Centre forwards are becoming scarce tbh. Man City have bucked the trend with Haaland but the style can look a bit clumsy at times.
That is actually a fair point. Would we be better looking to play 2 slightly wider forwards with flexibility to roam rather than a CF? In most cases it comes down to getting the best out of the players that you have and adjusting tactics to suit. That said if we were offered Haaland I could probably cope
Regarding centre forwards being scarce, off the top of my head I have Watkins at villa Isak and wilson at the scum Nunes at Liverpool Solanki at Bournemouth Ings and Antonio at West ham Toney at Brentford Ferguson and welbeck at Brighton Nikita at Arsenal Haaland at Man City Hojlund at man utd Jiménez at fulham Hardly rare imo
There are obviously centre forwards out there, it's just that there are fewer people wanting to play that position seemingly. I've got no data to back that up but it's a trend that does seem to be evident throughout football. Last season I went to watch centre forwards for the non-league side I was at at the time- they wanted a No. 9 type player and the only realistic options were a young lad who wasn't quite ready and an older player who'd done the rounds of the top clubs in the league and was on his way down. All the others were too expensive. Several of the clubs in that league are playing wingers at CF. As they become a rarity the cost of a back to goal CF increases which is what makes it harder to get them.
I don't think we'll be signing any of them tbh. When Toney is rated at £100m I think they're becoming more rare.
Pep style football means total possession, even crossing is considered ceding possession, strikers live off scraps more than ever, having good finishing instinct and positional sense isn’t as common as we might think.
It was just my opinion that strikers aren't as rare as made out and I'm fully aware we won't be signing any of them
Good point. On city weirdly I think since haaland they haven’t been as easy on the eye as prior but he’s the definition of goals changing games, he’s give them a new dimension and the trophies are the proof.
He's a bit of old fashioned 9 but can only play that way. Others strikers, in the PL, seem to pay a little differently ... ... most seem to play deeper or slightly wide of centre.
I don’t think you can blame the other players. Not having a championship ready forward isn’t good enough tbh. It’s fine for 42000 fans to demand higher standards than that,
Yeah exactly. It’s like pep says don’t get involved just stay in the centre on the centre halves and wait in the box. Probably goes against what pep believes in but great managers adapt
I don't think that I am blaming the players. I am looking at the coaching staff, after all they are the ones telling the players what formation we are using and how to play it. We could also look to the recruitment team and the DoF who are involved in the decision on who we will sign. I agree that we are short of a decent forward, and that we have been for 3 transfer window's, all I'm saying is that perhaps we can't get the quality of forward that we all want. I'd much rather wait for a decent forward than put up with someone who can do a job. Danny Graham anyone? I do however concede that it has gone on too long now and that it should be addressed in the summer. Anyway, lets enjoy the game, hopefully
This is the first summer that we’re going to have big outgoings since ‘the model’ came in. Accepted we’ll lose Clarke but not sure we can afford to lose anyone else. Ballard and Neil the stand outs that I think will have big interest but think the squad is too weak to let one of them go with Clarke. £25m+ for Clarke and 4 championship ready signings and I think we will get back on track but there’s a lot of incomings we have to get right, it’s a tough job, head coach appointment obviously key too
As are most leagues probably as teams seem to want to play 433 or 4231 with higher wingers. They also have a focal point at cf, as the commentator said earlier in the scum game, haaland hadn't been a goal threat but he led the line, drew players to him to create space
It's bull. Strikers are there but you have to pay. Our way of working has convinced fans that strikers are not possible to buy. Look at Simms. Was a few million up front and add ons. Our skint ways of working turned their nose up and got 3 players instead of Simms. All ****e. Simms scoring and doing it against PL opposition. We had him here but went got the data (skint) model instead.
Simms isn't exactly prolific is he. Only being talked about because of his goals recently. 9 goals in 37 games one of which is a hat trick very recently so 6 goals in 36 games if you'd like. If he had 6 goals in 36 games for us we'd all be saying he's s***e and wasn't worth the 8 million + price tag.
Clarke has more than that and he's not even a striker. I recall our fans calling Simms worse than s***e anyways saying he didn't lead the line or put enough effort in. Also at the time people said he isn't worth 8 mill plus and I'd agree.
Mate it was a couple of million up front with add ons. Simms is better and has literally scored more than 4 of our strikers combined man.
