The Return of the Old Fashioned Centre Forward
It wasn’t so long ago that the good old fashioned centre forward was all out of fashion. Spain was winning the World Cup and a couple Euros without one, Barcelona was winning everything at club level without one. But never fear because the 2018 World Cup has shown that the centre forward is making a comeback.
Barcelona didn’t need a striker because they had Lionel Messi. Dudes like Samuel Eto’o and David Villa got squeezed out wide or squeezed out of the squad altogether so that Messi could have as much influence as possible (fair enough). Messi’s too much of an influencer to stick to the last man, dropping deep to collect the ball, but he’s so damn good that it doesn’t matter. At least not with Barca, we’ll get to the Argies later on. The Catalans incorporated Luis Suarez and Neymar after that, then replacing Neymar with Ousmane Dembele, but Messi is still the focal point.
Spain were a little different because that team played with the same high-energy pressing and ultra-indulgent possession ideals as Barca but had to do it without Lionel Messi. In many ways he was the missing link for that extraordinary Spanish team. Brilliant though they were, they only scored eight goals in seven games on the way to winning the 2010 World Cup. Strikers Fernando Torres and David Villa struggled to play to their potentials in that style of footy. But they were world champs so all goods.
Those two sides were tactically revolutionary. One in the club scene and one in the international scene, sharing more than a couple players between them. Funky thing is that since then Spain haven’t won a single knockout game across two World Cup tournaments. 2014 they got whupped, that was a weird one. But 2018 they didn’t actually lose a game. Three draws and a win and an exit on penalties. A couple more goals and they’d still be in this sucker.
It was the game against Russia that stood out the most, Spain had 79% of possession across 120 minutes of football and completed more than a thousand passes yet could only score once and it was a fluke of an own goal. They knocked the ball around with technical excellence but lacked urgency, lacked a purpose in possession. Russia sat back and defended with men behind the ball and if that ball’s going sideways then that ain’t so tricky to do. It was tame. It was uninspired. It was sad to watch.
A couple of things have happened in footy since Barca/Spain set the benchmark. One is that a variety of copycats tried to mimic their particular style and the other is that an even greater number of rivals devised ways to shut it down. Russia’s defensive tactics have not been rare at this tournament. They never are at World Cups but 2018’s seen teams get smarter with it. Sweden and Switzerland made the knockouts by defending in numbers and doing just enough up top to succeed. Iran came close by playing that way. Uruguay’s defence is excellent. Japan and Korea played great on the counter attack. Iceland at the last Euros… hell, even Portugal at the last Euros. Frankly you’re not gonna have much success at a major tourney these days if you cannot break these sorts down.
And how do you do that? Not by copying Spain, that’s for sure. Frustrating thing for them is that they did have a couple top notch strikers to work with. Diego Costa and Isco has great tournaments. But Spain didn’t know how to bring them into the game when it mattered (other than Isco missing the decisive penalty in the shootout). This was like an endless jazz improvisation without a drummer to keep time. They needed that focal point, they needed an anchor.
Even Germany, a team usually as consistent as it gets, found themselves dominating games without winning them. In Timo Werner they had a proper decent young forward to build around but he wasn’t really the forward for that team. A little too inexperienced and not enough of a presence. He didn’t have a shot on target in three combined games. Germany left in the group stages.
Argentina were crap too. Just as Spain never had their Messi, Lionel Messi’s never had his Barcelona lads with him on international duty. There’s a disconnect between him and this Argentina team. Take the silkiest, most subtle genius of his generation and chuck him in a team full of passionate battlers… that’s not gonna work. Messi played striker for the Argies and got marked out of the game. Iceland were superb at that. So what Messi did against France was go searching for the ball and you could see him, the centre forward, standing at all the way back at right back trying to get his foot on it. And you know what? He set up Sergio Aguero with a gorgeous deep cross in injury time to drag it back to 4-3. Maybe if he’d had a forward like Aguero playing every game with Messi able to work off him then things would have been different… although not really because that defence was utter pants.
Ah but which teams are still hanging around heading into the quarters? A bunch of teams with goal-scoring forwards who have enabled them to bust through those stacked defences is who. Unless you wanna win four straight penalty shootouts then you’re going nowhere without scoring goals. Look at Edinson Cavani against Portugal, scored twice in a 2-1 win playing the goddamn game of his life. Kylian Mbappe used the Argentina game to add two to his tally as well while also announcing himself as a global superstar at the same time.
Brazil are a little different with a more fluid attacking line but they all still make those runs in behind, stretching the defence. Manipulating the players and not just the ball. Even Sweden and Croatia, with Ola Toivonen, Marcus Berg and Mario Mandzukic, are getting the same purpose out of their strikers albeit without the goals flowing for them.
But the main shout out goes to two centre forwards who right now are the favourites for the golden boot. Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku. Kane doesn’t have the skill or ability of the very best players out there but you can run a team through him. His finishing is pretty excellent and he’s a tireless worker. Not the fastest, not the strongest, not the most creative… but as dependable as it gets and he’s proven that at this World Cup with the penalties he’s scored. Four times up, three in games and one in a shootout, and four 10/10 perfect spotties. You cannot underestimate how important that is to a team.
Or Romelu Lukaku. Just check out the goal, that amazing goal, that Belgium scored to beat Japan. Deep into injury time having come back from 2-0 down already and starting with the ball in their goalkeepers hands. Courtois’ instincts in not settling for extra time were huge, Kevin De Bruyne’s run and pass out to the wing for Thomas Meunier and then his ball in for Nacer Chadli were even more massive.
But take a peek at how Romelu Lukaku managed the move. First with the run inside, dragging his defender with him to create room for Meunier, and then dummying for Chadli knowing that he was tightly marked while Chadli was open for a sitter. He didn’t even touch the ball and yet his prints were all over that goal. That’s just top shelf striking. Selfless and self-aware at the same time. Lukaku actually is one of the fastest and strongest forwards out there. He has a gravitational pull for defenders. And he used that to ruthless effect in those moments.
Granted, Robert Lewandowski will tell you that a world class striker is hardly the answer to every problem. England’s best players against Colombia were arguably Jordan Pickford and Harry Maguire. Brazil are favoured to win this whole thing not because of Neymar but because of a remarkably good defence and defensive midfield (one goal conceded in four games). However it ain’t mere coincidence that the teams that know how to use their strikers – and the teams that have them – are the ones that are still hanging around.
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