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In his latest column, Niall Quinn explores whether the age of ‘false nines’ is ending and if ‘big’ strikers are back fashion.
The more things change the more they remain the same. For a few years now I’ve sensed the Premier League has quietly doubted its own claims to being the greatest league in the world.
The most exciting league maybe, but when we looked to Spain or Germany and watched the elite teams racking up incredible possession stats through tippy-tappy play we wondered if they looked on us as cavemen.
When Pep Guardiola was in charge at Barcelona he became the high priest of tippy-tappy and Barca’s famous La Masia academy just kept producing small, smart players like Lionel Messi, Pedro, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Cesc Fabregas who could keep the ball all day. They were trained to wait patiently for the chance to deliver the killer through ball and create a beautiful moment.
That world drew from a lot of influences and fine thought. It had a whiff of Cruyff’s Barcelona period and had kept on evolving and developing.
We imagined that the great footballing intellectuals of the continent met regularly in bistros or tapas houses to have lively arguments about the philosophy and movement of tantric football. They’d have a chuckle at the memory of primitive old-style forwards, the big men with no teeth and busted noses.
It was all about geometry and intellect and improvised brilliance as players switched roles and controlled the opposition as well as the ball. It was an orchestra playing a symphony on a summer day. By comparison, our game seemed like a Black Sabbath gig - noise, energy and a lot of headbanging in the pit up front.
Our clubs didn’t have the time or patience to work on the philosophy so we just tried to buy the product. That whole process was complete when Pep himself arrived in the summer and performed his first miracle with a 10-game winning run.
A few months later Pep must wonder what he was doing coming here. The pundits are second guessing everything he does while his rivals exploit his devotion to tippy-tappy, especially at the back. There is a little sense of the English game saying, ‘‘well now, it’s not as easy as it looks Pep, is it?’’
Most surprisingly, we are going through a golden time for the species that we thought was endangered. The big man up front is alive and well and making lots of money.
Under tippy-tappy it wasn’t just the big man up front who became desperately unfashionable, it was the entire idea of strikers. They were being made redundant and being replaced by strange, hovering creatures called false nines.
A midfielder, a defender, a kitman if he wasn’t busy, could be a false nine if he was in the vicinity and wanted to spend some time dragging defenders away from their posts. Spain were able to win international tournaments without a recognised striker being in on the act.
The false nine, however, didn’t work so well against teams who had advanced knowledge of how to park the bus. And a breed of defenders evolved who spend their whole time in training defending their goals against tippy-tappy and false nines.
In the area of thoughtful and creative centre-halves, some teams lost the art of defending against a big bruiser who outjumped them all for one of those unfashionable long balls, and put an elbow in your face and the ball in the net in the same movement.
And just when it looked like he would become obsolete, the big man up front evolved. Today he has the feet of a midfielder and some of the pace of a smaller man. In the Premier League, the big man is more important than he ever was.
In the last week or so, Andy Carroll has followed up his wonder goal with two more on Saturday, the first of which was a bread and butter ‘get up high and nod it in’ striker’s goal. Peter Crouch closed in on his 100th league goal.
Fernando Llorente has suddenly blossomed at Swansea and even Manchester United made a second-half reversion to long balls to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marouane Fellaini when playing against Liverpool.
Arsenal, desperate for a win that would keep them in touch with Chelsea, scored their first goal against Burnley with a big man’s header from a corner and rescued the three points at the end with a punt over the defence to Laurent Koscielny, who drew a kick in the face and a penalty from a startled defender.
A little while later, six foot four inches of Gary Cahill met no resistance as he headed home a Cesc Fabregas cross to defeat Hull. Diego Costa, as big and rough looking as a nightclub bouncer, had welcomed himself back earlier with a goal.
Throw in guys like Victor Anichebe, Romelu Lukaku, Christian Benteke, Islam Slimani and Olivier Giroud, and it looks like this is a golden age for the big striker. The art of heading is alive and well.
This weekend it all got to be a bit much for Aitor Karanka up at Middlesbrough. The audience at Middlesbrough like to see a little skill and flair but, when the chips are down, if blood and guts are needed they’re happy about that too.
On Saturday they watched Carroll outmuscle them, and by the second half they’d seen enough. Karanka didn’t take all the free advice very well.
“The atmosphere was awful. They demanded too much. I don’t know how many thousands of people were asking for long balls at the end but it’s a style we don’t know how to play and the team was broken on the pitch. I was really upset… These players deserve more respect. It’s something we have to fix - and while I’m here we won’t be playing long balls.”
Not for the first time I had to admire Karanka’s guts. When you haven’t won in five matches and the crowd are on your back it takes a lot to tell them that they are wrong and that you won’t be listening to their advice.
I worry too that he might be wrong. In the Premier League teams need different strings to their bow. The early ball and the long ball are weapons to be considered.
Dele Alli is 6ft 2in and doesn’t play like a big man but on Saturday his headed goal from Kyle Walker’s cross was a lesson in technique. Earlier in the day at Anfield, Jurgen Klopp was risking getting eaten alive by the internet piranhas as he instructed Liverpool to go long ball as a response to the new muscular approach that Swansea are playing with.
The influence of tippy-tappy and the wave of thoughtful new managers coming in from the continent has been good for the game. Change, and asking questions about what you are doing and why you are doing it, are always good things.
No specific tactic will ever dominate the Premier League, however. Football here has evolved from different traditions. The game is played at breakneck speed and whether we like it or not the pace allows more room for error if you are too thoughtful.
Aitor Karanka may have to adapt to it. Pep too. That’s the job they are paid to do - adapt in order to win games. From a pulsating weekend I learned one thing for sure: Andy Carroll is as far from the false nine as it is possible to be. That might just make him the real deal again.
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