Friday, July 23, 2010

The Role of The Striker

Eduardo Da Silva signed for Shakhtar Donetsk two days ago from Arsenal. He was the only striker at the club in the mould of a 'box player'. A player who specializes in finishing any oppurtunities that might present themselves in and around the penalty area. Arsene Wenger went on record as saying he wasn't in the market for another forward. This has made me wonder about the role of the striker in the present game.

If you look at the biggest teams in world football, their strikers perform several roles for them, sometimes not even including scoring the bulk of the goals. The perfect example would be Van Persie. He plays what some gunners called a 'false nine'. He would drop off the front into midfield and help the likes of Song and Fabregas in controlling possession. While we all know that Van Persie could easily score over 20 goals in a season, Wenger doesn't see this as his primary role. In fact I remember at the start of last season, when Van Persie had yet to get into his stride, the boss said it wasn't a concern because he was making goals.

Torres, while he scores nearly all Liverpool's goals, performs other roles as well. They play counter-attacking football and he's crucial to them in this. When opposition attacks break down he will run the flanks and provide an outlet for his team-mates. When Liverpool don't have the ball he will chase down and force defenders into kicking the ball long. Tevez also does this at Manchester City. That sort of work is what's expected of strikers nowadays.

In the present game, midfield is seen as the crucial area of the pitch to control, and the style of forwards in the modern game is reflective of this. They work backlines and supplement midfielders or simply run around, closing down the opposition. One thing that's for certain though, is that a striker can't simply be on the end of attacking moves, they have to be in the middle of them too.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Goodbye Eduardo and The Daily Mail Wind-Up

So Eduardo has left us for pastures anew and I suppose you can't help but wonder what might of been if he hadn't suffered the trauma, mentally as well as physically, of that tackle from Martin Taylor.

Before I move on to what it means for the squad I must mention the The Daily Mail's cruel and not very classy take on the transfer. Sure you can say his time at Arsenal was ill-fated but, in my opinion, to call Eduardo a flop is inaccurate and to compare him to the likes of Baptista (who was just plain lazy) is a disgrace.

Anyway, where does the Arsenal frontline go from here? I had hoped, that this could open a door for Jay Simpson to return to the squad because he is a goal-poacher. He's not necessarily in the Eduardo mould but he certainly knows where the goal is. But unfortunately if he was in Wenger's plans he would have been on the plane to Austria since Eduardo's transfer had been sanctioned by then.

With Eduardo gone, we have striking options consisting of RVP, Chamakh, Bendtner, Vela, JET, Walcott (maybe) and Arshavin (emergency). Looking at those you have to ask yourself: 'unless RVP stays fit, who's going to get us 25+ goals this season?'

Chamakh is unknown and its unfair to expect anymore than maybe 15 goals in the season from him. A tally most of us would be satisfied with. Bendtner certainly has the confidence and did target a high tally last year but injury ended that ambition. He has the potential but consistency might be a problem. Vela seems to play his best on the international stage but I still expect big things from him and I think we have the right to expect him to deliver because the fact is Vela has had an easy ride at Arsenal so far .But whether his potential will be fulfilled as a striker or a winger remains to be seen.

Potential tallies and individual prospects aside, the one thing about the frontline that bothers me is the lack of a 'fox in the box', a player in the mould of Kevin Philips or Filippo Inzaghi. But maybe I'm old fashioned in my youth! I think I'll discuss the role of the striker tomorrow maybe. But who do you think will supply the goals this season?

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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Biggest Game of The PRE-Season... So Far

Okay so tonight the team will continue it's preparation for Anfield and the rest of the season, playing SK Sturm Graz. The opposition at this particular time is irrelevant really so as long as the Austrians play fair we should see some more goals from our side.

A 27-man squad travelled to Austria and of that six have just returned for pre-season and I don't think they'll get a lot of game time. There are, of course, another five in the squad that will find this game, and the following one next Tuesday, crucial to their chances of making the squad for the Liverpool game. Frimpong, Lansbury, JET, Henderson and Nordtveit all need to perform well if their to have any chance, this season, of being involved in Premier League action. I'm sure they'll all make it into the Carling Cup squad but, injuries and new signings permitting, only 2-3 will make it to proper first-team action. If, hypothetically, the boss made no new signings this close season then the three that were chosen would be for positions that cover is thin for in the squad. So if we went by this hypothesis then you would feel that Nordtveit and Frimpong would get in as cover for the centre-backs and Song respectively. However, the third player who would get in, if there is one, is unclear. So how would you pick one of them?

Well, going by positions each can play they're all pretty much even. All of them are comfortable across midfield. Although JET has been known to play up front too, that position is arguably the most competitive in the squad. They are all very accomplished on the ball as well so you can't separate them here either.

The only way you would separate the young men is by footballing experience. JET and Lansbury are ahead of Henderson in that department having went out on loan spells to championship sides last season. At the moment I'm thinking Lansbury, but not by much.

So do you agree or am I completely wrong with my assessment? Let me know your opinion.


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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The New Season: Can Football redeem itself?

As the new season approaches, all fans look forward, with increasing anticipation, to their team's first kick-off. But this season has a little bit more importance than most seasons. Why? Well simply because of what happened at the World Cup and last season in general.

The World Cup, in simple terms, was awful. The top players were awful, the refereeing was awful and out of the 32 teams that qualified only three (Spain, Argentina and Germany) went out to attack and pass the ball with purpose.

Last season as a whole in the EPL was sub-standard too. Chelsea won it on experience and efficiency in front of goal. Arsenal most of the time faced walls of defenders when playing. And that was the major concern: how most teams looked to defend deep with ten men and rely on set-pieces or mistakes to score.

So, after what happened last year, football, in my opinion, is facing a crisis. Your typical team nowadays is a negative one that uses dirty or rough-house tactics. I think this is mainly because of the pressure put on managers. They know that its win at all costs or face the sack. Their inhibited by a fear of losing and afraid of being extravagant. So incidents like what happened to Ramsey and Eduardo are seen as collateral damage in their eyes.

So I've asked the question can football redeem itself? Can it renounce the cynicism that it has been afflicted by? Or will matches like the World Cup Final become the norm, where players foul, dive and wave imaginary yellow cards in an attempt to gain the edge in the match?

To be honest I don't think it can this season. I see free-flowing, attacking teams like Arsenal in the minority, fighting against the anti-footballing sides of managers like Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis.

If football is to become 'the purist's game' again then quite simply an entertaining team has to win the league and the lesser lights of the 'Wengerball' way in the league like West Brom and maybe Blackpool need to stay up.

So what does everyone else think?
Do you agree or do you have a different view? I'd love to hear from either way.

N.B. I won't be this negative when talking about Arsenal but I will try to be realistic.