Newcastle and Chelsea produced a classic English Premier League encounter last week, with the Geordies winning 3-2 in dramatic fashion. The St. James’ part faithful can now breathe more easily, while Chelsea continues to struggle under Rafael Benitez.
During that game, there was also a sub-story that remained muted by all the excitement and high drama action on the field. The game pitted compatriots and former teammates Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse for the first time since Ba made a high profile move to Chelsea during the transfer window. Ba’s emotional comeback to St James’s park was cut short by a kick to the face by Fabricio Coloccini. The more interesting part of the story, however, is how Ba and Cisse exemplify the changing times in football.
Papiss Cisse arrived in Newcastle exactly a year ago. At that time, Demba Ba had already established himself as the starting striker and was demonizing defences in the league. To accommodate his new asset, Alan Pardew had to shift Demba Ba to the wing. Cisse had an amazing half-season, where he scored 13 times in 14 appearances, helping Newcastle to a top 5 finish.
Ba’s performance on the wing, however, was subdued and at the start of the new season he demanded that he plays as striker. Pardew tried to accommodate both of them in a striking partnership, playing the classic 4-4-2. While Ba started scoring goals again, the team struggled and soon found itself in the relegation battle. It was a stark reminder that the good old 4-4-2 is a lost art. It just does not work anymore.
In today’s football, the emphasis is on controlling the midfield. Teams like Barcelona and the Spanish national team have shown that if you command the central area, you don’t even need strikers to win the game. The system is reliant on two very adept deep lying midfields who are both the first line of defence and first to start a new attack. By controlling the midfield, they allow two wingers and a creative mid to roam deeply into enemy territory. With those five guys on the pitch, you only have space for one traditional striker. Against such a system, a team playing 4-4-2 is simply outnumbered in the centre and has no chance to supply enough balls to the striking partnership, no matter how good it is.
A case in point is Manchester United. They acquired the services of Robin Van Persie in the summer and with Wayne Rooney on the roster had two great strikers on the team. However, one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s great talents is that he is always on top of the new trends in football. That’s why Rooney is now employed as the creative midfielder in the team, while Van Persie resumes the traditional striker duties.
It is probably safe to declare the traditional striking partnership in football dead. Football tactics are constantly evolving, and certain concepts and formations become obsolete with time. So like the sweeper had to make way for the 4-in-line defence, so now pure strikers have to fight for just one starting spot on teams. It is a natural evolution of the game.
Since, I am sort of writing an obituary, it is good to remember some of the great striking partnerships from the past. I have mentioned how Manchester United currently handles their attack. They also produced one of the great goal scoring duo in recent history with Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke. The two were very similar type of footballers, much like Ba and Cisse are, but were able to greatly feed off each other and create space for each other. Probably their finest moment came in a 1999 Champions League game against Barcelona, where they exchanged 4 one touch passes between them to score a fine goal.
With Blackburn Rovers currently in the English Championship, many fans probably resort to fond memories of the past. In the mid-1990s the team sported one of the most productive striker duos with Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton. The two scored 49 times in the league in 1996 when the team won the title, an absolute record for two players from the same team in English football.
Without a championship title since 1990, a lot of Liverpool fans probably also often browse through history books. The trip down memory lane inevitably leads them to Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish terrorized defences in the early 1980s.
If you think it only gets better the further we look back, you are probably right. There have hardly been two better players than Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas to ever play alongside for each other. You don’t need to look much further than the 1960 European Champions Cup final, where they combined for 7 goals against Eintracht Frankfurt to the dismay of 130,000 spectators at Hampden Park. The striking partnership in its pure form may be dead, but it sure had its fine moments.