From the goalkeeper, defense, midfield, and the forwards, you could easily say for one reason or another why there is more than one position that is the hardest. So, what is the hardest position to play in soccer?

The hardest position to play in soccer is an attacking position and in particular, the striker. This is because the striker’s success is not solely on them, they are reliant on other players passing them the ball and giving them good goal scoring chances. They cannot do it all by themselves.

We will now look at why that exact position is considered the hardest position in soccer to play. In addition to that, we will go through and look at some of the best players in the world that play the striker position.

Why is the striker position the hardest to play in soccer?

There are numerous reasons why the striker position is the hardest to play in soccer. Depending on what type of formation the team plays, a striker can be by himself with a winger on either side of him.

Or sometimes teams can go with playing two strikers in the same starting XI.

If a striker is playing by himself then depending on the formation, he can find that for long spells of the match, he will not touch the ball.

This could be for many reasons; first, it could be solely down to the service that he is given by the midfielders and wingers.

When going through long periods of the match with next to no involvement, then that is where the mental side of the game takes center stage for a striker.

They must constantly be switched on during the game because at any given time they could be called upon and they will be needed to put the chance away.

If a striker has gone a lot of time with no service or touches of the ball, then if he is not mentally invested in the game, when a chance does come his way, there is a high probability he will not convert the chance.

However, if he is mentally in the game and only has one chance for the entire 90 minutes and scores from that chance, his side might win the match with that single shot. That is why top-quality strikers have been so sought after.

That is why forwards like Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe are in the top five when it comes to expensive forwards because they can be the difference whether their team wins or loses the match. The 12 highest-paid soccer players in the world | Business Insider

On top of this, they must be in great physical shape as well. This is because they will be constantly making forward runs, or in a physical battle with a center-half, and doing this for 90 minutes is taxing on your body.

So, if they are not fit enough physically when a chance does come their way late in the game because the player is tired, then his technique will not be as good as it should be and that can lead to them missing that all-important chance.

A striker’s service will ultimately determine what kind of game he is going to have. If the service (through balls and crosses) is constantly poor, then the forward is not going to have a high success rate of scoring a goal.

This can be particularly frustrating for forwards because this is something that they have no control over.

Whether crosses are overhit or they are not in the vicinity of the striker then there is next to no chance of the forward scoring. This can be down to several factors.

Such as how the opposition is set up to stop that specific player i.e. man-marking with one or more central defenders. Then it is going to be hard for the winger or midfielder to find enough space between the defenders so the forward can get a clear sight on goal.

If the striker is in a constant two on one battle, then odds are that he is going to have a hard time scoring goals.

This is because one central defender can essentially man-mark the forward, while the other keeps an eye on the space and tracks the runs that are made. When this happens, the onus is on the wingers and midfielders to get creative and support the forward the best they can.

What separates the real world-class strikers from the average ones, is that they can take some of the poor crosses or passes and turn them into goals.

Whether that be from a piece of skill or simply through hard running and determination, the absolute best can score goals even when the rest of the side is not playing to their highest levels.

Another factor is the team’s formation. If the team is set out in a 4-4-2 formation (four defenders, four midfielders, and two strikers) then both forwards can work together and help each other.

This could be one making a diagonal run out into space to then leave space for the other to run into. Together they can link up with each other and help create scoring opportunities for one another.

The opposition that the striker is playing against will determine the formation as well as the game plan. If the team is playing against a side that they should be beating, then the manager will set up the team to give the striker the best chance at scoring goals.

However, if the team is playing a top-quality opposition, for example, the United States Men’s National Team is playing against Brazil then the formation can be more defensive-minded.

This is done so that the side is difficult to break down because the stronger side is going to have more possession of the ball.

When a team is set up defensively then the striker is already at a disadvantage to start with. As other players will not be in advanced enough positions to support because the primary role for them is to defend and not concede goals, rather than making forward runs and potentially leaving spaces for the opposition to exploit.

The Best Soccer Players (strikers)

Robert Lewandowski

Lewandowski is perhaps the best striker in world football. He is the complete striker. He can score goals with either foot, his head, and even with skill.

He is one of the deadliest finishers in the world and he has the goalscoring record to prove it.

Everyone knew he was a top marksman while at German side Borussia Dortmund (74 goals in 131 appearances), yet he took his game to another level when he joined Bayern Munich.

To date, Lewandowski has 173 goals in just 193 games which is nothing short of incredible. A truly world-class striker.

