Portuguese striker dilemma - how can it be solved?

[z187]

Over the last 15-20 years or maybe even more Portugal has had trouble finding quality strikers, and the depth has been very shallow

look at Italy, Im sure the 10th best italian striker whoever it may be is by far better than any Portuguese striker we have right now.

Why is it? to me as an outsider lives outside of Portugal it seems to be that the main problem is any talented attacking portuguese player seems to be forced to play on the wing. Clubs in Portugal also tend to play with a formation that only permits only 1 striker and usually that spot goes to a Brazilian import and so young Portuguese strikers find it hard to rise through the ranks and have their development stifled.

It says alot that the best striker in recent times, Pedro Pauleta, is the only Portuguese national team player to never play a game in the Portuguese top flight. If Pauleta stayed in Portugal he pribably never would have reached the distinguised career he has had.

I think the FPF should do something about this. they should do whatever they can to encourage clubs and trainers to develop strikers. This is clearly a serious problem and if Portugal and the FPF do not address this we will never realise our true potential. Portugal seems to be the only country that struggles to produce quality strikers, other countries seem to not have the same problem as us.

Its giving Portugal a bad name, everyone knows Portugal stinks at strikers. We have to remmeber some Great Portuguese strikers of the past such as Eusebio, Jose Aguas, MAtateu, Torres, Fernando Peyroteo their legacy is being ruined because there is few players who can follow in their footsteps.

Producing wingers is great but its no use if you cannot produce strikers, how many times are Portuguese wingers going to cross the ball into the box only for it to be kicked out by defenders or a second rate striker struggle with it and end up shooting wide or not even getting a shot off? Look at Brazil and Italy and the success theyve had recently - they do not even use wingers in their systems they tend to play mostly through the centre.

[Frank Cunha]

I got a answer
let's make C Ronaldo our striker once and for all and get Nani, Quaresma on the lineup
and keep Simao when something goes bad

EASY CRISTIANO RONALD, the others all suck

[jec1]

The only way it can be solved is if we experiment and convert one of our wingers in that position!

I still think hugo almeida is our #1 game, he just needs playing time. That's the problem with scolari, he tinkers too much.... either play maki or Hugo!

[Frank Cunha]

another answer, forget about going with giants like Hugo Almeida, and Makukula
and put someone in there can drive the defences crazy

forget the giants

[EURODAD]

We have had strikers that have had success for thier league teams but not at the NT. I wonder if some of the problem is coaching and how we use our players. Pauleta and Hugo are examples of players that had success away from the NT. Single striker is a huge mistake. Yet we kept on using it.

[jec1]

I ventured that thought, simao has been complaining that he deserves a spot with the NT, and I agree but maybe convert him as a striker?

What do you think?

King simao

[EURODAD]

Originally Posted by Frank Cunha

I got a answer
let's make C Ronaldo our striker once and for all and get Nani, Quaresma on the lineup
and keep Simao when something goes bad

EASY CRISTIANO RONALD, the others all suck

Agreed, he is playing like a striker right now anyhow.

[Frank Cunha]

Pauleta suck during the big games, beside the Poland world cup game
suck the last world cup
Nuno Gomes had a great run in the Euro 00, scored 6 goals and leaded all of strikers in the competion

even Sergio Conceicao a midget scored 3 goals against Germany
remember the Euro 00
Portugal -3-Germany-0-

[Frank Cunha]

Originally Posted by jec1

I ventured that thought, simao has been complaining that he deserves a spot with the NT, and I agree but maybe convert him as a striker?

What do you think?

King simao

Simao can't play behind to the goal,

[Frank Cunha]

Originally Posted by EURODAD

Agreed, he is playing like a striker right now anyhow.

that's it, get him as a permanent, and leave him alone

[EURODAD]

Originally Posted by Frank Cunha

Pauleta suck during the big games, beside the Poland world cup game
suck the last world cup
Nuno Gomes had a great run in the Euro 00, scored 6 goals and leaded all of strikers in the competion

even Sergio Conceicao a midget scored 3 goals against Germany
remember the Euro 00
Portugal -3-Germany-0-

As a coach, you should have recognized that Pauleta is not the type of player that could play the single striker style. Not the right player for that set up. Nuno had one vary good run. Went to Italy and died there.

[Oliver_Kahn]

Ronaldo is a shit striker, end of.

Come on, he can't header to save his life, how many clear chances with his head did he miss yesterday ? I counted 3.

He does those stupid step-overs in front of CBs, that doesn't work, his dribblings only work on the wings where he has space to apply his pace. He doesn't have the short dribblings in his arsenal like top class strikers do.

He doesn't have the killer instinct like Nuno Gomes used to have back in 2000 when he was a still good player, like Pauleta had during his time in the NT, etc.

Ronaldo is a winger, he is not a striker. Adapting him to the striker position is an even worse mistake than making him a #10 like Scolari tried last night.

[jec1]

There are many ways to improve this team, formation wise . Scolari is just to stupado to really think of a good answer.

Btw,Where is simao?

Vacationing in hawaii?

[z187]

The problem is much deeper then we think I think the FPF needs to address the problem at the grassroots level

I doubt we will see a great Portuguese striker anytime soon

in the short-term our hope is if C.Ronaldo can become a striker and adapt to it. It wont happen, man untied have rooney and tevez as strikers so they are forced to keep ronaldo out wide. I feel Ronaldo can adapt to a striker role mainly because Ronaldo scores more goals then he assists from the wing and many of the goals he scores are goals you see strikers scoring.

also what kahn said is a good point, right now he isnt up to the job.

[Frank Cunha]

Simao was injured a couple weeks ago, the reason he was not called for the game