Owen, Fowler, Heskey and Litmanen

[Dave D]

Four good/great strikers all in the same squad. At the same time I seem to remember Utd having Yorke, Cole, Solskjaer and Sherringham.

 

When did football suddenly change and decide you need only one injury prone world class forward eg: Drogba, Torres, Rooney, Van Persie. When either of those players is out their team struggle with the alternatives they have.

 

The only two teams I can think of that still subscribe to the "four decent forwards" way of thinking are Spurs and City and it still seems to work for them.

[Joe Le Taxi]

When teams decided to go 1 up front.

[dennis tooth]

Blame Mourinho.

[Steve Holt]

One up front is a pish tactic and I'm sick of seeing it. Not just from us, but in general. Lets clog the midfield with as many bodies as possible. I hate it. I want two up front with one joining them from the midfield.

 

Torres - A Quality Striker

Gerrard

 

Why we have persisted with one up top is beyond me. Its boring as hell most of the time.

[fowler9]

when it started costing 40million for a decent striker

[isr]

Four good/great strikers all in the same squad. At the same time I seem to remember Utd having Yorke, Cole, Solskjaer and Sherringham.

 

When did football suddenly change and decide you need only one injury prone world class forward eg: Drogba, Torres, Rooney, Van Persie. When either of those players is out their team struggle with the alternatives they have.

 

The only two teams I can think of that still subscribe to the "four decent forwards" way of thinking are Spurs and City and it still seems to work for them.

 

Take the teams that won the League for the last 6 years.

 

How many front-line strikers did they have?

 

What were they doing wrong?

[Mathewbet1]

Spurs have 4 decent strikers

[James Dean]

Blame Canada.

[llego]

One up front is a pish tactic and I'm sick of seeing it. Not just from us, but in general. Lets clog the midfield with as many bodies as possible. I hate it. I want two up front with one joining them from the midfield.

 

Torres - A Quality Striker

Gerrard

 

Why we have persisted with one up top is beyond me. Its boring as hell most of the time.

 

Read some of these articles: Zonal Marking | Football tactics, formations, diagrams, chalkboards and graphs

 

Or Jonathan Wilson at the guardian.

[Ted]

Heskey? Get. To. Fucking. Fuck.

[King Emlyn]

Heskey? Get. To. Fucking. Fuck.

Not a fan then Ted? He He

[TheBitch]

Litmanen was one of the best footballers to never play for Liverpool.

 

Every single week I used to turn up hoping beyond hope that Jari was starting only to be confronted by Heskeys name on the team sheet. Fuck me it was painful. Class footballer Litmanen.

[Guest PurpleNose]

Barcelona often play one upfront.

 

They're quite good.

 

Almost all teams play four at the back now, and many just one upfront. So you're arranging the other five. Formations can be important, but movement and mentality are more so.

 

We could play four upfront. Yet still have a back four, and two holding midfielders. It would encourage us to play even worse football.

 

Having five in midfield isn't negative per se. Having two out and out holding midfielders, two wide men who spend more time tracking back than going forward, and can't beat a man even when they do, and a number 10 who doesn't look arsed, is why we're shite.

[Ted]

Barca only really play one up front when Ibrahimovic plays. Otherwise it'd be interchangeable (sp) types like Messi, Pedro, Bojan or Iniesta.

[Delmar]

For us it's pretty simple. With the system we play, we need solid central defenders who can pass well and full backs who provide the width, with the two DMs covering them. We have one of the four in the back at the moment (Johnson), and a second when he is played as a CB (Agger).

 

The number of "strikers" is irrelevant as long as the wide midfielders keep cutting in all the time (which they do), that's when the full backs are needed also in the attack.

 

And yes, misuse of Litmanen was probably the difference between Houllier being a massive success and his eventual fate. We'd need someone like him right now, as well.

[Liam]

For us it's pretty simple. With the system we play, we need solid central defenders who can pass well and full backs who provide the width, with the two DMs covering them. We have one of the four in the back at the moment (Johnson), and a second when he is played as a CB (Agger).

 

The number of "strikers" is irrelevant as long as the wide midfielders keep cutting in all the time (which they do), that's when the full backs are needed also in the attack.

 

And yes, misuse of Litmanen was probably the difference between Houllier being a massive success and his eventual fate. We'd need someone like him right now, as well.

 

Agreed. I think if we could find a Litmanen / Bergkamp style player now we would be a totally different proposition. I dont know whether that player exists at the moment though and with our scouts we will never discover him!

[Guest PurpleNose]

Barca only really play one up front when Ibrahimovic plays. Otherwise it'd be interchangeable (sp) types like Messi, Pedro, Bojan or Iniesta.

 

Three of the four players you've mentioned have played upfront on their own at various times this season.

 

The difference is the types of players all over the pitch, how high up the pitch, and well, they press, and the fact they're able to pass the ball to each other in the opposition's half.

[Ted]

Three of the four players you've mentioned have played upfront on their own at various times this season.

 

The difference is the types of players all over the pitch, how high up the pitch, and well, they press, and the fact they're able to pass the ball to each other in the opposition's half.

 

They're interchangeable, like I said.

 

And their player's can pass the ball to each other from five yards away, never mind in the opponent's half.

[Guest PurpleNose]

They're interchangeable, like I said.

 

And their player's can pass the ball to each other from five yards away, never mind in the opponent's half.

 

They're interchangeable, but only one of them is playing as a striker at any one time. Its the movement that almost renders their formation as irrelevant, which was kind of my original point.

 

I'd settle for our team managing to pass the ball to each other in the opposition's half before anything fancy like very short passing, one touch stuff etc

 

A central three of Mascherano, Lucas and Gerrard is never going to produce beautiful football.

[lostinspace1970]

when it started costing 40million for a decent striker

 

and the wages on top of that

[1892-LFCWasBorn]

Heskey scored some superb and important goals in the treble season.

 

At least he was decent for one season. Been shite since.

 

[YOUTUBE]BAphZQti85c[/YOUTUBE]

[Ted]

Blip.

[Antynwa]

Heskey, Owen and Anelka certainly had potential towards the arse end of the 2001/2002 season.

[Medazza]

Jari was a crock when we bought him, and he lacked strength