# @wetalkfootballpodcast on Facebook

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.facebook.com/1685707026896288/posts/412693797309975
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/67550502-wetalkfootballpodcast-facebook
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/9642d69a7d.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-12-31T17:31:32.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** We Talk Football Podcast (@wetalkfootballpodcast) — https://gondola.cc/wetalkfootballpodcast

## Caption

▪️Death of the Number 9▪️

After Lukaku’s explosive interview with Sky Sport Italia (recorded several weeks ago) rocked the world of football last night, it raised the wider question: Why are so many of the Premier League‘s star strikers struggling this season?

Harry Kane’s difficulties at Spurs during the first part of this season are well documented, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looks like he’s heading for the exit door at the Emirates and Cristiano Ronaldo’s on-field gesticulating is becoming too much for some sections of United fans.

Form is temporary, class is permanent. This may be one of football’s most tired cliches but it does ring true. There is no doubt that these proven predators will yet again find the net on a consistent basis… it’s what they do.

But if you cast your gaze to the team that has been the standard bearer for football on these shores for the last five years, it’s clear that the lay of the land is changing for number nines.

Pep Guardiola and Man City are changing the face of English football before our eyes; his system is more fluid, his players are more adaptable and the standard is higher than ever. In a league defined by capitalism, he’s a manager employing tactical socialism - it’s goals by committee. The burden of putting the ball in the back of the net is not shouldered by one man but by the whole team. 

These tactical innovations are certainly pushing English football in a more progressive direction but could it spell the end for the classic number nine?

#WeTalkFootball

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