Bas Dost

He's an old fashioned number 9 IMO, he's good in the air which allows him to hold up play and bring others into the game.

I like to think of him as a Target man with excellent finishing.

He WILL stop scoring so consistently, and then people will go back to calling him out for being a technically average passenger in games where he doesn't score.

This cycle happens with every poacher. No point hyping them up unless they're putting out great numbers every season. WHEN he slows down, he'll join the other 2000 players to have short periods of goal scoring form that fade away in to the footballing abyss.

Not to go off topic but Icardi is a poacher, he offers very little outside the box except on the counter. Fantastic finisher and much like Inzaghi, when it comes to creating a shot, his first touch and dribbling are superb. He's not a very involved centre forward though, Inter's play rarely flows through him.

Back on topic, Dost is on an incredible goal scoring run but he's still very much new to the Bundesliga and teams haven't gotten a look at him previously and they certainly wouldn't have been preparing to face him in particular. He barely featured in the first half of the season for Wolfsburg and he's still a surprise package. We'll see whether he can keep scoring on a fairly regular basis over the next 12 months or whether teams figure him out.

He is helped though by the fact that he's part of a very formidable attack. Given the weapons Wolfsburg have in attack, teams can't really afford to focus on Dost.

Technically average goalscorers are dying out in the modern game. Where players have so much shit to do individually as soon as one of them becomes a passenger they get overlooked. Haven't seen much of Dost but i'm guessing he doesn't have a crazy workrate to compensate for him being a donkey when not in the form of his life

Doesn't watch much Dost and Wolfsburg fan

Because he doesn't play that often because he's a scrub most of the time

Is he the most 'in form' striker in Europe atm? Perhaps.

What I'm certain of is that he is more complete than Cristiano Ronaldo.

The critique of "the poacher" is worn-out and boring. The poacher is my favourite type of striker. They have one primary function and they are specially adapted to do it well.

Some say that a poacher is inferior to other strikers because of lack of flexibility. I think this is an incorrect assessment. The poacher can drop deep at times and that the poacher can press if you so desire. The poacher can be as versatile as you want them to be. No modern poacher just loafs around aimlessly when they don't have the ball.

The tactical conflict is that the poacher is at their best when they are springing the offside trap and/or making runs into the box. When you have a player who can effectively do that, there's no point in asking them to drop deep and defend, is there? After all, why would you give up the poacher's key advantage by taking them further away from scoring positions?

8 goals a week vs. 1 goal a week + Beckenbauer-level defending from my striker. It's an easy choice for me.

Scoring goals regularly requires great technique in itself. That's why I'd take a Mandzukic-type over a Lewandowski-type any day. I will always rate a striker on their clinical finishing first and foremost. Call me old-fashioned, but strikers who can defend aren't worth anything if they can't also convert chances more often than not.

I'd add that the argument that a poacher has nothing to offer the team when they go through a rough patch is redundant if you consider that all types of strikers go through poor form. And let's be honest, you're not going to persist with a striker who pressed hard and defended well for 38 games but only scored 4 goals. Nobody expects the poacher to carry the team. Then again, nobody should be expecting any one player to score all a team's goals.

In summary, the poacher is an increasingly underrated type of striker who is still highly effective in a time when so-called "completeness" appears to be prioritised over functionality.

Dost defending Dost

But a vast majority of teams out there can't supply a poacher with top class service week in, week out. So most teams prefer strikers who can actually get shit done themselves without being spoon fed because sometimes it's just not viable.

I loved watching the classic number 9's do their shit in the box but there's a reason most of them are dying out at the highest level. Obviously a great poacher is better than a more well rounded player with a shit goal return, but in reality most of the strikers at the highest level score bucket loads but actually contribute in other ways too.

It's not like teams have a choice between a deadly #9 fox in the box or a shit player who can link up play, you can easily find forwards nowadays with good goal outputs that can actually create their own chances and help the team function in attack so they're becoming a bit redundant really.

I think that it's a myth that poachers don't make a contribution other than scoring goals. That's how poachers are often characterised, but it's untrue. This is their main contribution, but never their only contribution. Just because they don't often create their own chances doesn't mean that their movement and passing doesn't enhance the team's overall play in the front third.

I dispute the notion that you can easily find strikers that you described. I think that there are only a select few elite strikers in the world who are great at goal scoring, chance-creation and making defensive contribution. There are not many players out there who top goal and assist charts whilst rivalling defenders on the interception/tackle charts at the same time.

Dost is by no means a bad player. If he can find consistency he can be the next Huntelaar (though bigger) which is great when you consider all Huntelaar has done in his career.

you all know nothing

MARCUS BERG

El Shaarawy wrote:Dost defending Dost

He's a poor man's me

Also I think it's a bit pointless to talk about the utility of one category of forward over another. No one player perfectly fits the stereotypes. If a player complements those that surround them and regularly contributes, whether it be on the scoresheet or in creating space and chances for others, then that's all that really matters.

By they way, Bas Dost just scored 2 goals against Werder Bremen today.

What is it now? 14 goals in his last 9 games. 12 in 6.

2 goals, 1 assist, 3 minutes.

(click to enlarge)