The dying art of the goal-poacher
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- Created: Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:22
- Written by David Moftakhar
Go back 10-15 years and the goal-poacher was an integral part of any team. The likes of Ian Rush, Gary Lineker, Ian Wright and Andy Cole were some of the game’s most sought after commodities. But today the demand for strikers who prod home from short distances is not what it was.
There are modern incarnations. The most successful of recent times has been Ruud Van Nistelrooy; and since his hamstrings rotted away Michael Owen has done little other than sniff around for goals; but the goal-poachers’ numbers are dwindling.
As the so-called business end of the Portuguese season approaches it’s time to do some number crunching.
Real Madrid and Barcelona's simultaneous kick-offs on Saturday meant that if results went Real's way they could move to within 1 point of the Catalan league leaders. The form book was certainly with them, having won their last 10 league games compared with Barcelona's run of 5 fixtures without a win, and then there was the fact that Atlético Madrid hadn't won in the Bernabeu for over 10 years.
The results of the latest poll are in and they’re pretty interesting. Asked which of the major European leagues is best, 47% of you plumped for La Liga, followed by 39% for the Premier League and just 14% for Serie A.
Hull City’s Geovanni is undoubtedly a quality player. At Barcelona he was earmarked as the natural successor to Rivaldo, and in terms of creativity, trickery and goalscoring ability, there are obvious similarities.