Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The need for a striker

As I have been saying over and over; we need a striker who can produce goals. For a while now, it's been our biggest need, there has been attempts to fill that need but we're still looking. The big question though is who can we bring in or is there anyone from within who can feel that need? Well lets have a look.

Firstly, lets have a look at who we have from within our current squad.

Tatsuya Tanaka has been hit by injuries the last couple of years and even when healthy hasn't produced goals on a consistant basis. Tanaka is more of a winger rather then an out and out striker though, and lacks the size to be a "target" up front.

Sergio Escudero has been around for a while but is still only 23 years old. For all the promise he has shown throughout the years, there has been as much disappointment. A goal scorer though he hasn't been. Sergio has always been on the fringe of the starting XI but just hasn't been able to stake his claim. Maybe this year with a lack of striker, could be the year for Sergio to shine?
Genki Haraguchi was our top scorer in 2011 but wasn't deployed as our primary striker, rather playing on the wing. Can he play more central to be the primary target? Does he lack the size? Think Lionel Messi. I don't want to compare Genki with Leo (Leo is smaller then Genki) but just to give you an idea of the possibilities. Genki was our "x-factor" in 2011 and wouldn't be surprised if nothing changes in 2012. I do believe that Genki will one day be our "number 9", but is 2012 too soon?
Ranko Despotovic was brought into the fold only 6 months ago and hasn't delivered the goals. The signs has shown that he is capable and has the ideal size. Ranko was the top scorer in the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup, where he scored 4 goals in 5 appearance. So Ranko can score goals and if he can bring his league cup form into the J-League all this need for a new striker will be over. The biggest question is can he?
Finally there's Adilson Ferreira de Souza (Popo). As I have mentioned before I don't know if we brought him in to score goals or to be Richardes "teddy bear". I have no doubt he will be given the opportunity but whether he will deliver is the biggest question. Do I see Popo scoring 10 goals for us in 2012? No, but hopefully I'm proven wrong because if I am there would be alot of happy people in Red.

So are the above players the answer? If they aren't who can we bring in? We've tried to lure Kazuma Wantanabe, Mike Havenaar and Tadanari Lee; but they all rejected us. So who else is left? One of the biggest "circumstance" we have to consider is that the striker has to be a local player. We already have the 3+1 internationals, ironically 2 of them are strikers. So lets see who's out there? (Please note that more then likely the following players are contacted to their current clubs and have zero to no chance of joining the Reds).

Yohei Toyoda was the top scorer for the J2 in 2011 with Sagan Tosu. But then again Hiroyuki Takasaki was J2's top scorer in 2009 with Mito Hollyhock and the proceeding two years only scored 3 goals for us. Was it due to the lack of opportunity or something else? Toyoda is a less likely option as he is moving to the J1 with Sagan Tosu. (Update: Only fully transfered to Sagan Tosu this off season)

Kensuke Nagai is the third option up front at Nagoya; behind Kennedy and Tamada. To get more J1 opportunities, would Nagoya consider loaning Nagai to the Reds?

So what are our chances for claiming a striker or should we expect to go with who we have? We all know that Petrovic 2.0 wanted Tadanari Lee, so does that mean he's not happy with our current crop of strikers? Will Popo be more then just Richardes' teddy bear? There are many questions regarding our strikers, but only time will tell how it pans out.

For me personally, I'd like to see how Genki pans out has our target up front. How about you?

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