In football, centre forwards have always been considered the biggest box-office draws. They are idolised far more than players in other positions. As the old maxim goes, "goals win you games" - and it's the forwards' job to get you goals. There's an inherent glamour that comes attached with scoring goals, and fans have always loved a proper centre forward who can bang in goals for their team.
However, over the last few years the role of a centre forward has evolved drastically. In fact, goal-scoring poachers like Gerd Mueller, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Filippo Inzaghi are endangered species now. These were players who could contribute practically nothing for 89 minutes, but had the critical ability to score a goal with one chance they got. The biggest casualty of the evolution of football has been the classic poacher.
There's more emphasis on tactical thinking now, with astute managers like Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho emphasising fluid and intricate football in which attacking players interchanging their positions. A player isn't considered good enough if he performs just one specialised role; and perhaps that's why, after the poacher, the conventional number nines are also hard to find these days.
Top clubs across European football leagues are in desperate need of quality strikers. Manchester United have sold Robin Van Persie and Radamel Falcao. Arsenal's only recognised centre forward is Olivier Giroud, whereas Bayern Munich only have one player in their ranks who qualifies as a traditional centre forward, Robert Lewandowski. There seems to be a severe shortage of strikers in the world of football.
A big reason for this scarcity is how modern-day football has evolved. If you look at the great teams of the 1990s, they had one thing in common: they played with two strikers up front. Arrigo Sacchi's Milan had Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit. Johan Cruyff's "Dream Team" at Barcelona had Romario and the brilliant Hristo Stoichkov, whereas Sir Alex Ferguson's treble winners had Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke firing in the goals.
Teams nowadays are content to play with a single striker who is supported by attacking midfielders or wingers. Look at Barcelona's attacking trio, "MSN" - Messi, Suarez, Neymar - and none of them is a conventional forward. Real Madrid play with Cristiano Ronaldo leading their line - and, while a goal scorer par excellence, the Portuguese isn't a striker in the conventional sense.
Guardiola, Barcelona and then subsequently the Spanish national team have been instrumental in this tactical shift in modern-day football. The "false nine" is a system that Guardiola deployed successfully - and then subsequently Spain won the Euro 2012 by playing a 4-6-0 formation. In this formation, a team plays without a specialist striker and plays with a "false nine" whose role is to link up with the midfielders, drop back and make intelligent runs. Lionel Messi is the quintessential "false nine", who creates havoc for opposition defences without being a conventional striker.
What having a "false nine", or rather no nine has led to is the reinvention of the wingers. Wingers typically were expected to get chalk on their boots - run to the byline and whip crosses into the box for the centre forward. Not anymore though. Take the case of Arjen Robben, for instance. The Dutch wing wizard plays on the left but his role is that of a support forward who cuts inside, plays passes on the ground and not in the air. Alexis Sanchez does this wonderfully for Arsenal and is seen more of a goal threat than the traditional centre forward, Giroud. Eden Hazard does the same for Chelsea and was the best player in the team that romped to the Premier League title in 2014-15.
More and more teams adopt a lone striker system in the majority of their matches. Chelsea with Diego Costa supported by Hazard; Manchester City with Sergio Aguero flanked by David Silva; Bayern Munich have Lewandowski assisted by Franck Ribery and Robben; Manchester United will line up with Wayne Rooney in the centre supported by Memphis Depay and Juan Mata. It's not as if these teams can't play the two-striker system but given the emphasis on possession, having two strikers often leads your midfield exposed, especially if you've traditional wingers.
Conventional strikers are almost a thing of the past now with teams looking for an offensive player who is a hybrid of a midfielder, striker and winger. Such players are hard to find - and it's no surprise that the search for top-class strikers is proving to be so elusive. In the market for a top-class striker, Manchester United were ready to pay £70 million for Bayern's Thomas Mueller. And where does Mueller play or what is his position? Striker? Not really. Winger? Again, no. He is anything but what a conventional centre forward or a striker used to be.
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