Erling Haaland

Despite only being 20 years old, Erling Haaland is already considered to be one of the best strikers in the world. Starting for Red Bull Salzburg, Haaland scored 16 goals in 17 games before signing for Borussia Dortmund.

This year Haaland has already scored 23 goals in just 25 games for the German outfit and is well on his way to becoming one of the best strikers in the world already.

Cristiano Ronaldo

One of if not the best to ever do it, in this generation at least. He can be deployed anywhere across the front three however as a striker Ronaldo is the next level.

Despite him being 35 years old, he continues to have high-quality performances on the pitch. Playing for Real Madrid, Ronaldo built on his already stellar career at Manchester United and blossomed into the perfect all-around forward.

His goal-scoring record is exceptional. In total scoring 458 goals in just 584 appearances. Since his move to Italian Giants Juventus, Ronaldo has been nothing short of remarkable.

60 goals in just 69 games and he is doing it while he is 35 years old, incredible.

Karim Benzema

Benzema flies under the radar, especially when you look at the names listed above, however, the Frenchman is just as lethal.

Starting for French side Lyon he quickly made a name for himself, scoring 43 goals in 112 matches while still relatively young. His move to Real Madrid in 2009 has seen his form go up and down. The Best Strikers In The World 2020 – Complete Sports

However, his goal-scoring record cannot be overlooked. 173 goals he has scored for Los Blancos in 357 matches, to be one of the most clinical strikers in the game today.

The list could be much longer however these four players have shown on numerous occasions why they are at the top of the pile when fans talk about the best strikers in the world.

It is hard to narrow it down to just four players, but what a list of four players it is.

Still, soccer is about scoring, and you need strikers to score; plus, there must be a reason why strikers receive the highest salaries in soccer teams. But, what is a striker in soccer anyway, and what does he do?

A striker is the one who plays nearest the opposing goal. His primary role is to score. It’s also known as forward, and according to specific functions in the field, it can be named false 9, target man, poacher, among others.    

Soccer has changed a lot since people started playing the sport. In the past, teams used to line up six or even more forwards; it was all about scoring and having fun.

Modern soccer is more physical; it’s about pressing, suffocating the rival, occupying the field’s width, and much more.

Still, something never changed; to be successful, a soccer team needs a good striker.  

What are the qualities of a good striker?

The world of soccer saw hundreds of brilliant strikers, all with different and even opposite characteristics.

Skillful and explosive like Romário, strong and opportunist like Klose, super-athletic like Cristiano, fast and technical like Ronaldo, and the list goes on.

It’s not possible to determine what kind of striker is the best striker. However, it’s possible to know what qualities must have a player to be a good striker.

1. Ball control – Inside the box, where strikers usually receive the ball, there’s no time; they must act fast. Ideally, a striker should make an oriented control of the ball and then shoot to the goal—two movements, control, and shoot.  
2. Precision – In a soccer game, teams usually have only a few chances of scoring. A striker might have only three or four real opportunities to score; that’s why precision is vital for shooting to goal and assisting a better-positioned teammate. 
3. Positioning – A good striker must read the game correctly and sense where the ball might go. For instance, if a teammate performs a long-distance shoot, the striker must run towards the goal and catch the goalkeeper’s rebound. 
4. Strength and balance – A striker shouldn’t necessarily have a big size, but they must bear with defenders’ tricks. Shoves, casual shirt grabbing, and stomps shouldn’t stop a good striker from controlling the ball and scoring.
5. Creativity – In some matches where the mark is too tight or squads have an even level, a team might struggle to create chances of scoring. That’s when a striker’s creativity must flourish; he needs to create opportunities for himself. 

Honorable mentions of speed, technique, and heading. A good striker can lack these attributes and still score lots of goals; of course, having them is a plus.

For instance, the Bosnian Dzeko is slow, the Spanish Morata is not very technical, and Mo. Salah has no heading skills, and still, they score a lot for their teams. 

Each team has a style of playing, and the right striker is the one that fits better into that style. There is an old argument about the position in the field and the player’s qualities in soccer.

Is it the player’s qualities that determine what’s their role in the team, or the player must adapt to the designated position? It is perhaps, a little bit of both?

Regardless of that argument, every squad chooses which type of striker is the better option for them.

Types of striker

1. Target man

The target man, also known as “number 9,” is the reference for their teammates in the opposing box. Target men are usually muscular, robust, tall, perhaps not very fast, and with a good aerial game.

