Second striker - the dying breed in modern football

Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole of Manchester United

We’ve all heard about the art of tackling dying out in football. We’ve seen the sweeper being “killed out”, with teams switching to the concept of a defensive/holding midfielders instead. Apart from the two mentioned above, there’s another position that is slowly dying out. I’m talking about the second striker – once an integral part of a team but now finds itself in the shade.

Rewind the clock, go back in time, and you’ll find yourself in another age. An age in which teams opted to play two tops, i.e two players up front. But, “Hold on”, I hear you say, “What about as recent as a decade ago?” It is true, even as far back as a decade ago, we witnessed one of the best partnerships in football viz. Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp; the legendary Arsenal front-pairing that left the world in awe, and a host of Premier League and European defenders in tears.

Along the same time, a much less glamorous pairing, but effective nonetheless, were Eiður Guðjohnsen (Often Anglicised as Eidur Gudjohnsen) and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, a Chelsea fan-favourite. Rewind a bit more, and you find yourself looking at Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke for Manchester United, and later Blackburn Rovers. Scorers of that majestic goal against Barcelona in the group stage match in the Camp Nou. A goal that was the pinnacle of the understanding that existed between the front two.

Football archives are littered with famous partnerships; Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham, for England; Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane for Tottenham; Robbie Fowler and Stan Collymore for Liverpool. Each partnership is fondly reminisced by their respective clubs’ fans. Names that evoke strong emotions and the recipients of songs and chants from the supporters at the grounds.

Then there are the legendary ones; the names forever etched into the annals of time by the sheer magnificence of their exploits. And the ones that stand out stark in memory are, of course, Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas for Real Madrid, Ivan Zamorano and Marcelo Salas for Chile, Eusebio and Jose Augusto Torres for Portugal, Pele and Jairzinho for Brazil, Ronaldo and Rivaldo for Brazil, Hugo Sanchez and Emilio Butragueno again for Madrid. Each of them have left an indelible mark on football.

Then, there are some special partnership, ones that reawaken the romantic in you with the stories they paint. When legendary Liverpool manager Bob Paisley paired up the aging Kenny Dalglish and the young and vital Ian Rush, many eyebrows were raised. Many felt that Dalglish had his best years behind him, and would prove an ineffective and cumbersome partner for the pacy and lethal Rush. But, what happened was the polar opposite; Dalglish played as a withdrawn striker behind Rush and their link-up play was exceptional. Using his guile and experience, Dalglish fed Rush, a natural number 9, and they wreaked havoc on opposition defences. They went on to add four English Top Flight titles, three League Cups, a European Cup, and an FA Cup.

Not bad for an old man, eh?

Contrary to popular belief, not both the strikers scored goals aplenty. Apart from di Stefano-Puskas, Pele-Jairzinho and Ronaldo-Rivaldo, one of the two strikers has always had the lion’s share of the goals. For example Rush and Dalglish: in their time together, they notched up 162 goals, but out of those, 108 were scored by Rush.

This is a trend seen in most of these partnerships: Cole was the main scorer, with Yorke notching up the assists, just as Henry scored and Bergkamp created them. Zamorano was the scorer, Salas the provider. Sanchez thumped them in while Butragueno set them up. These players complemented each other and that was the secret to their success.

In the modern game, few of these partnerships do exist but fewer flourish. For reasons unknown, two players playing up front seems to have lost that charm, that magnetism, that made it so special. For examples, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney at Manchester United. Even then, Rooney plays deeper than the traditional position of the second striker; preferring to drop deeper and command play, make himself the conduit for the passage of play for United.

To end it off, yes, the second striker is dying out, but maybe, one day, they’ll be back, in all their glory and splendor. After all, what is football but one great circle? One day again, we’ll see the second striker flourish, again.