The two striker trouble...

[FanchesterCity]

I've been thinking about this for a while and he's my train of thought.

Aguero is wonderful - world class etc etc. But we've come to rely upon him so heavily. In my opinion too heavily.
A lot of our play is based around him, but we know there's a reasonable chance that we'll lose him due to injury at some point in any given season.

So that's why we have a backup right? - whether it be Bony, Iheanacho or someone else. However, if that striker is a permanent backup, they're either going to want to move on for more game time, or they're going to be a relatively unambitious striker happy to take a pay cheque.

That leads to the conclusions that we either keep relying on Aguero, and accept we have a relatively mediocre backup, OR we have someone else of an extremely high calibre alongside him (working on the assumption that no world class striker will sit on the bench waiting for an Aguero injury).

That then leads me to believe there's no real option other than to play with two strikers. I think this is what Pellegrini wanted, but Bony simply hasn't worked out.

If we accept the premise that we should probably have two strikers, then something has to give in the positions behind the strikers... i.e. there's probably only room enough for two AM's... that's two from KdB, Silva, Sterling, Navas, Nasri.

So my questions to you all are these:

- Is two strikers the better way to go?
- If yes, then which two from KdB, Silva, Sterling, Navas, Nasri are going to be getting most of the game time?
- if no, then how do we overcome our reliance on Aguero?

 

[bluestevei]

I think navas will go, other 4 to rotate but I can see kdb getting more playing time and it depends on whos coming in, but we do need another top forward to come in, get rid of bony and have 3 forwards. I'm sure at this time nancho will be ok on bench at the start of game and come on in 2nd half

 

[Zubrman]

Two up front worked very well until Negredo's injury.

 

[BlueMoonz1977]

for me the reason Pellergrini keeps picking Bony over for Kelechi is probably to hope that Bony will at some point come good. Does this mean that Bony was Pellers choice to buy - could be, hence the total backing of him by the manager

As we can see Kelechi offers more of a threat with his movement but gets overlooked all the time. Kelechi will hopefully get a chance to properly prove himself when Pep arrives and gets actual game time, he deserves that much at the very least

 

[ws01]

The solution in modern day football has to come from the 3 behind him, especially the two on the wings. Rare that teams play two up top.

Now if we have Silva in the middle, we know he doesn't score that many players. But he's a world class playmaker and creator, so thus we make an exception and won't going to get rid of him. So that leaves the two on the flanks.

De Bruyne can get 15-20 goals out of in a season no trouble IMO. He's a fantastic finisher and additionally a fantastic creator.

That leaves Sterling/Navas - and herein lies the problem. These two don't have enough goals in them currently. Sterling I have hope for, if he continues to work he may get there. Navas we know rarely scores and won't improve on that at this stage in this career. For the minutes he plays, we can't afford at that. He can only be a bit part backup from next season onwards if we want to be serious.

Therefore as a near 50 million pound player, there's a lot of pressure on Sterling to realise his fee/paycheck to come up with those 15+ goals every season, because without it we'll struggle to get enough goals to seriously challenge for trophies.

 

[FanchesterCity]

My worry is that we are very Aguero centric (although thankfully De Bruyne's taken some of that pressure off). We're asking a lot of Aguero, and it's asking too much to expect him to play every single game. What we have in reserve doesn't appear to be of a high enough calibre. Kelechi might develop, but as things stand, we don't have a second striker of the quality that the top teams in Europe have.

If we were to get another top quaiity striker, they woudn't sit on the bench, so it would effectively force our hand to play with two strikers. This was the situation when we had Negredo and Dzeko, we had to play any two of the three strikers just to keep them happy (but it was effective too). At least that way. if one is injured we can revert to one up front.

I think we need to find a way to stop relying on, and expecting too much of Aguero, and that (imo) needs to be another world class finisher alongside him. KdB's presence is helping, but he can't do it alone. Obviously that then means losing someone else.

Totally agree with ws01, the crux of the problem is the 'natural' players to lose would be one of KdB / Nasri / Silva - just to keep two wide players (Navas and Sterling). However, it's the two wide players who currently offer the least.

 

[pee dubya]

Someone like Dybala or Griezmann, who can be a striker or play as part of a 3. We have one in Kelechi actually, could use one more.

 

[supercity88]

There are very few "out and out" strikers playing in a 4-4-2 these days. Lewandowski, Aguero, Ibra, Suarez, Benzema, Kane are probably the top 6. They all play with two wide players either side of them and support from an attacking midfielder. It works. Bayern have Muller, who is able to play anywhere and still make an impact. They have Robben/Ribery and now the likes of Coman adding goals from wide positions. Atletico Madrid use Torres centrally and Griezemann wide though he can operate through the middle. Barca have Suarez with Neymar and Messi wide. PSG use Cavani wide with Ibra central.

The main difference for us is that Aguero isn't a target man. The rest generally are. Suarez is probably the exception but Barca don't really play to a target man, and Suarez is still there to mop up anything in the box in any case. I'm not saying Aguero isn't good at being the focal point, but I think our team needs to keep improving in terms of creativity and goals from midfield. Silva doesn't score enough, but De Bruyne has added a lot. Nasri can score but likes to bring the ball central and our balance is all out. Sterling can keep on improving but we are a bit lop-sided.

I hope Silva can overcome his injuries and different games require different personnel but you'd imagine Pep would want to see Sterling wide one side, De Bruyne behind Aguero and then another pacey, attacking threat the other side.

 

[without a dream]

The solution is someone who's as comfortable in the AM role as they are up front, hopefully that will be Iheanacho and he'll get plenty of game time next year.

 

[The slaughtered lamb]

I would say 2 strikers is usually not the best way to go, especially in Europe. Signing players like de Bruyne and Sterling is a recognition of this. Nacho should be given his chance and De Bruyne/Sterling could cover for Aguero in an emergency. The days of signing strikers who aren't realistically competing with Kun should be over.

I don't think it's going to necessarily be 4-5-1 or 4-4-2. On occasion, we'll more than likely see things like 3 centre backs and wing backs (Navas?). Maybe another way around this problem is not to have an out and out striker at all, a false nine? In that situation there is no shortage of opportunities. We may even have to sign another midfielder for rotation and reliance on Kun is no longer an issue.

What's most disappointing at the moment is that even when Kun is available, we aren't able to get the balance right between, what you called on the another thread, flair and grit. We stifle ourselves in attack by allowing the oppo defence to organise and leave ourselves short handed when hit on the break.