With a spending spree over £80 million this season, Manchester City have shown their ambition – they want to break this “Top 4” and plan to do so, with a shower of new forward players being bought. The strong, determined and talented Tevez will add to the height power of Santa Cruz and Adebayor, while the pace of Robinho and Bellamy will be crucial.
However, as you analyse Man City’s first team, you notice a large fraction of the first team are strikers or forwards, admittedly Robinho, Bellamy and Bojinov can play as wingers – but that still leaves over 5 strikers to fight for that one striker position (or two, or even three, depending how City play this upcoming season).
This blog entry is aimed to inform you on the strengths and weaknesses of each Man City’s forwards and how they will contribute to Mark Hughes’s team this upcoming season.
Emmanuel Adebayor
Strengths: Excellent in the air, capable of scoring super goals out of nothing, very strong.
Weaknesses: Inconsistent, Lacks Commitment, Can often “go missing” in games.
Craig Bellamy
Strengths: Incredibly quick, can be used as an impact substitution and change a game.
Weaknesses: Where to begin… inconsistency, problems off the pitch, huge injury problems are just a few to name.
Roque Santa-Cruz
Strengths: Good understanding of where to be when he doesn’t have the ball, great finisher, great in the air, can hold the ball up very well.
Weaknesses: Not a great dribbler, sometimes his efforts are minimized when against great defenders.
Carlos Tevez
Strengths: Very good shooter (long range or short range, it doesn’t matter), extremely determined – always chasing lost balls.
Weaknesses: Incredibly hard to find a weakness in Tevez’s game, due to his natural talent, great physique and excellent determination to succeed, on his day, Tevez can be trouble for anyone.
Ched Evans
Strengths: A touch of Pippo Inzaghi in Ched Evans – you don’t know why he’s playing at a team like Manchester City until you see him play, naturally talented and has a good pass on him, not selfish on the ball.
Weaknesses: Lacks stamina to last 90 minutes, not strong enough either.
Felipe Caicedo
Strengths: Physically (strength) he is up there with Adebayor, great in the air as well. Has a knack of scoring some beautiful goals, check out the one below – Henry-esque from Caicedo.
Weaknesses: Still growing in talent; his technique, understanding of football and his fitness all need to be improved in order for him to be a top-class striker.
Valeri Bojinov
Strengths: Bojinov has been unlucky to sustain two serious injuries (which have kept him out for more than two years since he arrived) which could potentially decrease his chance of being a top-level striker, Bojinov has an eager eye for goal – he can dribble very well and shoot with power.
Weaknesses: Injuries, very injury-prone.
Robinho
Strengths: Excellent dribbling ability, excellent passing ability too – he can be the one that is threading the passes/crosses to Adebayor or Santa Cruz to finish.
Weaknesses: Very, very weak, often when away from home. Robinho does not play very well.
Benjani
Strengths: Incredible work rate, puts 100% into all of his games, has a good finish on him.
Weaknesses: Just not enough all-round quality, he isn’t a top-4 team striker – he’s good, but he won’t score 30 league goals a season.