Having a Top Striker

[cyril C]

Was having this conversation with my old man on Sunday, he was on about when we had Yorke, Cole, Sherringham and Ole. That's when it occured to me that we got all 4 for less that £30 mil.
How much would ole go for these days? A guy that lethal around the box would be at least £70 mil.
Then you get onto to stone cold finishers like ruud.

Many of these 4 are not traditional #9, although Sheringham qualified as point man but he is not as prolific, so would be more like Firmino. In fact, in today's market, there are not many #9 who can be as functional as Firmino, score as many goals as Kane, fast and slick.

Benzema, Aguero and Lewandoski tick all box but in past tense. Even Kane would be on the wrong age group. Haaland and Neymar are about the only one who tick all box but I tend to think Neymar is a false 9. Mbappe is a false 9, and nobody want to talk about Lukaku.

There are no less than 4 top clubs in Europe looking for a prolific #9, replacing the names mentioned above.

Haaland will not be available for anything less than 100m, simply because the fat bastard wants 30m for himself (or his client), while Dortmund would like to get 60-70m for themselves.

 

[archiebald]

Many of these 4 are not traditional #9, although Sheringham qualified as point man but he is not as prolific, so would be more like Firmino. In fact, in today's market, there are not many #9 who can be as functional as Firmino, score as many goals as Kane, fast and slick.

Benzema, Aguero and Lewandoski tick all box but in past tense. Even Kane would be on the wrong age group. Haaland and Neymar are about the only one who tick all box but I tend to think Neymar is a false 9. Mbappe is a false 9, and nobody want to talk about Lukaku.

There are no less than 4 top clubs in Europe looking for a prolific #9, replacing the names mentioned above.

Haaland will not be available for anything less than 100m, simply because the fat bastard wants 30m for himself (or his client), while Dortmund would like to get 60-70m for themselves.

Assuming Madrid, City, Bayern, Barca, Juve and us all come in with 120m bids and offer roughly the same wages, where do you think he ends up?

World-class talent but it's extremely unlikely we get him due to all these clubs needing a CF replacement rather urgently. Bad timing for us, we need to source alternatives asap or end up with a poorly-scouted plan B once it becomes clear that we're out of the running for him.

 

[TheRedHearted]

How the world’s biggest football club hasn’t had a proper CF for years is beyond criminal.
The problem with Rashford and Martial is that they are not natural goalscorers, they are scorers of good goals.

Neither of them would have scored either of Cavani’s goals...so you’re talking about 0pts instead of 3

Yea but Cavani wouldn’t score many of the goals Rashford or Martial scored last season either, talking about the insane pace beating men with quick one twos as well.

Also Cavani is looking great coming on at the half or later atm.
Us playing one of them with Cavani and Bruno underneath them is our best bet.
We have no consistent attacking fullbacks or wide players so 3-4-3 with Bruno he bottom of that front three could be our best bet at the moment. Midfield consisting of McTominay, Fred, VDB, Pogba would be pretty interesting. Back three of Taunzebe, Maguire, Wan Bissaka.
Or we could revert to a 4-3-3 with the top three being the same and midfield of Fred, VDB, Pogba.

 

[Isotope]

Feels great doesn't it.

Turning a half decent chance into a goal. And Cavani is more than just a goalscorer.

 

[Borys]

It's refreshing to have one proper striker in the team. Second one I'd say is Greenwood, who has good instincts and movement for a forward.
Martial is 3rd, probably because he's been used as wide forward, and he doesn't work enough for me to get into dangerous positions. Rashford is 4th on current form, way off his normal service IMO.

 

[Lentwood]

Yea but Cavani wouldn’t score many of the goals Rashford or Martial scored last season either, talking about the insane pace beating men with quick one twos as well.

Martial and Rashford would score similar numbers playing as 'inside' forwards, especially with Cavani's clever movement disrupting CBs.

We would then have the option of using Greenwood as an impact sub initially, although I believe he is already a better player than Rashford so would probably be looking at starting him regularly in the inside right position

 

[cyril C]

Assuming Madrid, City, Bayern, Barca, Juve and us all come in with 120m bids and offer roughly the same wages, where do you think he ends up?

World-class talent but it's extremely unlikely we get him due to all these clubs needing a CF replacement rather urgently. Bad timing for us, we need to source alternatives asap or end up with a poorly-scouted plan B once it becomes clear that we're out of the running for him.

Spain then City. We are probably the last choice, despite Ole's special relationship. Beside, some clubs are infamous on under-table payment , which we will never get involved.

 

[Smores]

This thread would have got a very different reaction in the summer where it was a faux pas to suggest Martial wasn't our No 9. Remember when Scholes dared suggest this

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Having a top striker does make a difference, but I'm not sure Cavani is still a top striker and on the other hand Martial can also make a huge difference, as we saw last season. But it's about having players who offer different things. Cavani's movement is arguably better than any striker of his generation so when he replaces someone who lacks in that department, it adds so much to our play. On the other hand, there's been many games where Martial's ability to drop deep and contribute to the buildup, link up, and beat defenders using his technical quality, has made all the difference.

Ideally, Martial would have those tools but for now (and there's no guarantee he'll add it at this stage), it's good to have players giving us options.