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Opinion
Football, like many other things, is all about trends. Those Levi’s 501 jeans were a staple of 1980s and 90s fashion and will be in fashion again at some point in time.
A trend that was very popular in English football nearly 40 years ago is once again starting to make waves in the A-League, with Perth Glory overnight announcing the signing of Israeli striker Ben Azubel.
While his goal record may not be impressive, his height sure it. At 193 centimetres Azubel will join several other tall target men in the league, which is a throwback to English football of days gone by.
The ‘target man’ is a long-forgotten position that seemed to fall out of fashion by the turn of the millennium due in part to the intricate passing of ‘tiki taka’ football in Spain and the ‘gegenpressing’ from Germany that is so popular in today’s game.
Target men were too slow to be able to press with the team and not technically good enough to play the tiki taka style required at that time.
However, in the last few years, all the way from the English Premier League to Australia’s A-League, target men appear to be back in fashion
In the 1980s and 90s target men used to wait at the top of the box for a long ball or a cross without having much of an influence in creating chances or being involved.
Nowadays strikers like Harry Kane come very deep to collect the ball but use their size as well as their technical ability to create chances and dictate the attacking tempo of the match.
Target men previously were very slow to get around the pitch and offered nothing defensively, but players like Leeds United’s Patrick Bamford are well known for their work rate and will hurry and harass opposition players when out of possession
West Ham’s Michail Antonio has shown how devastating target men can be when playing in a counterattacking side, from initially being used to get a side out of trouble to then scoring a goal several moves after that.
While a pressing style is all the rage, the best way to beat a press is still to go over it. Pressing teams are happy for opponents to do that as a long pass is more likely to be low in quality, but the easiest way to improve its effectiveness is to have a player who can make it stick.
The renaissance of the big, strong target man was on show for fans of the A-League last season with Aleksandar Prijovic guiding Western United to the championship and Hiroshi Ibusuki helping Adelaide United to a semi-finals berth.
However, Eli Babalj at the Newcastle Jets and Kusini Yengi from Adelaide United were sparingly able to use their talents in injury-riddled campaigns, while Tomi Juric, Bobo and Tomer Hemed were not able to match the impact they had from two seasons ago.
Perth’s Ben Azubel will not be the only stereotypical burly No. 9 in the A-League next season, with the prolific Charlie Austin signing on for the Roar, and then there’s the return from a season-ending injury of Mariner Matt Simon, whose strength and physicality have left many a defender battered and bruised.
Whether you like or loathe it, the target man is a trend from yesteryear that looks ready to return, especially given how effective it was in 2021-22.
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