Football Food For Thought / Tareq Quiroz / 16 January 2009 /

First Darren Bent and Pavlyuchenko and now Drogba and Anelka. Talk of strikers "not able to play together" is all getting a bit much for Tareq Quiroz's taste...

It would seem somewhat ridiculous to write a weekly football article and not draw reference to the Kaka farce. I won't dwell on it too long as it has already taken up far too many column inches this week. For me it is a good deal for one party only and that is AC Milan. The player is not worth that sort of money and let's not forget that we are talking about a club that are just two points above the drop zone. It appears to be a pretty shambolic affair for which we can only hope there is an end to sooner rather than later.

Away from the transfer nonsense I am getting ever more intrigued by the growing tendency for managers to say that certain strikers can't play together. It appears to me that this is a relatively new excuse and one that has been far too easily accepted. Are we really going to swallow that as a genuine reason for poor form?

We have gone from an extreme of total football to a situation where two expensive strikers cannot play together as they do not complement each other's style! To be fair to the rest of the team, it seems to be an excuse that is at the moment confined to just the forward line. We have a Premier League where we have right-backs playing left-back, wingers playing centre midfield, centre halves playing full back and midfielders playing centre forward, yet two players who play in the same position every week cannot play together. Unbelievable.

The most common example we have had this season is the Pavlyuchenko and Bent saga. The Russian cost £14M and Bent a club record £16.5M yet somehow we arrive at a point where someone realises that these two just aren't compatible. Fortunately for Harry Redknapp, he can now just rotate the two around the newly arrived Jermain Defoe, a man who also is believed to have cost around the £16M mark.

If I was a Spurs fan I would be very concerned that this flimsy excuse is dismissed sooner rather than later, before it is too late to save them from the drop. They are currently priced at [11.0] in the Relegation market and that may seem rather big pretty soon unless they start to play with a bit more passion. For me Harry should be more concerned with a misfiring midfield. Bentley and Modric consistently go missing for large periods of a game and don't appear to have any desire to dig in when they are not having their most influential game. Worrying times down at the Lane.

Fans at Everton must be amazed at all this striker nonsense as they have had to adapt to playing with no recognized strikers at all. A terrible run of injuries which has sidelined their entire senior front line has meant players like Tim Cahill filling in with great support from the likes of Fellaini. They are unbeaten in their last six and haven't had a goal from a forward since mid-November. A run that has seen them come in to as short as [1.7] for a Top Six Finish this season. This is testament to how the team has adapted and to David Moyes' managerial skills. If midfielders can play centre forward at the drop of a hat then it is pitiful to hear managers blame striker cohesion on a poor run of form for the team.

It seems the problem is a growing one however and amazingly we are now being told that Drogba and Anelka can't do a job up front together. I won't go into the costs of these players as it is just embarrassing. Pace and power in abundance from two payers with excellent goal scoring records yet they aren't compatible. Once again it is no surprise to hear this excuse from a team struggling for form. Chelsea just aren't firing at the moment and unless Big Phil can sort it out quickly their title aspirations will be over before they know it. You can back them at [5.3] to win the Premier League at the moment but that isn't a price that tempts me.

When you look down the list of great strikers in the Premier League over the years, it is unthinkable to suggest that any of them couldn't have played together. Alan Shearer is the man at the top of the charts and I dare anyone to find a partner that the great man wouldn't have banged goals in with. If the players are good enough, then it really shouldn't matter at all what supposed style their striking partner has.

I am already tired of hearing fans use it as an excuse. This trend needs stopping at source. Managers are responsible for their team and instead of bleating about incompatibility of strikers, they need to get on the training ground and work out the real problem. I say this for their own good as it will be no use realising that wasn't the problem after all when the season ends in disappointment, or even embarrassment.

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