No to Strikers

Hugo Ekitike, Benjamin Šeško and Christian Benteke.

Transfer season is truly here. Your mate knows Liverpool are signing Jeremie Frimpong. He knows Milos Kerkez is lurking around the corner, too. Hell, the Reds are even in the process of signing Florian Wirtz — the best player on the market — right now.

And yet, despite all of that business, your man still wants a striker. He thinks he’ll be happy when Alexander Isak arrives. When Hugo Ekitike joins. That’s when he’ll finally leave the casino. That’s when he’ll feel satisfied.

Yeah, until he gets bored and demands another midfielder. This is what the transfer market is like. It can sweep you off your feet if you let it. Like chasing the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

It remains to be seen whether Richard Hughes will buy a striker or not. But if he doesn’t, that decision will be cool on this Substack. We’ll offer a place of refuge for the Liverpool sporting director. We’ll order in.

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Now, I’ve got nothing against strikers per se. But I do think they’re a strange breed sometimes, and often not worth the fuss. Like, I do think there’s a reason Michael Edwards doesn’t seem to be keen on them.

When Brendan Rodgers was in charge of Liverpool, he developed an obsession with Christian Benteke. Edwards was one of the guys who opposed him, and we all know how that one ended.

Then you’ve got Darwin Núñez. The only starting number nine that Liverpool signed throughout the entirety of Jürgen Klopp’s nine-year tenure, and he arrived in the very first window of the post-Edwards era. Shock, coincidence? I think not.

The Reds getting good has coincided with a preference for all-encompassing forwards who can do different things, play in different positions and interchange in the final third.

From Roberto Firmino to Sadio Mané to Mohamed Salah to Diogo Jota to Federico Chiesa. Think about it. Xherdan Shaqiri, Takumi Minamino, Cody Gakpo, whatever. These guys are all forwards in my book. A striker is Robert Lewandowski. A striker is Harry Kane.

And it’s worth noting that Núñez — much like Benteke — has largely failed to deliver on Merseyside. He’ll be sold without amassing 50 starts in the Premier League, despite arriving three years ago for a boatload of cash. The suits at the club preferred Christopher Nkunku back then, another forward.

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Obviously I realise strikers can prove to be successful. I mean, Robbie Fowler wasn’t bad. Fernando Torres, too. But I do think there’s a reason Liverpool tend to avoid them when the suits have got the keys.

Strikers don’t tend to take part in the game that much. They’re seen to have one job, and that’s how they’re judged. For the large majority of them, it’s solely about scoring goals. And nothing else matters.

The guys who manage to do that end up making the headlines. And because they’re in the news, they proceed to cost a lot. So you’re forced to pay big money for what are essentially outcomes. You’re buying the goals. And outcomes are never guaranteed to persist.