John Terry says the modern game lacks classic number 9 strikers other than Haaland | OneFootball

Chelsea legend John Terry says the modern game lacks classic style number 9 strikers other than Erling Haaland at Manchester City.

And to be honest, he’s right, isn’t he? There are a real lack of these type of big 9s who are more central target men who play off the last man. Chelsea have certainly been struggling to find themselves one over recent years and the last very good one we had really was Diego Costa.

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So, is it a dying breed, this type of striker? Maybe it is.

Terry on strikers

Robert Sanchez lobbed by Erling Haaland. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Speaking on strikers in general, Terry said:

“In the academy at Chelsea we have number 9s that have drifted away into, I call it the Thierry [Henry] role kind of out wide because they want the ball to feet. They want to kind of face the defender.

“I don’t see too many players other than [Erling] Haaland in today’s football that get on the shoulder of a centre half and want to stretch and make those runs in behind as well.”

Is this a good thing or a bad thing then? For me, I think it’s a bad thing. Classic strikers are so hard to mark and really the ones who have a history of being the biggest problem to deal with and the ones that bang the goals in – Didier Drogba being a prime Chelsea example.

In other news…

In his post match interview from the Burnley game, Trevoh Chalobah pointed to another one of this team’s big flaws – their inability to score their chances and put games away.

Wesley Fofana’s tears after Chelsea were knocked out by Arsenal were for personal reasons, it turns out…

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: