I think 2 reasons for this imo:
1) Lack of goal scoring wingers, easier to rely on 2 goal scorers than 3
Examples:
City: Jesus-Aguero
Tottenham: Alli-Kane
Real Madrid: Ronaldo-Benzema
Bayern: Muller-Lewandowski
Atletico: Griezmann-(Whoever they pick, hard to pinpoint)
Juventus: Dybala-Higuain
I think the idea as to why makes sense, with fullbacks providing the width of many teams you can see the obvious benefit of crossing to 2 strikers than 1. It's also possible that if a team discovers they have a great goal scoring winger then they just move him to play as a striker.
Some teams still play with goal scoring wingers, but I think they will become less common as all 3 have to be reliable goal scorers, one can argue that Barcelona's Suarez-Messi is a sort of partnership, they are the main 2 goal scorers.
These are the 3 biggest teams I see use 3 pure forwards as a counter example of course.
PSG: Neymar-Cavani-Mbappe
Liverpool: Mane-Firmino-Salah
Napoli: Insigne-Mertens-Callejon
2) Some attacking midfielders benefit from a more prominent role than they would have in a 4-3-3, the main examples I see of this are:
Real: Isco, unused mostly in the 4-3-3, has seen alot of game time in the 4-3-1-2/4-1-3-2 (that City have been using somewhat).
Tottenham: Eriksen, able to play in Tottenham's 4-2-3-1 or 3-4-3, he is given more attacking freedom and like Kevin, tasked with unlocking the defense with a cross or through ball, he can do this more often than if they played 4-3-3 where he would be deeper naturally as Kevin would be.
I'm mostly just surprised how many top teams have shifted away from 3 forwards to score the goals, and shifted towards 2 forwards. Maybe it's always been like this and I am noticing nothing new, curious on people's thoughts about this.
1) Lack of goal scoring wingers, easier to rely on 2 goal scorers than 3
Examples:
City: Jesus-Aguero
Tottenham: Alli-Kane
Real Madrid: Ronaldo-Benzema
Bayern: Muller-Lewandowski
Atletico: Griezmann-(Whoever they pick, hard to pinpoint)
Juventus: Dybala-Higuain
I think the idea as to why makes sense, with fullbacks providing the width of many teams you can see the obvious benefit of crossing to 2 strikers than 1. It's also possible that if a team discovers they have a great goal scoring winger then they just move him to play as a striker.
Some teams still play with goal scoring wingers, but I think they will become less common as all 3 have to be reliable goal scorers, one can argue that Barcelona's Suarez-Messi is a sort of partnership, they are the main 2 goal scorers.
These are the 3 biggest teams I see use 3 pure forwards as a counter example of course.
PSG: Neymar-Cavani-Mbappe
Liverpool: Mane-Firmino-Salah
Napoli: Insigne-Mertens-Callejon
2) Some attacking midfielders benefit from a more prominent role than they would have in a 4-3-3, the main examples I see of this are:
Real: Isco, unused mostly in the 4-3-3, has seen alot of game time in the 4-3-1-2/4-1-3-2 (that City have been using somewhat).
Tottenham: Eriksen, able to play in Tottenham's 4-2-3-1 or 3-4-3, he is given more attacking freedom and like Kevin, tasked with unlocking the defense with a cross or through ball, he can do this more often than if they played 4-3-3 where he would be deeper naturally as Kevin would be.
I'm mostly just surprised how many top teams have shifted away from 3 forwards to score the goals, and shifted towards 2 forwards. Maybe it's always been like this and I am noticing nothing new, curious on people's thoughts about this.