These players rely on their physicality to beat defenders. A team with a solid target man will launch long passes to the striker, and after the heading, their teammates will get the rebound, in a technique called “second ball.” 

Target man, with some exceptions, usually plays in small teams nowadays. A team with fewer resources than its rival, accepting its inferiority, will pack midfielders and defenders in its own half, leaving forward only one man to hold the ball and work a miracle, get fouled, or at least hold the ball for a few seconds.

Duvan Zapata from Atalanta or Romelo Lukaku illustrates this role quite perfectly.  

2. Shadow striker

A shadow striker is mainly used in teams with two forwards. It’s also called “second striker” because it plays a little behind the other forward.

Shadow strikers are generally fast and light, and they attack from outside the box into it. They also tend to start the team’s pressing on rival defenders when out of possession. 

Shadow strikers, coming from behind, can assist the other forward or score themselves. These forwards are incredibly hard for full-backs because they “can’t find it.”

As the second striker plays mostly outside of the box, defenders have no reference, and they must do zonal marking, which is dangerous against a quick, sneaky forward. 

Examples of excellent shadow strikers could be Michael Owen playing with Alan Shearer in England’s national team, or Javier Saviola sharing the attack with Patrick Kluivert in Barcelona.

3. Deep Lying Forward

This kind of striker likes going outside the box to exchange passes with the advanced midfielders and create chances for itself and its teammates.

Deep-lying forwards plays a lot backward the opposing goal; once they receive the ball, they can choose between turning around and facing the goalkeeper or looking for a free teammate. 

When a team needs to change the attack’s side, this striker usually goes out of the box to receive and turn the game into the opposite side.

They’re typically technical strikers with reasonable ball control and excellent long-distance shooting ability. Players that excelled at this position were Roberto Baggio playing for Juventus and Rivaldo for Barcelona.

4. Advanced Forward

The advanced forward is the player that stalks the last defensive line, trying to find the breach and receive a pass between lines, face to face with the goalkeeper.

It helps to press the rivals and often leaves the box looking to create space. One of such a striker’s disadvantages is that it spends so much time and energy trying to find the breach into the defensive lines that its participation in the creation is low or null.

When the team suffers from creating chances, this kind of striker is the one that most feel it. The advanced forward needs to be fed by their teammates; if the ball never arrives, they starve.

This role’s soulmate is the deep-lying forward because they make space for each other—the advanced looking for a pass through the defensive line and the other getting out of the box to create chances.

Gonzalo Higuaín in Napoli playing with Insigne or Callejón at Napoli would be a good example.

5. Poacher

This type of striker is a constant threat for defenders. The poacher will not help defensively to their teammates, nor will be involved in creating chances for them.

This forward only thinks about scoring, and it’s there where puts all the energy. Poachers are usually explosive and highly intelligent when it comes to reading the game.

They’re almost always well placed in the field, ready to push the ball into the net. They might be considered selfish players (and usually are), but the good ones can score a lot for their teams. 

Examples of successful poachers are Romário, Mauro Icardi, and Jamie Vardy. 

6. Defensive forward

Its name might sound contradictory, but it exists. Defensive forwards’ role is annoying rival defenders. They run like headless chickens in his zone of marking and won’t leave alone any defender to handle the ball in peace.

They are not too worried about scoring (although, of course, they want to), and they keep themselves busy blocking, stopping, being a pain in the foot. 

These strikers habitually play next to an older, experienced, and talented but out-of-shape striker.

It would be fair to say that the defensive forward runs for him and his attacking partner. This striker tends to have, as we can imagine, a low goal rate. 

Lars Stindl of Borussia Mönchengladbach plays this role, and Franco Soldano of Boca Juniors as well, both with low goal rates. Another example could be Roberto Firmino in Liverpool; still, the Brazillian has a high goal rate. 

7. Pressing forward

As its names indicate, the pressing forward primary role is to pursue and put pressure on the opposite defensive line. Its team tactics determine the line where this player starts pressing.

When a team uses pressing forwards, it prevents the opposition’s defenders from making a clean pass to midfielders and forcing them to play long balls.

They cause their rivals’ errors by leaving the less talented defender with the ball and covering the ones that handle the pressure better and have better quality passing. 

After the epic final in the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup between Barcelona and Estudiantes de la Plata, the Argentinians’ manager explained their focus on closing down every possible pass, except Puyol.

The Spanish defender was the less talented with the ball, and by forcing him to start the plays, Barcelona’s normal flow was disadvantaged.

