02 Jun 2012

Tactical Changes in Football Players Positions Part 5

MAIN STRIKER

Strikers are very often seen as the glory boys of a team. The rest of the team can work and run for 89 minutes and in the last minute, the striker nips in and scores the winner and gets all the headlines. Strikers tend to be very strong minded individual players, who have a healthy selfish streak. They live and die by the goals they score. There are all sorts of different characteristics that make up a good striker, but the overall characteristic is the desire to score goals.

•Torres and Villa for example have fantastic pace and movement, while others rely more on strength and power.

•What some strikers lack in pace, they make up for in speed of thought and ability to move away from markers to create chances.

•They need to have a striker’s instinct – to be in the right place at the right time.

•Strikers need to be mentally very strong and thick skinned, it’s not easy to keep getting in the box to try and score when you have just missed a sitter and everyone is moaning at you

•They need to be technically very proficient in ball control, shooting, finishing and heading skills, to convert chances into goals.

•Strikers need to be very cool, calm and composed in a sometimes very hectic and crowded penalty area.