Strikers and Record Deals : What happens to the rest of the team?

To further prove that point I’ll take 2 players, strikers in fact, playing for 2 of Europe’s best teams. The first one is Lionel Messi. Everyone will know the impact this little ‘big’ man has on the pitch, on both the opposition and Barcelona. The game against PSG aptly puts things into perspective. Had Messi missed that game, it could well have been PSG through to the Semi-Finals of the UCL.

The moment Messi came onto the pitch, everything started to feel different. Messi was indirectly involved in the goal chance that Pedro took and was constantly patrolling the penalty box to maybe score one himself. His presence alone might have made things difficult for the confident Parisian side, and his presence alone lifted Barcelona to a draw and helped them move on.

The second case is that of Fernando Torres. Torres, though arguably one of Spain’s most clinical finishers, has had one of the most publicized form slump in recent footballing history.For a more concrete explanation lets look at Chelsea. A team with fantastic creative players like the Mata-Oscar-Hazard trio or even Lampard for that matter, struggles to put in the goals regularly. When a team has a talent like Mata, you would expect that team to put at least 50 goals in for the chances he alone creates.

That is of course, if you have a good striker, someone better than Torres at least. Torres’ finishing has left the Blues wanting, both domestically and Europe. Other than the Europa League win, Chelsea didn’t win everything they had on the agenda for the season. For a team like Chelsea, with the talent they possess, it is depressing that they couldn’t win anything major apart from the Europa League trophy.

The 2 cases that are presented above are vital in understanding the need for a world class striker, should the budget allow it. With £160m spent on forwards alone in this transfer window, the game has reminded us that strikers are the money men of the game. Since Trevor Francis became the first £1 million forward some 30 years ago, prices have sky-rocketed and Fernando Torres was sold for 50 times that amount!

I believe in a simple fact, and that is the holistic development of the team. Investments should be made in the youth setup, and money should be invested in every area of the pitch, good coaches and scouts must be hired to strengthen all the weak links, as the saying goes – you are only as strong as your weakest link.A majority of managers believe that if they spend the money on strikers, everything will fall into place.

They don’t seem to look at the overall setup of the team. Who is going to create the chances through the midfield? Who is going to keep the score in check if there is a weak defence? Who is going to provide a rock like wall at the goal post? These are questions often left unanswered in our ‘modern’ world.

Former keeper David James mockingly wrote in the guardian: “They shell out for forwards as though they are worth their weight in gold. In fact, the amount Chelsea paid for Torres is well over 25 times his weight in gold. He weighs 78kg and you could buy that much gold for a mere £1.4m. The very idea that footballers are so much more expensive than one of the most precious metals in the world is scary.”