[Football] 'Big' Central strikers

[LamieRobertson]

The Goldstone was a dump, but it was our dump. The best games, the ones with all the atmosphere, were evening matches played in front of a full house. Saturday games tended to be, well, a lot less exciting in comparison. All seen through non-rose tinted glasses.

Many great memories from The Goldstone no matter what day or time of the week

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I think it works at a certain level, lower half premier league and down, but at the very highest level it takes a special all round player, like Lewandowski, Kane or Haaland, or even Jimenez and Bamford, and there are very few of those. City play without a proper striker, so do Liverpool. Chelsea do better without Lukaku. Arsenal don't do it, we don't do it, Man Utd play Ronaldo up front, Ings is a bit part at Villa, West Ham and Saints are similar, Kane drops deep, Palace don't get much out of their bigger strikers, that's basically the top 13 in English football

Kane is such an elegant player. My scouse mate hates him (but he would). He reminds me a bit of how Zamora was when we were in tier 4, with an extra yard all around him, as if he charmed it up by magic, that opponents just couldn't seem to breach.

And of course Kane's powers evaporate when the manager sticks him up from to play the big lump role.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Vlahovic is 6’3 and Haaland 6’5. There’s definitely still a market for these guys.

Yes but they are not 'big lump' players. Vlahovic has great mobility:

https://youtu.be/QenznVdQ3b8

We all know about Haarland. Immense skills. These blokes just happen to be tall. Peter Crouch is another (albeut poor man's) example. He could barely head a ball at all despite being eight foot twelfty

We are talking about the Keefer Moore, Adebayo Akinfenwa, types.....Supermac, their natural home these days is not EPL.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

the difference between theses guys and guy at burnley is that they are extremly mobile and great with there feet unlike the big guys of the past

That’s more to do with the overall evolution of the game isn’t it? When you see the pace and skill of full backs these days it’s staggering, the ability on the ball of the modern day centre half is worlds away from the kick and head defenders of yesteryear.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Yes but they are not 'big lump' players. Vlahovic has great mobility:

https://youtu.be/QenznVdQ3b8

We all know about Haarland. Immense skills. These blokes just happen to be tall. Peter Crouch is another (albeut poor man's) example. He could barely head a ball at all despite being eight foot twelfty

We are talking about the Keefer Moore, Adebayo Akinfenwa, types.....Supermac, their natural home these days is not EPL.

Forgive me, I’d not seen anyone mention ‘big lumps’, I thought it was just bigger forwards that were being spoken about.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Forgive me, I’d not seen anyone mention ‘big lumps’, I thought it was just bigger forwards that were being spoken about.

In my initial post I was talking about players whose main strength was their size, physicality and ability in the air. I believe that all attacking players now need to be incredibly fit, fast and have absolutely superb ball skills/control. If someone with those skills happens to be tall and good in the air, then you have a very special player, but the second set of skills I have highlighted are now more important for a top attacking player. Although strangely, it seems the first set of attributes are still generally needed for top class defenders

I think this has changed significantly in the last 10 years.

 

[Beanstalk]

I think we could get significantly more out of Lukaku that Chelsea do. Maybe they can lend him to us FOC for a couple of months, just to get him match sharp.

Though isn't part of Chelsea's problem that they play Lukaku as a "big striker" (read target man) rather than a skilful finisher who just happens to be quite big and strong. I think you're absolutely right in that we could get significantly more out of Lukaku than Chelsea but maybe that is fuel to the OP's point.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Forgive me, I’d not seen anyone mention ‘big lumps’, I thought it was just bigger forwards that were being spoken about.

Sorry, my misunderstanding. I got the impression the OP was going old school 'bustling centre forward', a style as much as a physique, hence his Alex Dawson reference. Dawson was only five foot ten!

(edit: ooh ooh!)

 

[zefarelly]

When I think of 'big' I think taller than a victorian . . . Stronger than an MP and capable of using his head in both ways.

Of course you can have a big head without any of the other attributes, or even be strong and carry the pygmy gene, we seem to excel in that department.

GP is clearly preparing in advance for the day heading gets banned as I think most of us only had B&W eyes last time we had a striker who could score headers, or even get his head anywhere near it.

Nout wrong with players of any size, its all in the balance . . . Burn/Lamptey.

 

[WATFORD zero]

When I think of 'big' I think taller than a victorian . . . Stronger than an MP and capable of using his head in both ways.

Of course you can have a big head without any of the other attributes, or even be strong and carry the pygmy gene, we seem to excel in that department.

GP is clearly preparing in advance for the day heading gets banned as I think most of us only had B&W eyes last time we had a striker who could score headers, or even get his head anywhere near it.

Nout wrong with players of any size, its all in the balance . . . Burn/Lamptey.

I think I've been having a few glasses of whatever you've had. Makes perfect sense to me

 

[HastingsSeagull]

It’s still an advantage over an identical player who’s shorter but adds less in isolation than it used to. Some clubs/styles it would still have a big impact but with the prevalence of inverted wingers/forwards we’re seeing less crosses plus a higher % of low crosses (although could partly be a result not a cause that one).

That said I actually think this year’s Brighton could use a prime Glenn Murray much more than during any of our previous PL seasons! Both wing backs have been playing consistently and crossing the ball more than I remember us doing since the age of Bruno and Bong, or even compared to then. He’d thrive alongside Maupay, elevate the Frenchman’s game plus either could play alone too to mix things up.