The Fish 8981 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Reading the transfer thread, Tom raised the point that Crouch's best tally was with Southampton and it was only 12 goals and it got me thinking. There are a few examples of "successful" striker who've never really been prolific. Rooney, Heskey, Sherringham, Bergkamp, off the top of my head. Bellamy and Crouch both bring something unique to the team, but neither score goals at any great rate. Does this make them a worse proposition to potential managers? We played some of our best football when Bellamy was tormenting their back line. His endeavour and pace scared the opposition witless for 90 minutes, but it would have all been for nought without Shearer and the others knocking the goals in. Conversely Shearer without Bellamy would have had to scrap for chances a lot more, our rather lightweight midfield (I'm thinking Jenas and Dyer) would have been permanently under pressure etc etc. Crouch's size and technical ability do make him a pain in the neck for most defences, even if he doesn't score the goal he does cause them problems. I'm asking, do you need two goal scoring forwards? Would there be value in signing a midfielder who's not got an impressive strike rate from there and shoe-horning him into the striker position? Is there value is taking a monstrous centre half and having him play the battering ram role all season? You could take this further, have zero goal scoring forwards but instead, rely upon a midfield who's been given more freedom thanks to the heavy weight forward line ahead of them? I might be a touch bored... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Castell 0 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Ask Shola Ameobi or Emile Heskey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 8981 Posted July 15, 2009 Author Share Posted July 15, 2009 Thing is, Heskey does a job. He holds the ball well, can pick a pass, is strong and wins a lot of free-kicks. He keeps getting picked for England on the back of this. Shola isn't a footballer, so I'm not sure why you brought him up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TicTacWoe 0 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 The thing is though, 12 goals in a season isnt bad, very few strikers ever score 20 goals in a season and most that do never replicate that for again. I regularly hear fans of all clubs banging on about getting in a "20 (or even 30) goal a season man" as if they grow on trees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 13830 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 I think the goals scored (his best being 10 & 12) juxtaposed to the price tag is the important thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddockLad 14574 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 France won the world cup with Stephane Gui'varch up front on his own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 13830 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Yes but surely the goals were coming from midfield like Chelsea's Premier League winning teams? France 98, Henry 3 goals, Petite, Thuram and Zidane all got 2... All 3 of the goals in the final came from midfield too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 5899 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 To be fair Bergkamp scored nearly 250 goals in 650 games, and Rooney is 1 in 3 too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hostile_statue 0 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 But is Bergkamp really a striker? Isn't he more of a forward? Personally I wouldn't call him a striker. A striker, in my book, is a player whose job is to score goals. Shearer. Batistuta. Inzaghi. Owen. Attackers like Bergkamp and del Piero have other qualities and should not be described as strikers. Sure, they're great goal scorers but their main objective has not been to score goals, Bergkamp usually had Ian Wright, Anelka or Henry by his side who had the striker role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 5899 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 But is Bergkamp really a striker? Isn't he more of a forward? Personally I wouldn't call him a striker. A striker, in my book, is a player whose job is to score goals. Shearer. Batistuta. Inzaghi. Owen. Attackers like Bergkamp and del Piero have other qualities and should not be described as strikers. Sure, they're great goal scorers but their main objective has not been to score goals, Bergkamp usually had Ian Wright, Anelka or Henry by his side who had the striker role. Did you read the title? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hostile_statue 0 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 But is Bergkamp really a striker? Isn't he more of a forward? Personally I wouldn't call him a striker. A striker, in my book, is a player whose job is to score goals. Shearer. Batistuta. Inzaghi. Owen. Attackers like Bergkamp and del Piero have other qualities and should not be described as strikers. Sure, they're great goal scorers but their main objective has not been to score goals, Bergkamp usually had Ian Wright, Anelka or Henry by his side who had the striker role. Did you read the title? Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toon1941 0 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 I think the last part of the first post is interesting,in regard to "shoehorning"someone into a strikers position. Living in Brisbane,I only get to see televised games,but I have thought for some time that Steven Taylor has all the attributes to be a very good striker. He seems to have good awareness around the penalty area and makes good runs when attacking. To me,he seemed better than any of our other strikers,not to say thats a great reccomendation in itself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 13830 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 It maybe that nobody is watching him as he is a defender. Saying that he has scored a good couple of headers (Everton away, West Brom away, Boro) but that is an attribute many centre backs posses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The messenger 0 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 It's a difference between strikers who take penalties and don't as well. Both Carew and Gabby ended at 11 or 12 league goals IIRC. If you added Barry's pens you would probably be looking at an additional 5-6. So a striker who doesn't take pens could easily end up at 18 goals if he took them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentAxeman 82 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 I think the last part of the first post is interesting,in regard to "shoehorning"someone into a strikers position. Living in Brisbane,I only get to see televised games,but I have thought for some time that Steven Taylor has all the attributes to be a very good striker. He seems to have good awareness around the penalty area and makes good runs when attacking. To me,he seemed better than any of our other strikers,not to say thats a great reccomendation in itself! didnt he start out as a striker?? seem to remember reading that somewhere?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 70 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 I think the last part of the first post is interesting,in regard to "shoehorning"someone into a strikers position. Living in Brisbane,I only get to see televised games,but I have thought for some time that Steven Taylor has all the attributes to be a very good striker. He seems to have good awareness around the penalty area and makes good runs when attacking. To me,he seemed better than any of our other strikers,not to say thats a great reccomendation in itself! didnt he start out as a striker?? seem to remember reading that somewhere?? Yeah, play him anywhere but CD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnthebrief 0 Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Ask Shola Ameobi or Emile Heskey. Or indeed Alan Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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