Do forwards ever get a break?

Torres, Rooney, Ibrahimovic, and Sheva have a lot in common.

Kevin Davies has been working tirelessly all his career to earn an international call-up that has been unanimously appreciated. The man himself was astonished to finally break into an England set-up that never saw enough to give him his much-awaited break.

But such is the nature of a forward’s role in modern day football. We live in a competitive world where results precede everything else and unless an individual’s results are clearly better than others, there is every chance on missing out on opportunities as rare as an England cap.

In football, results are very easy to measure in two positions: goalkeeper and forward. When a season comes to an end, all the statisticians need to do is to add up a goalie’s clean sheets to hand out the Golden Glove award and similarly, tally up a forward’s goals to determine whether or not he merits the Golden Boot award.

In the defense and the midfield, it is relatively easier to get away with an extremely in-depth statistical analysis despite the immense importance of these positions in their own regard. After all, it is a lot more obvious when a goalkeeper commits a howler, or as we have seen very commonly in recent times, a striker goes on a goal-scoring drought.

This column is dedicated to exploring the latter situation, which many of the world’s big-name forwards have fallen victim to. For any forward playing at the highest level these days, it is important to prepare for an inevitable scoring drought but what is even more important is to find a response to it as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, as we are seeing first-hand in the case of Liverpool striker Fernando Torres, things can get pretty uncomfortable as far as external pressure is concerned. The Spaniard just won a World Cup this summer on the back of an impressive run of form for his club before the nightmare start to this season pegged him back.

A crucial deciding goal against West Bromwich Albion at Anfield has not been enough for Torres to buy some time. In fact, even the player’s supposedly biggest supporters – such as Jamie Redknapp’s family – have now cast a doubt on his ability to bounce back.

There are also those who feel sorry for the lad as his own injury problems are only being compounded by the shortcomings of the rest of the team. In such tough times, everyone from Joe Cole to Glen Johnson will get at least some breathing room but as far as Torres is concerned, he will never get a break; remember, he’s the one who has to score all the goals that are not being scored, right?

Wayne Rooney finds himself in a similar position right now; injuries took a toll on his form heading into this summer’s World Cup and ever since returning from South Africa, the Manchester United striker has struggled to perform even like a shadow of himself.

Nevertheless, the media is on his case, particularly since his personal problems have not helped maximize focus when his club needs it most. United have had a draw too many already this season and unless Wazza starts to rediscover his clinical touch, his club won’t find the break it desperately needs at the moment.

Rest assured, Rooney himself will also be engulfed with tremendous speculation until he finds an answer to these on-going issues. The presence of Dimitar Berbatov should help out, though. Not only is the Bulgarian finally carrying a lot of the goal-scoring load himself, but even on an emotional level, he would surely be able to relate with Wayne’s struggle.

It was merely a year ago that everything about Berba, from the club’s record transfer fee to his alleged lack of determination, were being criticized endlessly by those who never believed in him. Such was the level of stress that he even quit international football to focus on his United career.

Today, Berbatov is beginning to win over some of those folks who doubted him but as he recently admitted, his lofty price tag means that he will have to live with the endless criticism in some form or the other.

Of course, he would love to score bags of goals to silence the detractors for once and for all but that’s easier said than done; for a striker, it’s virtually impossible to silence the detractors because the goals must keep coming indefinitely.

Perhaps the one thing that keeps the forwards going is the fact that there is always someone out there who is worse off. For instance, looking at the way Liverpool handled the Robbie Keane saga, one can’t help but feel for the Irishman.

He was afforded absolutely no time to settle down at Anfield. His signing was expected to be an overnight success and just due to his prolific record at Tottenham, it was almost assumed that his partnernship with Torres would deliver the first Barclays Premier League title to the Reds.

With those unrealistic expectations and the constant pressure, it didn’t take long for Keane’s personal identity to get completely lost in the shuffle. Such was the severity of the issue that he was sold back to the Spurs for a significant financial loss after half a season.

No doubt, Rafa Benitez couldn’t remain at Merseyside for too long after such a horrific piece of business. Like I said though, there is always someone worse off.

If Liverpool paid handsomely to help Keane realize his boyhood dream, FC Barcelona broke the bank to bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the Nou Camp. In a deal that included talismanic striker Samuel Eto’o as well as $65 million, Barca publicly announced that Ibra was expected to turn into a goal-scoring machine as soon as he arrived in Catalunya.

Unfortunately, the system was not meant to be for the Swede, who often looked isolated up front looking for the passes that never came. Pep Guardiola’s tactics never called for the arrival of a big man who could latch on to long balls, which is why Ibrahimovic never completely found his rhythm.

To the outside world, though, nothing mattered more than results and since Ibra’s results were far below the price that was paid to acquire his services, he was at the receiving end of quite a bit of flak. Andriy Shevchenko must be able to relate to that as well.

After enjoying a legendary career at AC Milan, Chelsea brought him to Stamford Bridge in a system that was too fast for a player who liked to take his time with the ball. It was mainly the idea to sign him that was faulty to begin with but since the viewers could only see the player struggling for goals, it was concluded that Sheva’s club career had ended on a disastrous note.

The harsh reality is that sooner or later, forwards have to come to terms with the reality that theirs is a job where there is never a break. Ideally, no position in a competitive football game has a margin for error but for modern-day forwards, it is particularly important to put the ball in the back of net on a continuing basis.

If that does not happen, then it’s only a matter of time that they will be singled out for not doing their job properly.

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