It’s sad that the game has lost its No 9 dream
AS A kid, I was a glory-hunter like all my mates. We’d draw two goalposts and a crossbar on the playground wall and want to be the player who scored the winning goal. Being No 9 was our dream.
Then when my teacher, Mr Middleton, asked me to switch from goalkeeper to centre forward in the Christopher Wren school team — Dennis Wise was also in my class — I scored a hattrick and never looked back.
For me, Brazil’s Ronaldo and Marco van Basten of Holland epitomised what being a No 9 was all about. In my career, I was lucky to play in a front two with guys like Kevin Gallen, Teddy Sheringham, Jurgen Klinsmann and Peter Beardsley but perhaps my most successful partner was Alan Shearer at Newcastle.
England manager Terry Venables felt we couldn’t play together, it was one or the other, but when Al joined Newcastle after Euro 96 we showed we could. As a pair we scored 49 goals in 1996-97, the best in the country, and created plenty of chances for each other — though statisticians didn’t make a big thing of assists in those days!
If Alan was in the middle, I’d get down the line and cross balls but we both expected to score. So did players like Sheringham and Beardsley even if they dropped deeper.
It’s different for a Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku or Alvaro Morata. Their support tends to come from midfield, a Dele Alli, Henrikh Mkhitaryan or Eden Hazard who are judged on creating more than scoring. There aren’t any genuine front pairings now that will go down in history like Toshack and Keegan, Rush and Dalglish, Sutton and Shearer or Cole and Yorke.
Maybe it’s why being a centre forward isn’t as glamorous as it was. Lots of kids now aspire to be a No 10 in the Lionel Messi mould, someone who tries to dribble past two or three defenders, rather than that No 9 who plays with their back to goal, holds the ball up and then dashes into the sixyard box to finish off chances.
I see players now who’d rather try to score from the edge of the ‘D’ because it’s more exciting than the tap-ins people like me, Shearer and Ian Wright loved to score as much as the spectacular ones. Gabriel Jesus is a bit of a throwback in that respect.
I get a good insight into the way the current game works as QPR’s director of football. I hear a lot of recommendations for players who I’m told can operate ‘anywhere across the front three’. That usually means they can come in off the right or left, or behind a big striker, but realistically can’t play centre forward.
Fair enough but it’s no good if a manager already has lots of No 10s and nobody who can bring others into play as a target-man.
I do rate current strikers. Sergio Aguero has great movement, Lukaku is mainly left-footed, Morata right. Kane is the most complete because he can score with his right, left and his head.
It would be interesting to see how these guys did with a genuine partner rather than stand up front alone. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see teams returning to a front two at some stage.
Football is always evolving — we never used to have holding midfielders, then Claude Makelele and Nemanja Matic won titles for Chelsea by never being allowed to cross the halfway line.
Tactical trends come back as well. Three-at-the-back is in vogue again having been popular when I played. And when people talk about attacking full backs, I remember Alan Kennedy and Phil Neal scoring from open play in European Cup finals for Liverpool in the 1980s.
So, I think the coach who finds the new Cole and Yorke — or Shearer and Ferdinand! — could spark a revival. Maybe that’s when the playground will again belong to centre forwards rather than the tricky No 10s. By the way, it’s a good time for kids to have a go up front — defenders can’t wallop you like they did!
‘Lots of kids now aspire to be a No 10 in the Messi mould, someone who tries to dribble past three defenders’