Meijer

Of course, the best thing is the best of both worlds. A striker or two that scores and a midfield that create goals and scores as well. At the moment we have none due to the lack of support the lone striker gets from midfield. I went to Anfield for the Chelsea game and one thing struck me. When we attack at the flanks, why cant Garcia/Riise and the rest just cross the ball into the box at first touch? Why do they always stop the movement, hit a backpass to Finnan / Traore so they can cross it high and slow? This halt in the attack allows the opposition to get their players back in defense.

Agree. A 20+ a season goal scorer is not a guarantee for success. Newcastle finished 5th in 2003 / 2004 with Shearer scoring 22 goals........the rest of the team scored 30. In the same season RvN scored 20 out of 64 and Man Utd finished 3rd, Hasselbaink scored 12 out of 67 and Chelsea finished 2nd.

Much is said about the strikers we lost (Owen, Baros) and the strikers we didnt get (Kuyt & Co) and even more about our current strikers (Moro, Crouch, Cisse) who struggle to find the net. But is really a 20 goals a season striker needed? I think more is needed than a new Rush or Hunt in modern football. You need a whole team that can create goals and its dangerous to rely on strikers only. Strikers have a more difficult task today than 20 years ago. The opponents are stronger, fitter and not to forget much better organised. If you take a look at the list of top goalscorers last season only two teams had a striker scoring more than 20 goals in the league. Henry scored 25 and Johnson 21. However, 11 of Johnson's goals cam from the spot. Liverpools top goalscorer was Baros with 9. Liverpool as a team scored 44 compared to Arsenal's 72 and Chelsea's 58. No Chelsea player scored more than 13 goals. If you remove the goals scored by Henry, the rest of Arsenal scored 47. Arsenal had 7 players scoring 5 goals or more: Thierry Henry, 25 Robert Pires, 14 Fredrik Ljungberg, 10 Jose Antonio Reyes, 9 Dennis Bergkamp, 8 Patrick Vieira, 6 Robin van Persie, 5 Chelsea had 8 players scoring 4 or more: Frank Lampard, 13 Eidur Gudjohnsen, 12 Didier Drogba, 10 Joe Cole, 8 Arjen Robben, 7 Damien Duff, 6 Mateja Kezman, 4 Tiago, 4 And Liverpool........5 players scoring 4 or more: Milan Baros, 9 Luis Garcia, 8 Steven Gerrard, 7 John Arne Riise, 6 Djibril Cissé, 4 So a 20 goals a season striker is not enough. We need the midfield to contribute as well. Especially as long as the formation is 4-5-1. A lone striker is a easy pray for a well organised defence. Feeding Crouch with long passes from the defense for him to head / flick on is useless unless the midfield creates runs around and behind him to split up the opponents defense and create goalscoring opportunities of their own. So Rafa, when January arrives......Splash the cash on wingers (and a central defender). Not only will they create goals on their own, but they will drag attention away from our striker(s) and give them more room to score more goals.

Of course I do :)

btw, I did not post it on the norwegian web forum in the first place. I just found it there. YNWA

Hi all, As a newbie to the TLW forums I just wanted to inform you about a new CD coming out...."We Hate The Bloody Mancs". I read about it at a Norwegian webforum and thought it was good news for you as well. Some Swedish blokes are behind this I think. http://www.sonofsven.com/ :party: