Introduction
As a 13-year old playing as a forward (‘number 9’) for a prominent football team in Leicester (Highfield Rangers) – and at a cross-roads in my (potential) football career, I was (wrongly) diagnosed with meniscitis and told to stay away from any intense sports for ~6 months. As football was my only passion at the time, I couldn’t resist a kick-about with my school mates and ended up damaging my knee even further. I would have very intense pain for days after every game. I went to another doctor for help and he diagnosed me with Osgood-Schlatters disease, which is a common cause of knee pain in growing adolescents who do intense sports. It’s certainly not as bad as meniscitis and many players who reached the top like Steven Gerard and Paul Scholes have it. So, if I was diagnosed correctly at the time, I could have got away with a couple of weeks’ rest and regular ice pack treatment until my growth spurt ended – which I probably would have obliged. So (i) the wrong diagnosis, (ii) my inability to withstand my desire to play football, and (iii) not having someone to guide me in my early football career gave me the worst possible start. Before the injury, I was the top goalscorer of the U15 team – mostly thanks to being very fast** and having a very good technique – even though I was one of the youngest and shortest at the time (I’d like to also think I was quite intelligent for my age too). Pains me to say this but, living in Germany now – where even teams in the Kreisliga (like Division 10 in the UK) have access to good resources, I can also better see that the UK or a city like Leicester was not the best place for a young player like me (see the three points in bold above). Maybe if I was in Germany, I would have been better treated and educated, and could have made a fresh start.
After the intense pain (mostly) went away in a year or so time, I started to play in football tournaments every now and then, and won a few prestigious cups (incl. local 5-a-side Goals tournaments) but always felt that I (even as a 15 year old) was now too late for professional football in the UK, so decided to concentrate on my studies – which I have no regrets over. What I do regret is that (our peak physical) life is too short to fully commit to different careers – if having a football career was an option now (i.e. as a 34 year old now, I would still be at my peak physical condition for the next 10-15 years let’s say), I definitely would have given it a go just to see how far I could go. I did have a successful Leicester Sunday League (2007-10) and University of Bristol Staff League (2012-16) career though 😊
Anyway, after a slightly longer introduction than anticipated, let’s move straight to some things I picked up from my experiences but also others’:
General advice
- Thinking about being a player you would hate to play against is a good start to set up the foundations for development. The most annoying oppositions for me were physically strong ones that never gave up – even after 3-0 down
- Technical talent is overrated. ‘Hard work’ definitely beats ‘talent’ if talent doesn’t work hard (attributed to Tim Notke – a basketball coach). When talented people work hard and continuously improve themselves, then they become unstoppable – Ronaldo and Messi being perfect examples
- Being available is the most underrated skill***. Keeping fit and ready (even if when not first pick) throughout the season is the reason why some ‘not-so-skilled’ players have had very successful and long careers at the top. I used to also think that the Golden Boot being awarded to a player who scored 1-2 extra goals than the 2nd player who played 10 games less was unfair but I now fully support it – same with the Golden Boot being shared although one player played many more games
- Learn from the wins as well as the losses – analyse what went well also, not just what went wrong
- Ask your coach and friends what you can improve on – this will be an eye opener, even if you don’t agree with them
- Study yourself first and then study the best similar-styled players. Read autobiographies of these players and analysis books (e.g. do you know what POMO is?), listen to podcasts (e.g. The Athletic, Football Ramble), and watch analysis channels such as Sky Sports Football (and related channels e.g. The Overlap) and Tifo Football. Making a Football Manager-style summary card for yourself could help (Advanced: once you’ve honed your strengths and worked on your own weaknesses, study your likely opponents and learn to exploit their (potential) weaknesses e.g. if a defender or a goalkeeper is known to be eccentric – as a striker applying pressure, you know they might try to not just hoof the ball up the field every time but fake a kick and try to get past you at some point. Be prepared to nick the ball off them when that opportunity comes)
- Best players are not right or left-sided, they use either foot almost as good
- Have short and long term plans – and when an opportunity comes, see whether it fits with those plans. If you’re not on track to achieve those goals, talk to manager and experienced mates to get their advice
- Do whatever gives you an extra boost pre-game – whether that’s listening to a certain type of music and/or praying – as most games are decided on small details (even many of those that finished 3-0)
- Think of ways to become (one of) the coach’s and fan’s favourite. This will ensure that you’re playing and give you another chance to shine – this is what each game is! For the coach, showing that you’re listening and trying to keep to his tactics is key. For the fans, having tidy hair, clapping after the game and/or chatting with them after the game will go a long way. Using social media wisely is also important once you start accumulating follower – get at least one person to have a look before posting something
- Playing for the national youth teams of smaller footballing nations is a great way to make a name for yourself – without committing to them for the rest of your career. So if you have citizenship and/or ancestry from these nations, contact their coaches and maybe you’ll get a call up even if you’re not playing in a top (youth) team. For example, a friend of mine had Antiguan ancestry and played for the Antigua and Barbuda National Team at a young age – and even played against the USA
- Try to find yourself an English-speaking agent from a young age – to help with your visibility when you’re ready to make the jump
Advice to forward players
- Number one priority for a striker is to score and directly assist goals. Getting involved in team play, winning headers, pressing defenders, defending corners etc. are all secondary and should not hinder your first priority. Only add these to your game once you’ve mastered your main job. Haaland is a perfect example of this – he can definitely improve on the other aspects but as long as he’s scoring at his current rate, no one will mind.
