The big one: Ranking strikers
The ADAM formula returns to evaluate strikers, including Viktor Gyökeres
This whole striker transfer thing is pretty hard to figure out. For what is ostensibly a pretty simple job to describe — go score goals — identifying just who or what will make for a star at the highest levels of football has proven exceedingly difficult for even the brightest minds to manage football clubs, let alone the dimmest.
And yet, people carry some of the strongest opinions about this position in particular. Case in point, going into last summer Arsenal employed this guy at striker, courtesy of friend-of-the-blog Billy Carpenter:
Twenty-six goal contributions. Imagine that coming in one season! And yet some people felt that not only was he not good as a striker, but replacing him or upgrading upon him was a must. Now, we can’t treat every opinion as exceedingly valid, but it was an opinion that was at least somewhat common, and perhaps one day I’ll unleash the torrent of screenshotted tweets I’ve got from last spring and summer that now look pretty damn foolish.
They look foolish, of course, because the guy Arsenal bought hasn’t quite taken off. But neither, really, have most other strikers purchased across the Premier League this season. Heaven knows Alexander Isak struggled before his injury. Nick Woltemade’s production has come and gone. Hugo Ekitike has scored a lot, but he’s running awfully hot (maybe we’ll tackle that in a future blog). Liam Delap’s numbers haven’t been good, nor have Benjamin Šeško’s, for various reasons. Yoane Wissa, Mathys Tel and Charalampos Kostoulas have barely played.
