Isak, Gyökeres and Ekitiké herald a new age of the center-forward | Premier League

IIt has only been a decade since it seemed to be refined out of existence. Spain had won Euro 2012 with Cesc Fàbregas as a fake new, and Germany, which largely took Spain as a model, was less than convinced that they needed it during the 2014 World Cup. They aligned Thomas Müller as a fog new to the quarter -final, when Jögi Löw finally returned to Miroslav Klose. That he was 36 years old did not seem to confirm that the older n ° 9 was an old -fashioned phenomenon – a dying race. However, this summer, the main interest in the transfer market was the carousel of the strikers.

Of course, the strikers have never completely disappeared. The four best first league scorers in 2014-2015 were Sergio Agüero, Harry Kane, Diego Costa and Charlie Austin. Mauri Icardi and Luca Toni dominated the charts in Italy, while Cristiano Ronaldo, his conversion into a complete n ° 9, was the top scorer in Spain (although he was followed by Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Neymar suggested a greater variety of scorers there).

The feeling, however, was that the smartest football – the most advanced football – involved a central attacker who was there at least as much for his movement and his ability to link the game as for his finish. The phenomenon of wide players’ goals – like Messi in Barcelona, Arjen Robben in Bayern or Eden Hazard in Chelsea, a coat that has been taken up today by Mohamed Salah, Kylian Mbappé and Raphinha – meant that objectives came from a wider range of sources.

But while the goals’ placement point remains, there was a return to the higher level acceptance for the central attacker. Pep Guardiola, the coach who seemed the most skeptical about traditional n ° 9 – never really convinced by Agüero – perhaps started when Manchester City signed Erling Haaland. The great Norwegian led the city to make a significant adjustment of their style. He does not join to play in the way all other Guardiola players do it. He does not fall into the midfielder or draws wide – a creative tension that brought a triple during his first season to the club, but which may have been a factor of disappointment in the city last season.

At the same time, the most common criticism of Arsenal was that they lacked a center-center. They needed to play well to win, because they did not have a player who could leap with half a chance to steal a victory from a tight match, or sometimes even converting their good game into goals. Alexander Isak would have seemed a very natural adjustment for them, but fees of 120 million pounds sterling / 140 million dollars or no longer have ever been within reach, and they therefore ended up with Viktor Gyökeres. This is a calculated risk given that he is 27 years old and has not really been prolific in the last four seasons – two in the championship with Coventry and two in Portugal with Sporting – but as long as the concerns he took too long to get his shot in overcrowded situations that are baseless in this central role.

It is Isak, however, which is held in the center of the Grand Striker Shuffle. He is tall and fast, his intelligent movement, and he has proven in the last two seasons a constant marker of the Premier League. It is understandable why Newcastle is so desperate to keep it, but also understandable that it feels undervalued on £ 120,000 per week / 6.2 million pounds sterling (8.4 million dollars) per year. He has three years left on his contract, therefore beyond the fear he can sulk, there are few reasons for Newcastle to let him go. They can insist on costs of 140 million pounds sterling or more – certainly enough to buy a high -level replacement, perhaps Benjamin Šeško of RB Leipzig.

This is what makes it strange that Isak has made its public availability that after Liverpool signed Hugo Ekitiké, who has a profile similar to Isak but, at 23, is much less developed. Chelsea would also have been interested in Isak if they had not already bought two centers in João Pedro and Liam Delap. Perhaps by selling one or both of Darwin Núñez and Luis Díaz, Liverpool could afford him. Signing a second central striker would be a remarkable step for a club where, for several years, one of the main roles in the center-center was to open the way to Salah. It may suggest that the change happens – Liverpool begins to prepare for life without Salah, which is, after all, 33.

But Isak is not an old school attacker. Alan Shearer was perhaps the last of his line, at least at the level of the elites in England. From Marco Van Basten, through Andriy Shevchenko and Thierry Henry, the attackers have become much more complete figures, combining elements of the target man, the channel runner and the poacher. Isak and João Pedro have the whole range of skills; Ekitike and Šeško develop them. The central attackers, with a larger range of attributes than their predecessors, are suddenly in fashion again while football moves to a new era of the attacker.

• It is an extract from football with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look of the Guardian US during the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have a question for Jonathan? Send an email to soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he will respond to the best in a future edition.