What makes a 'perfect' modern day striker?
Through out my life of watching football, many positions have fascinated me. However, the centre forward position has always given me endless thoughts - it lives rent free in my head. It’s arguably one of the most important positions on the pitch. Strikers are the primary focus of getting the goals (obviously dependant on a teams structure and system) for a team. I love seeing the pressure fall to a strikers feet as they go one-on-one with the goal keeper and need to bag the winner for their team. It’s beautiful.
Growing up I loved the way Fernando Torres could use his pace, drop a shoulder to beat a defender and slap the ball in the roof of the net. I loved the way Sergio Aguero was easily one of the best poachers in football history and always got a goal, no matter the circumstance. I loved the way Robert Lewandowski could get five goals in nine minutes and make it look like he does it for fun, effortless.
The striker role has produced so many legends in the game - but what makes the perfect striker in the modern day?
Elite level strikers and centre forwards are constantly moving and changing their movement. Movement and football IQ is so important and is one of the key traits you naturally need to have. You need to be able to blend movement with your own strengths (dependant on what type of player you are) and allow your team to create the best chances possible because of this. A teams system and style of play is obviously a big reason why you might be able to or not able to play to your own strengths.
Movement is important to cause trouble for defenders and being able to be smart and utilise the space that is avalaible. We see it so often, strikers making run in behind defenders and a midfielder or the teams playmaker slots the ball through the defence and find the space in behind. For example, in recent memory, Jamie Vardy is a good example of making runs in behind defenders and using his pace and space in behind to go through on goal. It’s such a simple move but can be very effective.
Movement in transitioning is important, but movement in the box is also very key. Being able to understand the 18 yard box and find little gaps to create play, use your body to hold up play or even just to get a shot - it’s a skill that must be natural to elite strikers. Alan Shearer is one exmaple of being an elite box striker. Playmakers would literally put the ball in the box and he’d be smart enough to take the ball into space and finish it almost every time. 260 Premier League goals speaks for itself. Striker intelligence, thinking outside the box to get a shot on goal. That’s what its all about.
Movement isn’t always about making a chance for yourself as a striker, it can be to create space and oppotunities for your team mates around you. Making runs to allow space for team mates around to create a chance is a very common piece of movement that gets underlooked by a lot of strikers. For example, Luis Suarez is very good at doing this and did this a lot in his time at Barcelona, especially when Lionel Messi had a opportunity. You can see below that he makes a darting run in the deep right side of the box, this then takes the defender with him and then opens up space for Messi to have an extra second or two to make something out of it. It’s a simple move but is very clever, especially when a player like Messi has the ball for an extra two or three seconds. In this scenario Messi did score.
The next trait that I see being key to being an elite level striker is finishing/ball striking. Scoring goals wins you matches. However, it isn’t as simple as that. Strikers have to have a world class ability to consistently score goals in different areas of the pitch and different scenarios of the game. Scoring goals is a very good way to psychologicaly lift momentum, so it can change a match even if it looks over.
Strikers should know their stengths when it comes to finishing, wether its that your only able to shoot efficiently with one foot, you are better in the air, long range or short range ect. Being good at all these things is a very goof trait to have, but being smart and clever with the way you use is what takes it to another level. The timing of shooting is so important in being able to score goals, being able to time the shot perfectly can be so beneficial to scoring.
Another trait is using your body language smartly - making defenders and the goal keeper gamble on where they think you are going to shoot and then doing the complete opposite. It’s a very clever way to open up space in front of goal and to finish the ball. In the example below, you see Jamie Vardy with the ball in front of goal, opening his body to the right but then slotting the ball in the bottom left corner.
Clinical finihsing is obviously the most key aspect to have as a striker. You have be able to have that natural finishing ability, which is being able to know where the goal is in any scenario and end it with the ball in the back of the net. Natural bagsmen. Robert Lewandowski is the perfect example of this in the modern day, Ruud Van Nistelrooy used to do this perfectly aswell. No matter the scenario, they always finish the opportunity.
Good footkwork and a world class tehcnical ability is a good trait to have as a striker. This is important to firslty, boost confidence when being ong th ball - a confident striker with nothing to lose is the most dangerous thing in the world. Knowing that if a defender gets tight, that you are able to beat him with ease, its dangerous. Keeping the ball as close to your feet as possible, protecting it with your life. Eden Hazard would create art work with the way he could demonstrate unreal foot work ability.
Being intelligent with your technical ability is aslo another thing, being able to be smart with the way you take a touch into space, it can change the whole aspect of an attack. I think the way you can pick the ball out of the air and still manage to score, its one of the most impressive things on the football pitch.
Overall, the striker role is a position with many traits that will help you become the best version of that position, endless amounts. There are many more deeper to ones I have analysed, but this was just a brief intro to it all.
Bagsmen are kings.
- J