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| van Nistelrooy playing for United |
On the 14th
of May 2012, Ruud van Nistelrooy announced his retirement from football. If I
can be honest it made me a little sad. Partly because as a Man United fan, I
idolised him for years as a child. It was around the age where you don’t really
appreciate other members of a team apart from the guy who grabs the goals, and
this guy grabbed until there was nothing left. He truly terrorised defences
across the Premier League and it was truly a shock if United won and he wasn’t
on the score sheet. One of my personal favourite moments was a match against Fulham
where he completed his hat-trick by picking up the ball in his own half before
gliding past 5 or 6 players before finishing in typically ruthless style. But I
digress. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t a van Nistelrooy love in, there is a
point to all this. The other reason his retirement made me sad was because I
started to realise that there are very few strikers like him left in the modern
game.
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| Jesus Christ he got fat... |
Don’t get me
wrong, I’m not saying that they’re completely gone. The ones who remain are
very good at what they do. In Germany for example the likes of Mario Gomez and
Klaas Jan Huntelaar still fly the flag for poachers everywhere, with both
strikers ending the season on 41 and 48 goals respectively last season. In
Italy, Edinson Cavani continues to invite interest from Europe’s elite with his
goal scoring exploits, and ended last season with 33 goals. Javier Hernandez had
great success in his inaugural season in England and although injuries limited
his opportunities last season, he still ended in double figures. Great poachers
have gone or are on their way. Aside from van Nistelrooy, Fillipo Inzaghi made
his name as a goal machine in Italy. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was part of one of
the most successful periods in Man United history, while Robbie Fowler was becoming
a Liverpool legend. The unfortunately dubbed ‘Fat Ronaldo’ was one of if not
the most lethal striker in the world during his leaner days.
And now
today, you have the likes of Michael Owen currently playing for Stoke, Kevin
Phillips is currently coming towards the
end of his career and playing in the championship, and Raul, possibly one of
the greatest poachers of all time is looking to secure himself a nice
retirement kitty as he recently completed a move to the far east. Darren Bent
and Jermaine Defoe are also strikers which would fit into the poacher category.
All these players share the same traits. The ability to score any type of goal,
flirt with the offside rule, find space in between the two centre halves, and
predatory instincts within the box. Poachers are notoriously clinical
finishers.
It truly is upsetting to start to see a lack of poachers in
the modern game. The right place right time strikers were always ones that made
the crowd go wild, and the ones you always wanted to score. It’s even more
upsetting because they still have a lot to offer if used in the right way. They
will always score goals and contribute to the team. Young poachers face a
difficult task in making it in the modern game. If they had emerged 10 years
ago perhaps, then it might have been a different story.
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