Football is constantly evolving, but it feels like one position has been through more iterations than the rest.
On the latest episode of ‘The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast’, Michael Bailey, Michael Cox, Mark Carey and Liam Tharme discussed the evolution of every role on the pitch. In this section, they focused on the striker, how it has changed over the last five years and what demands the top teams expect from those leading the line.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the ‘The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast’ feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Michael Bailey: Let’s talk about strikers. If you’re Liverpool or West Ham, you don’t even need one anymore to win, some might say. But the No 9… where are we at with how that position has evolved in the last five years, Mark?
Mark Carey: It sounds counterintuitive, but I wanted to start by how much focus there is on the out-of-possession element. It just feels like you cannot carry a striker if they’re not willing to put in the hard work and make sure they’re closing down either the No 6 or one of the centre-backs.
I’d heard this quote from (Juventus manager) Thiago Motta. He said, “I count the goalkeeper as one of the seven players in the middle of the pitch.” But he then said, “For me, the striker is the first defender and the goalkeeper is the first attacker. The goalkeeper starts the play with his feet and the attackers are the first to put pressure to recover the ball.”
That’s not an outrageous thing for a modern-day manager to say. But it speaks to the fact that we’re thinking about a striker and the attacking output, and that’s key. But without the defensive output, I don’t think strikers would be considered as much now at the elite level.
Michael Cox: Maybe the most interesting thing I’ve seen in football in the last couple of years was in the Women’s World Cup final in 2023 in Sydney. England were 1-0 down to Spain at half-time and Sarina Wiegman made a double change where she took off Alessia Russo, who was the centre forward, and she took off Rachel Daly who was playing on the left but had finished as top goal scorer in the WSL.
She then brought on two wingers, but they were 1-0 down and needed a goal. I remember in the press conference afterwards asking her: “Not being funny, but why on earth did you do that? You need a goal (laughs)?” And she said: “Spain had so much of the ball and we weren’t getting any of the ball, so there’s no point in having players who are good in the box.”
So she played three wingers in an attempt to press high up and win the ball back. England lost 1-0 and she didn’t bring on another centre forward until the 87th minute. I just thought that was incredible. I would never have thought any manager would do that when they were trying to get a goal. Taking off your two best goalscorers because all the focus was on pressing, I thought that was fascinating.
Liam Tharme: There’s a prime example also with Ange Postecoglou when Tottenham — or Tottenham Hotspur as they wish to be called…
Michael Bailey: No, we can still call them Tottenham…
Liam: When they signed Dominic Solanke. His goal record at Bournemouth was really good and he’s scored goals this season. But Postecoglou has made a really big deal about what he does out of possession. Spurs are a great example because they are probably the most intense team without the ball in the league in terms of the physical numbers, the regains of possession and various other data points. And Postecoglou is someone that speaks very openly about that sort of thing.
Michael Bailey: It’s quite an interesting comparison that we’ve got with the top two No 9s in the league in Erling Haaland and Alexander Isak. One feels a more modern version of the role than the other. That seems a harsh thing to say on someone like Haaland with where he is and everything he’s proved to be. Essentially, the three other positions we’ve spoken about before this: if you’ve got good players there, you can afford a No 9 to be less involved in the build-up because you’re covered off elsewhere.
Liam: With the caveat of Manchester City having quite a poor season and looking at them when they’ve been stronger in recent years, with Haaland at the top of the pitch there’s no benefit to him going to drop in and play. Because that’s going to start him running into space where the No 10s or the wingers are. We spoke about how good Phil Foden was last season; that was partly because he had a striker that would occupy centre-backs.
Isak can also do that really well, but Newcastle are a very different team in the way they attack. They can be a bit more vertical, they use the wide areas more, they like to cross quite a lot and they’ve got flying full-backs on the overlap. We were speaking about Josko Gvardiol earlier on down the left (for City), but Lewis Hall is one of the top players for (overlapping) with (Anthony) Gordon coming in from the left as well. I think it’s just the profile that suits the team rather than any specific trends either way.
Michael Cox: I don’t think that much has changed from 2020 in terms of reality because there’s no evidence that the big teams in the Premier League get better with a proper No 9. Good spells tend to come when they play a slightly ‘falser’ player up front and have lots of others contributing. I know Haaland has won the league twice and finished top goalscorer twice, but I don’t think City were necessarily better than the previous season before he came.
When you look at the numbers, the season before he came they scored more goals, got more points and conceded fewer goals. I’m not saying he’s been bad — individually he’s been magnificent. But they’re roughly on the same level. He’s the best goalscorer out there and even he’s not definitively made them better.
Arsenal were not great when they had Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as their main striker. Manchester United were not great when Cristiano Ronaldo came back, even though he scored lots of goals. Romelu Lukaku didn’t work out for Chelsea. Tottenham lost Harry Kane and were OK last year. Solanke has come in and he’s done quite well, but they’re a worse team. And with Liverpool, Darwin Nunez tends to make them worse. They’re better when they play a bit more of an all-rounder up there. So I’m still quite sceptical of the value of a good No 9.
The big teams need it in their armoury; a bit like Nunez at Brentford when he scored two in stoppage time, that’s the perfect role, a plan B to come off the bench. But as a default strategy, I’m not sure you want someone like that.
You can listen to full episodes of The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
(Top Photo: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
