Pick your “then” from any time pre-2015, and compare the number and quality of strikers playing, with those of today.
Much has been made of this topic on here already, and maybe this doesn’t need another thread, but I still find it fascinating and slightly perplexing. Yes, forwards are more versatile now, and inside forwards are all the rage; but I’d venture the vast majority of the players I have listed below, would be just as valuable and effective today, as they were in their day….which makes the dearth of truly good strikers, all the stranger.
I picked a random year, and briefly researched the top strikers playing at the time. Some were towards the end of their careers, some in their prime, and some were youngsters with only a season or two under their belt. There are probably loads more, but this was a very analogue data gathering from me, mainly involving thinking of names and googling to see if they were playing then.
1998: Ronaldo, Suker, Balbo, Batistuta, Shearer, Bergkamp, Yorke, Cole, Solksjaer, Sheringham, Kluivert, Vieri, Salas, Bebeto, Romario, Raúl, Claudio López, Shevchenko, Van Nistelrooy, Weah, Jardel, Hasselbaink, Anelka, Crespo, Chiesa, Inzaghi, Owen, Rebrov, Larsson, Morientes, Delvecchio, Henry, Trezeguet, Fonseca, Del Piero, Bierhoff, Asprilla, Montella, Anderson, Mijatovic, Fowler, Vialli, Ferdinand, Dely-Valdés, Milosevic, Wiltord, Ravanelli, Yeboah, etc etc.
I’ve left loads out, and a handful could easily be reclassified as inside forwards now, such as Lopez, Wiltord, even Henry. Some are more 10s than 9s, such as Bergkamp, Raul, and Del Piero; but in modern systems I am fairly sure would play as the central striker due to their ability to do all aspects of the game.
Even if you take all those names out, you are still left with a ridiculous amount of center forwards who play at a very high, or the highest, level. Today you would struggle to come up with more than 4 or 5 names as top strikers.
Do we think this trend is here to stay? Or do you think we’ll see the rebirth of the number 9? It affects squad building enormously. United in 98-99 were able to have four top quality strikers in their squad. Today, any of those 4 would cost 70 million or more. Peak Andy Cole is a 100-150m pound player today. Yet nowadays, due to the dearth of strikers, it’s virtually economically impossible to have even two top strikers in your squad, because that means benching a 50-75m+ player, week in, week out.
The theory behind this all was that managers preferred players who could do more than “just score goals”. Looking at the list I posted above, most of those strikers could all do more than that. The only real poacher on the list is Inzaghi…..and now we’ve seen the emergence of Haaland, and to a lesser extent Hojlund, playing exactly like the strikers of yesteryear……..soooooo…..,.are the glory days of center forwards going to come back?
Much has been made of this topic on here already, and maybe this doesn’t need another thread, but I still find it fascinating and slightly perplexing. Yes, forwards are more versatile now, and inside forwards are all the rage; but I’d venture the vast majority of the players I have listed below, would be just as valuable and effective today, as they were in their day….which makes the dearth of truly good strikers, all the stranger.
I picked a random year, and briefly researched the top strikers playing at the time. Some were towards the end of their careers, some in their prime, and some were youngsters with only a season or two under their belt. There are probably loads more, but this was a very analogue data gathering from me, mainly involving thinking of names and googling to see if they were playing then.
1998: Ronaldo, Suker, Balbo, Batistuta, Shearer, Bergkamp, Yorke, Cole, Solksjaer, Sheringham, Kluivert, Vieri, Salas, Bebeto, Romario, Raúl, Claudio López, Shevchenko, Van Nistelrooy, Weah, Jardel, Hasselbaink, Anelka, Crespo, Chiesa, Inzaghi, Owen, Rebrov, Larsson, Morientes, Delvecchio, Henry, Trezeguet, Fonseca, Del Piero, Bierhoff, Asprilla, Montella, Anderson, Mijatovic, Fowler, Vialli, Ferdinand, Dely-Valdés, Milosevic, Wiltord, Ravanelli, Yeboah, etc etc.
I’ve left loads out, and a handful could easily be reclassified as inside forwards now, such as Lopez, Wiltord, even Henry. Some are more 10s than 9s, such as Bergkamp, Raul, and Del Piero; but in modern systems I am fairly sure would play as the central striker due to their ability to do all aspects of the game.
Even if you take all those names out, you are still left with a ridiculous amount of center forwards who play at a very high, or the highest, level. Today you would struggle to come up with more than 4 or 5 names as top strikers.
Do we think this trend is here to stay? Or do you think we’ll see the rebirth of the number 9? It affects squad building enormously. United in 98-99 were able to have four top quality strikers in their squad. Today, any of those 4 would cost 70 million or more. Peak Andy Cole is a 100-150m pound player today. Yet nowadays, due to the dearth of strikers, it’s virtually economically impossible to have even two top strikers in your squad, because that means benching a 50-75m+ player, week in, week out.
The theory behind this all was that managers preferred players who could do more than “just score goals”. Looking at the list I posted above, most of those strikers could all do more than that. The only real poacher on the list is Inzaghi…..and now we’ve seen the emergence of Haaland, and to a lesser extent Hojlund, playing exactly like the strikers of yesteryear……..soooooo…..,.are the glory days of center forwards going to come back?