After a transfer window that left a lot of managers disconcerted about the dearth of the highest-calibre centre-forwards, it was no great surprise the topic was on the agenda at Uefa’s recent elite club coaches forum. As was exemplified by Manchester United spending lavishly on the potential of the teenager Anthony Martial and Arsenal hitting a brick wall in terms of buyable targets, it is a worrying trend from a European perspective. Football’s band of A-list coaches spoke at length in search of ideas to rectify this problem.
“It was one of the debates we had at the European managers meeting during the break,” said Arsène Wenger. “The strikers are South American today. Europe doesn’t produce strikers any more.” The shortage is so chronic that Arsenal’s manager cannot recall a time when it was so difficult to find attackers of top quality.
“You look at countries like Germany, who played in Scotland or against Poland with Mario Götze up front – he’s a creative midfielder. I don’t think it’s because they do not want to play with a typical striker but they haven’t got one who’s really convincing at the top level. Who in Europe do you see? Spain won the [2010] World Cup with basically Cesc Fàbregas as centre-forward. Germany now plays Götze up front.”
So how do you break that cycle? Wenger believes player development has to change, to bring in more specialist positioning earlier in a young player’s education. Modern methods seem to be churning out an endless supply of technical attacking midfielders (Wenger himself has established quite a collection).
“What I am convinced of is that in the academies we have to specialise the players,” Wenger said. “There is an age from five to 12 where you have the acquisition of the technical skills; at 12-14 you start to develop the speed and physical qualities; but from 14 onwards, when you start to position the players for their careers, maybe you have to work with specificity of a position again. Maybe we have to rethink completely the education and specialise earlier.”
Wenger is not convinced today’s development strategies and luxuriously comfortable environments encourage the toughness that was traditionally part of the make-up of a powerful centre-forward or a robust centre-half. “What we produce now are good technical players because there are nice pitches out there – before you played in the park where you had to kick the ball up front and you had to fight. A boy of 12 who played against a boy of 16 had to be shrewd and push to get the ball. All those kind of things have gone.”
The problem is exacerbated, he believes, because of the non-competitive vacuum the majority of young players find themselves in once they reach their late teens. “One of the biggest problems in the education at the academies is that you get them to the age of 19 and then what can you offer them? We lose many players because they stand there with nowhere to go. At that age, when you have no plan, you die. That is why I prefer to loan them out.” Chuba Akpom, the youngster on loan at Hull this season, is an example of that. “People say: ‘Why do you loan them out because you could need them?’ and it’s true. But you have to make a decision at some stage with their career. They have to develop.
“You have a generation of players who are lost between 18-20. When a guy of that age feels he doesn’t move forward he loses motivation. And I am a bit scared about that because in France they play in Division Three with their reserves so you get competition against adults. In England you have created the under-21 league. I am not a fan of it because it is not the same as playing in competitive games. In many under-21 games there is no buildup before the game, there is not the pressure of the competition, there is not the results you have to stand up for. How many academies do you have in England? Twenty-six. Multiply that by 20 or 30, you have about 700 or 800 players every year that you produce. Where do they go? They cannot go in the Premier League.”
Having struggled to buy a centre-forward upgrade, and now having to contend with the prolonged absence of Danny Welbeck, Wenger is challenging his team to spread the goals around this season.
“I think Giroud, Walcott, Sánchez can get around 20 goals without any problem. Sometimes you have to trust your players and play them. Then they get there. People want always the absolute certainty that they will be absolutely successful. It is not like that. I played Anelka and people asked me: ‘Why did you not buy anybody?’ Thierry Henry the same. I said: ‘Let him play, maybe he will score.’ Football is a bit like that. It is not a science that everybody masters and can absolutely predict how many goals everybody will get.
“I would rather have Ramsey get 15, Özil 15, Cazorla 10. Otherwise, if you have only one player who scores, when he is injured you don’t know who will score.”
After two home games without a goal this season, Wenger just needs somebody – anybody – to score on Saturday against Stoke to get the ball rolling.