Midfield Goalscoring Machines
September 20th 2010 13:00
Link: twitter.com/mattsaltmer
At the start of this new Premier League season, there have been an abundance of goals coming from midfielders, who in the modern game, are more reliable goalscorers than some strikers. Football worldwide has changed in recent years, gone are the days of strikers being relied on for almost all of a team's goals in a season. Take any European league, and midfielders are dominating the scoring charts, with no better example than Messi in Spain. But the English Premier League has also seen this shift.
While no midfielder has ever scooped the Premier League golden boot, unless you count winger Cristiano Ronaldo when at Manchester United, there is a group of lethal midfield scorers. Last season, Frank Lampard struck 22 league goals, while Cesc Fabregas, Steven Gerrard and Florent Malouda also reached double figures. And five games into the new campaign, and Malouda leads the scoring charts with six already, with Arsenal winger Theo Walcott not far behind. So just how much is this a new thing in the Premier League?
Well, if you look at the all-time goalscoring charts, and strikers dominate it. Legends such as Alan Shearer, Robbie Fowler, Andrew Cole, Thierry Henry and Les Ferdinand lead the way, and they were all out and out forwards. However, the all time scoring chart has a very different look, if you only look at players currently playing in the Premier League. Michael Owen has 147 goals, lying sixth in the list, the highest of any current player. While strikers like Robbie Keane, Jermain Defore and Emile Heskey are also quite high in the list, there's a clutch of midfielders very high up.
Frank Lampard is the second highest scorer in the Premier League history still playing in it. He is followed closely by Ryan Giggs, who has still scored in every single Premier League season since the league began, Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard. Despite not being around long enough to be high on the list, the likes of Tim Cahill, Cesc Fabregas, Florent Malouda, Gareth Bale and James Milner are also some of the most reliable goalscorers in the league.
There is no doubt that while in the past, the best teams in the league were defined by how many goals there strikers scored, goals from midfield now decide to an extent the successes of clubs. The reason for Chelsea's dominance last season, was goals from Malouda and Lampard supporting Drogba, while for Manchester United, there weren't enough midfield goals to back up Rooney. The same applies for avoiding relegation, as newly promoted clubs rely on goals from midfield.
Modern day football has now developed this new role of the midfield goal machine. Using the best example in the English Premier League, Frank Lampard at Chelsea, he is expected to get on the score sheet each week, like a striker. Also at Liverpool, Steven Gerrard is the man the fans always look too for goals. Gone are the days of strikers having the job of scoring, and it is now much more about goals from everywhere, especially from the middle of the park!
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