Sign a striker!

I would rattle off a list of games where our desperate need for a consistent, 20 goals-a-season striker has been shown, but I’m not going to, because that would be the same as listing every single match we have played this season. Ade can’t be bothered, Clint isn’t a natural striker and JD blows hot and cold, although sometimes it seems like cold-cold-cold-hot-cold-hot-cold-cold. You get my point (if you don’t, please read it again, more carefully, before proceeding with the rest of the article).

In the United game, whilst Spurs were clearly delighted to nab a truly-deserved point right at the end of the game, we probably did deserve even more from the game. When fans say “we deserved to win”, I never know whether this is a positive or a negative: is it good that we were the better team, or is it bad that we were the better team but only drew? But if we signed a top-drawer striker, your Llorentes or your Negredos if you like, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation…because we would have won the game!

Spurs play possession and pressure football. However, the whole point of possession is not to be able to point at a stat and say “hey look, we got 65% possession, we’re awesome”, no, the point of possession is what you do with it. And whilst we are clearly doing something right with it – we haven’t lost since 9th December – we aren’t doing enough with it – we have drawn too many games in that spell. Your homes to Wigan, and Stoke, and your aways to QPR, need to turn into constant victories…and from watching our performances it is clear what the missing factor is – a striker.

People may point to the fact that we are ahead of Arsenal, and close to Chelsea, so why do we need to improve? Well, the answer is simple: look at their squads. Do you see a top-notch striker anywhere there (excluding perhaps the recent inclusion of Ba for the Blues)? No, you don’t – if you do, you do not support Spurs – and then compare that to the Manchester clubs. They have RVP, Rooney, Welbeck, Hernandez, Aguero, Tevez, Dzeko. Look at our midfield and defence compared to United’s. Is there that much of a difference? No, there really isn’t it. The missing link is a striker. Someone who get on the end of Lennon’s ‘dink’ crosses or Bale’s drilled crosses. Someone who can present a realistic option to Dembele and Sandro as they push to the edge of the opponent’s 18 yard box. Someone who can find the net on a regular basis!

If we don’t sign a striker, based on our last few games, when the need has been blatantly obvious slap-you-in-the-face buy-me-one-now, then I don’t know what AVB and Levy are playing at. I have every faith that they will – #inavbitrust and #inlevyitrust and all that – because the one step we need to take to change from edge of top 4 to edge of top 2 is a striker.

Sign a striker.

By Alex Beck