Striker dilemma: To buy or not to buy, that is the question
During the past two summers the main topic of conversation amongst Brighton fans has been the signing of a new striker. How we all wished a magic 20-goal-a-season genius would rock up at the Lancing training ground and remove our xG hodoo for years to come.
The strikers most associated with Albion during the last transfer window were Benfica’s Darwin Nunez and Celtic’s Odsonne Edouard.
Both would cost well over £20 million and neither would be a guaranteed success; Nunez has been struggling with injuries and Edouard has the reputation of being lazy.
Nunez would potentially be another player who ends up having a closer relationship with the club physio than with the coaching staff.
Let us not try to find the medical team a new challenge now that Jose Izquierdo has left the club and started his gap year, especially as they are occupied enough as it is with nursing Danny Welbeck and Tariq Lamptey back to full fitness.
Signing a player with an apparent attitude like Edouard should not even be considered for a minute, perhaps with the exception of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Good for laughs but not great for team morale.
The question begs, were strikers other than the couple mentioned above being closely monitored? Was there ever a striker shortlist for Brighton?
Our scouts were surely watching YouTube highlights around the clock, as most of us have been. I wonder if they ever considered the following recognised goal scores who are all in our price range…
Wout Weghorst (Age 29)
The Dutchman represented his country in Euro 2021 and has been scoring for fun in the Bundesliga since 2018. His record shows an impressive 65 goals from 122 appearances for Wolsburg.
He is known as a great team player with a work ethic that fans will love. Measuring 6’6, he will also bring an aerial threat. Imagine Neal Maupay and Leandro Trossard playing off a strong, mobile, giant focal point…
Moise Kean (Age 21)
Much was expected from the Italian youngster when Everton splashed out £30 million in 2019. He is currently out on loan at Paris St Germain, where he hands out the half-time oranges to the likes of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Angel Di Maria and now Lionel Messi.
Would he want to resurrect a promising career that seems to have faltered slightly? Would Everton want to recoup some of that transfer fee?
He would bring pace, strength and a lot of raw talent. With the right coaching he would be an interesting option. He still found the net 13 times from just 26 games last season.
Breel Embolo (Age 24)
Represented Switzerland at Euro 2021 and scored against Wales in the first group game. He is not as prolific as the previous two but has still scored 13 goals from 59 appearances for mid table Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Budesliga since 2019. He is powerful, technically strong and has explosive pace.
Luka Jovic (Age 23)
After a stellar season in the Bundesliga and Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt, Real Madrid decided to pay £60 million in 2019 for his goal scoring talents.
It is very unlikely Jovic will get much game time at the Bernabeu while Karim Benzema is the undisputed number one leading the line.
Real’s new manager Carlo Ancelotti knows the Premier League extremely well and is in the knowledge of the fact that Albion play a progressive brand of football.
Could he be tempted to place Jovic in the shop window in Sussex? Will Jovic be interested in more game time to show Champions League participating clubs that he has not lost his touch while playing golf with Gareth Bale?
Is it beyond Brighton to secure a season long loan with a €40 million option to buy clause for the striker? The possibilities are endless.
What all these potential signings prove is that European leagues are brimming with good, affordable talent. It is there if we want it. But do we? Now back to reality.
There are more ways to skin the proverbial goal scoring cat. Old fashioned centre forwards have become a rare commodity in modern football and teams have found ways to create chances and score goals without them.
The most striking example was the Spanish team that won the Euros in 2012. Old Vicente del Bosque looked like a man who would play dominoes for a living under an olive tree in a Spanish town square.
Besides being a wizard at dominoes, del Bosque was also a tactically astute football manager and now owns a trophy cabinet that would not fit in your average Hove mansion.
His favoured system was 4-6-0 with Cesc Fabregas being the most advanced midfield player. Fabregas was well versed in the dark arts of tiki-taka but not in bullying 6’4 central defenders.
It didn’t matter. Spain made Italy look like a pub team and beat them 4-0 in a very one-sided final. A more recent example are the current Premier League champions, Manchester City.
Sergio Aguero spent most of last season on the treatment table and Pep Guardiola does not seem to trust Gabriel Jesus in the bigger games. The solution? Play a ginger Belgian who is better known for his range of passing from midfield as a ‘false-nine’.
Could this no-striker approach work for Brighton? I am going to stick my neck out and say why not. Maupay has received an enormous amount of criticism for his lack of finishing ability last season.
Some of it was warranted but he does not miss the target on purpose. Most strikers are confidence players. Maupay is no different. Despite some glaring misses, his work rate never drops (and neither does his temper unfortunately) and his hold-up play is generally very good.
There is not a defender in the league who enjoys going up against him. He seems to thrive dropping deeper to make space for willing runners.
The secret of scoring more goals this season is runners from midfield breaking into the penalty box. For the Albion goals in Burnley 1-2 Brighton, Maupay and Alexis Mac Allister were not the only players making a run at that time. Jakub Moder and Pascal Gross had other options looking to get on the end of their respective low crosses.
If whoever plays in midfield out of Adam Lallana, Enock Mwepu, Steve Alzate, Yves Bissouma, Moder, MacAllister or Trossard make the effort to get close to Maupay in numbers, it takes the pressure of our main goal scorer.
Maupay in return will find the back of the net on a more regular basis himself. Defenders would have so much more to worry about than just an isolated number nine.
Is this what Graham Potter has been thinking all along? Did Brighton ever seriously target a new striker or was the plan always to improve our xG by making better use of the current squad?
Who knows. Every time Albion fans start to think we understand our manager’s brainwaves, he treats us to a surprise like trying Gross as a left back in a back four.
Potter will always keep us on our toes. The situation keeps us guessing and going back to the pub for another round of football debate. It is what being a football fan is all about. Would we want it any other way?