- Best strikers ‘lead the line‘ (e.g. Ronaldo, Rooney, Drogba, Ibrahimovic, Lewandowski, Shearer, Benzema****), therefore you must be strong physically and mentally but also have a leader mindset. If you’re not a natural leader, then take courses and/or read books to become one. You are the most important player in the team and therefore must be able to handle the responsibilities and the accompanying pressure
- Football is a team sport, thus learn to work with your team mates to make space for yourself. There’s a reason why Ronaldo and Messi consistently scored a large number of goals every year: not only are they masters on the ball but off it too (e.g. if teams blindly concentrated on stopping Messi, then Suarez or Neymar would have also destroyed them. Messi utilised Suarez and Neymar’s runs to consistently make space for himself and score). It’s also OK not to score in a game if you played ‘well’ (e.g. directly contributed to the team’s win by assisting a goal) and the team won.
- Best strikers make it look easy and usually score with their first touch where possible (max 1-2 touches before finishing). If you find yourself doing a lot of work before scoring, then reanalyse what could be made efficient. Especially work on first time finishes (of all sorts e.g. whipped, floated and slow crosses, penalties, volleys, tap-ins, headers – utilising both feet) – as defenders and/or keepers have a much increased chance of closing the angle or blocking a shot with every passing millisecond
- As a striker, you must have a thick skin and be oblivious to abuse from (cunning/dirty) defenders and the opposition supporters. I was elbowed by a defender once and the referee didn’t see it. I got so angry and wanted to punch the guy but – even in the heat of the moment I was calm enough to realise that – if I did, he would have got exactly what he wanted. I told the referee about it to make him aware and carried on with my game
- Learn to quickly forget any missed chances and not letting your head down. You will have plenty of chances to rectify any misses – if not this game, then the next. Learning to miss and forget is so important that I would recommend actually training for this. Do some ‘missing sessions’ (e.g. hit the ball nicely but deliberately miss a chance in training) and simulate how you would react. Even the greatest strikers miss gilt-edged chances but they usually do so in a cool way e.g. they hit the ball sweetly over the bar – not scuff it 😊
- Learn how to slow down games when time is on your side e.g. you’re 2-0 up after 80 minutes. I do not mean time wasting by faking an injury but running to the channels when you have the chance and keeping the ball as further away from your goal as possible. Also, keep your head up and see if other team mates are running with you – if yes, pass to them, if not, try to win a throw-in or corner by hitting the ball to the opposition. If you don’t have the chance to run, always put your body between the ball and defender so they have no choice but to foul you or let you keep control of the ball – which will give you the chance to pass or make a run yourself. The main aim is to win and anything that puts this at risk should be avoided (see France v Bulgaria 1993 for a famous example). Only if the game is surely dead (e.g. 3-0 with five minutes to go) or it’s not an important game, then you can go for ‘stat padding’ – otherwise slow the game down
- Being unpredictable will make you unstoppable. This is why being able to shoot from distance and/or chipping over a keeper, using both feet and head, coordinating with team mates to make dummy runs etc. will make you a nightmare for defenders
- Many goals are wasted because a striker can’t keep with the offside line before the ball is played. Speeding up horizontally before making a sprint towards the goal has to come naturally. As this also requires coordination with your team mates, they should recognise your run/’signal’ before they attempt the pass – and vice versa. Work on this until you get it right – also Google ‘Beating the offside trap’ and you will find many nice examples (Google everything!)
- In line with the point above regarding exploiting your opponent’s (potential) weaknesses, if you observe that a defender is prone to reckless sliding, there will be an opportunity to win an easy penalty as some point. I have seen Aguero and many other master strikers do this: As you’re about to shoot, if the defender slides from the slide to block you, you can use your feet to shield the ball and – although potentially painful – he will slide through you and knock you down. To find identify opportunities such as these, if possible, watch a game your direct rival defender has played poorly in
I hope these were useful. Please provide feedback as I would like to improve this post – I’m also happy to elaborate any point made here.
Thanks for reading!
Footnotes
*Another quote I love – I believe by Sir Bobby Robson, the legendary English manager – that I have heard years ago but haven’t been able to validate is (something like): “When the fans want you out, the board will stick by you. When the fans want the board out, get ready to pack your stuff“
**Got a gold certificate at school for running 100m in ~12.0 seconds
***Giroud is a great example for this. He’s the all-time top goalscorer of the (Men’s) France National Team
****Deliberately kept the list long to show the different types of successful strikers
An ordinary blog by an ordinary bloke 