Ask any child who is just starting to learn about football: what position do you want to play in? Nine out of ten will say: attacker.
The reason is obvious: the attacker plays closer to the opponent’s goal. Thus, when you receive the ball, your chance of sending the ball into the net increases.
And what is the greatest goal in football, the greatest joy in football? The goal. That’s explained, it is unnecessary to list other reasons or justifications.
The child attacker grows up and, if he doesn’t change position, becomes a young attacker. He grows (not only in size, but in his career) and, remaining in his position, becomes an adult attacker.
If he is good enough, he starts to wear the shirt of a professional club, with financial remuneration, title competition, travel, and so on. Playing ball, and as a striker: a dream come true, here is a rare lucky man among so many who wanted, tried and failed.
But it’s not always that simple. The role of a striker is like that of the protagonist in a film: the responsibility is much greater. With the difference that the actor doesn’t need to score goals, and the striker does.
That’s exactly where the problem lies: the lack of goals. Someone said one day – I couldn’t find out who – that “the striker lives for goals”. It has become a cliché: ten out of ten of them have said this phrase at least once in their lives, whether on or off the microphone.
What does “the striker lives for goals” mean? It is a connotation that has a very simple interpretation: the goal for him is his food, his fuel, his oxygen, his survival. Failing to score will result in malnutrition, severe breakdown, shortness of breath and, ultimately, death.
This death is symbolic. It means that the aversion, which follows the discontent, of fans and directors becomes so great for the attacker who does not fulfill his main function that he “dies” for the club. It is traded at a depreciated value or simply dismissed.
This concludes the importance of the striker always scoring goals. To keep your confidence high and to meet the wishes of the employer and the client (fans).
Expectations surrounding a striker’s performance are heightened when he changes teams. If it was expensive, it goes to heights, it grows exponentially.
This is the case of Matheus Cunha, 26. Olympic champion at the Tokyo Games in 2021, the Paraíba native from João Pessoa, silver from Coritiba, after discreet spells at Sion (SUI), Leipzig and Hertha Berlin (ALE) and Atlético de Madrid (ESP), rose in production at English club Wolverhampton.
His 15 goals in the 2024/2025 Premier League for the average club made the wealthy and struggling Manchester United pay 74 million euros (R$464 million at current exchange rates) for the Brazilian’s services.
He was expected to quickly “deliver” what a striker “delivers”: goals. That didn’t come. Two months passed, eight games, more than 500 minutes on the field – an eternity –, and nothing.
Until against Brighton, on Saturday (25), he heard from his teammates: “Look, you know how to score.”
It was an irony, resulting from the drought the Brazilian was going through, who had just scored a goal in the game in Manchester. The tone was cordial, but it embedded the distrust that now existed in Matheus Cunha’s ability to fulfill his primary role.
The number 10 did not hide his relief: “Finally! I was looking forward to it. When you play up front, you need to score goals. The moment has come.”
It was a release, a breather, a refreshment. He knows, however, that he needs to maintain this momentum and accelerate the artillery to avoid the approach of “death”.
That at Man United came relentlessly, without mercy, in recent seasons, for top scorers like the Englishman Rashford, the Danish Hojlund and the Dutchman Weghorst. Not even Cristiano Ronaldo, in his most recent stint, survived.
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