2023-01-22, 09:55 AM - Word count:
Strikerless is not like a primarily football manager thing but a lot and I mean a lot of work has been put into trying to make it viable.
At first it seems rather simple and obvious a project. Strikers had been "dropping back" from the moment the Hungarian waltz started playing. Messi made his magic from that space in between the midfield and the defensive line. So the idea of overloading that space and putting bodies in the box consistently has been the imagined paradise of the strikerless faith.
But it doesn't work. You get the issue where the other teams defensive formation becomes compact and the attacking midfielders become isolated or your attack lacks both depth and penetration. The Shadow striker is imagined to the messiah of this, an AMC that is directed to make relentless runs into the box like an attacking forward, thus fulfilling the depth and penetration needed. Unfortunately, this then leaves the SS to be isolated as the two centrebacks can pick them up. More shadow strikers only result in them never being given service for runs as centrebacks collapse onto the ball when its passed and the midfield becomes a wall.
Thus comes the prince that was promised: "the withdrawn target forward". It doesn't exist and most recent efforts have been placed on trying to figure out how to replicate the position. The Trequartista operates as a playmaker and can't have its appetite for attacking with the ball to be tamed, the engance doesn't have movement, target forwards.
So now is the part where you say "If you're going to have a striker thats a withdrawn targetforward then why not just use a target forward? And if we're useing a striker then why are we talking about strikerless?" Beacuse my dear reader. With an attacking forward we can break down that wall before it is built. If the ball can't be moved to the withdrawn target forward, we will move the target forward to the ball.
At first it seems rather simple and obvious a project. Strikers had been "dropping back" from the moment the Hungarian waltz started playing. Messi made his magic from that space in between the midfield and the defensive line. So the idea of overloading that space and putting bodies in the box consistently has been the imagined paradise of the strikerless faith.
But it doesn't work. You get the issue where the other teams defensive formation becomes compact and the attacking midfielders become isolated or your attack lacks both depth and penetration. The Shadow striker is imagined to the messiah of this, an AMC that is directed to make relentless runs into the box like an attacking forward, thus fulfilling the depth and penetration needed. Unfortunately, this then leaves the SS to be isolated as the two centrebacks can pick them up. More shadow strikers only result in them never being given service for runs as centrebacks collapse onto the ball when its passed and the midfield becomes a wall.
Thus comes the prince that was promised: "the withdrawn target forward". It doesn't exist and most recent efforts have been placed on trying to figure out how to replicate the position. The Trequartista operates as a playmaker and can't have its appetite for attacking with the ball to be tamed, the engance doesn't have movement, target forwards.
So now is the part where you say "If you're going to have a striker thats a withdrawn targetforward then why not just use a target forward? And if we're useing a striker then why are we talking about strikerless?" Beacuse my dear reader. With an attacking forward we can break down that wall before it is built. If the ball can't be moved to the withdrawn target forward, we will move the target forward to the ball.