This kind of striker became popular recently since most of the world’s teams choose to start their plays with short passes from the goalkeeper. 

The attacking duo of the Argentinian River Plate, Rafael Santos Borré and Matías Suarez, is an excellent example of relentless pressing forwards. 

8. Complete Forward

This player is, as its name indicates, every coach’s dream. It reunites the deep-lying forward’s technical qualities, the poacher’s opportunism and intelligence, and the target man’s power and physical attributes.

A complete forward do almost everything well. It sticks to opposing defenders to put pressure and force an error, creating space for itself and its teammates getting out of the box. 

They are usually fast, strong, and have a decent aerial game. This type of striker can dribble, score, shoot, pass.

There are rare examples of complete forwards; Ronaldo Fenômeno, Samuel Eto’o, or even Cristiano could be some. 

9. Wingers

Wingers are strikers playing in wide positions. They need to be explosive and fast, and they must know how to dribble.

Wingers disappeared from teams after the ’70s, where teams used to play with four forwards, two inside the box, and a winger per side.

After the four-forward era, squads decided to employ more people in the middle of the pitch. Nowadays, the winger striker came back with a slight difference.

In the past, wingers’ tasks were purely offensive; today, on the other hand, wingers must help midfielders to recover possession. 

A winger’s central role is to get to the end of the pitch and cross to the striker inside the box. The ideal winger is that who takes advantage of every one on one duel with a defender. 

Wingers can also act as inverted wingers; this is a left-handed player on the right, and vice versa.

Playing as an inverted winger, the player can cut through the middle from the side and shoot to the goal. 

The Brazilian Mané Garrincha, probably the best winger ever, and the British George Best are traditional wingers examples. Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben from Bayern Munich are good examples of inverted winger roles. 

10. False Nine

This role became worldwide famous after Lionel Messi, and Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona destroyed Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League final. Still, the false nine roles has quite a long story. 

The teams that choose this type of striker usually attack with wingers in the so-called “positional game.”

The false nine starts the offensive play inside the box as a reference for rival defenders but then gets out of it and joins the midfield to create number superiority.

When this player joins the midfield, it creates a vast space inside the box that wingers take advantage of, and defenders face a fatal dilemma.

If they advance to close the false nine, they leave a huge gap; if they stay put, the false nine has an immense free space in front of them.

And when the striker has Lionel Messi’s accuracy, the defenders’ dilemma turns into a fatal trap. 

The great Hungary of Ferenc Puskás that lost the World Cup final in 1954 against Germany used Nándor Hidegkuti as a false nine. Rinus Mitchell used this tactic in the Netherland national team, where Johan Cruyff itself would play as false nine. 

Scoring a goal in soccer is the hardest part of the game. That’s why strikers earn more money than the rest of their teammates and why teams pay astronomical amounts to have their services.

Apart from the right tactics, positioning, skills, attributes, and role in the pitch, it involves a pinch of luck in the process. 

If you look closely at every goal scored, only a few of them go directly from the striker’s foot to the end of the net. Chris Andersen, in his book “The numbers of the game,” explains this perfectly.

He says that the percentage of “clean goals” is astonishingly low, so he concludes that the vast majority of goals scored are in a significant portion, the product of a balanced set of coincidences.

And if all this is true then, what does it take to be a good striker?

How to be a striker in soccer

It might sound repetitive, but to be a striker, a player needs to score often, create lots of chances or assist their teammates. A striker who can’t do any of that should consider a different position.

They should be alert and assume that the defenders will miss and be ready to act, just like drivers on a highway believe that the guy in front will do something stupid.

Self-confidence is also crucial. A striker must trust in its abilities and be optimistic about its chances of scoring. 

I saw an interview with Gabriel Batistuta once; he was giving some tips for forwards. He said that a manager gave him lots of tricks he used and was of immense help.

A striker should play on tiptoes, he said, because, like that, you are half a second ahead of the defender who needs to get on his tiptoes to start running.

It makes sense; any fraction of a second of advantage is good to get first to the ball and score. 

A striker’s mindset must be bulletproof, too; defenders will do anything to make a forward lose its focus.

The ball might take time to get back to the striker’s zone of action, and that time, with the referee on the other side of the pitch, a defender’s company might turn into mental warfare.  

Strikers need to be tricky. Good defenders study the forwards they’re facing. A defender needs to read strikers and anticipate their next steps.

That’s why a forward must be deceiving, look scared when they’re not, or tired. Any trick will do the job.