The goal glut: Why Premier League strikers have never had it so good...

29 September 2009 01:26
MONEY The English league is the richest in the world and most of the money is spent on forwards. Manchester City bought two central defenders this summer while Liverpool paid a lot of money for full back Glen Johnson. But when was the last time Manchester United spent heavily on a goalkeeper or a defender? The same goes for Chelsea and, to a lesser extent, Arsenal. These days, when teams want to make progress they buy forwards. It is the quickest way to increase your effectiveness but you can only do it if you are rich. Torres, Anelka, Arshavin, Berbatov, Defoe, Adebayor, Tevez. This is where the money goes. If these guys were not scoring lots of goals we would be asking why. This season the traditional top-four clubs have two genuine challengers whose move towards the next level has been founded on the purchase of great attacking players. City have spent millions on Robinho, Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy, Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz while Tottenham have Robbie Keane, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe. Stoke manager Tony Pulis said: ‘You certainly have to put Tottenham up there with the dangerous teams now. They have such an array of goalscorers.’ Robbie Keane of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates A LEAGUE OF TWO HALVES There is a misconception this season that the Barclays Premier League is getting stronger. It is more competitive among the top six or seven but outside that the levels are low. It was like this last season and the gap has got wider. Clubs like Hull City and Burnley, to single out two, cannot compete. Losing ‘bigger’ clubs like Newcastle and Middlesbrough has given others a chance but if Burnley have a weekly wage ceiling of £15,000 a week it stands to reason that they will have to over-perform to survive. When their standards drop or injuries kick in, they will take a hiding from time to time. Burnley have conceded 14 goals away from home this season and Hull have shipped 13. End of story. MINDSET As the coach of one of the most adventurous teams, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is worth listening to. He believes that English football has developed a more adventurous approach to the art of winning —fighting fire with fire. Wenger said: ‘It’s unbelievable. I’m quite surprised as teams have become so much more offensive. There is a more positive attitude from the smaller teams, they try to score goals. You had Wolves against Sunderland and there were seven goals. Even when it went 2-1, the other team goes to attack.’ Arsenal are the second highest scorers in the league, behind Liverpool, so Wenger is perhaps speaking from a position of strength. THE RULES Football is designed to benefit attacking players these days. The offside law is weighted in their favour while tackling has to be a much more precise art. Former referee and Sportsmail columnist Graham Poll said: ‘Without exception, every modern rule change is made with a view to encouraging goals and making the game more attacking. It is what FIFA want. If you grow up wanting to be a footballer these days then it makes sense to try to be a forward.’

Source: Daily_Mail