathanaikos - five of which came in one game in April against Panthraigikos. Belgium's forwards (Ireland v Belgium, June 18) Whilst Romelu Lukaku is their star man up front and has been racking up the goals yet again, Christian Benteke actually has a better strike rate per minute than him in the Premier League. Italy's forwards (Ireland v Italy, June 22) Italy have actually named seven official forwards but their main attacking threat boasts Roma's lightning fast El Shaaraway, Napoli's tricky Lorenzo Insigne and Southampton's Graziano Pelle whose strike rate is just better than club mate Shane Long's. Top club scorers in Group E Shane Long ranks as the ninth highest scorer in the group coming into the tournament but, hitting the net every 211 minutes, he's right down the list when it comes to his strike rate. In fact, three Ireland players are in the bottom four. Minutes per goal for Group E's strikers Still though... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceG7EUOjDGg