To be fair is anybody ever truly happy with their record in this department? I’d guess most fans would say they think their team struggles with strikers. Jerome Sinclair turned out to be reasonably handy, although admittedly he wasn’t first choice and we do indeed seem to miss out on a lot more than we sign in that department. Taylor is comfortably our best and most prolific striker of the last three years or so, let alone the two Robinson has been in charge, so this season is the best we’ve managed to get that position for a while. To a point at least. I do, however, based on everything he himself has said multiple times since day dot, think he focuses far more on wingers and swashbuckling attacking midfielders. Potentially too much. He’s clearly more Sterling and Sane than Aguero, and more Salah and Mane than Firmino. He’ll prefer Son to Kane and Hudson-Odoi to Abraham - that’s his thing. Admittedly he doesn’t seem to like carrying too many strikers, but that’s because he only ever plays one at a time, whether it’s a 4231 or a 433 where they can become quite isolated. He certainly doesn’t ‘do’ partnerships and because he only plays one he doesn’t seem fussed about proper depth. Maybe that is a flaw or a weakness, and maybe he doesn’t invest as much into nailing down quality in that area as he should, or as he seems to in wingers and ‘mavericks’. I guess that is something that will only become clearer over time. Given what his one truly successful season was built on, however, he perhaps doesn’t give the position as much of his time as he could. Or maybe should.
It is hard, ultimately, for any team at any level to get promoted or achieve things without at least one really top striker that they seem to have as a focal point. It’s certainly not impossible by any means but it’s a big advantage if you can get it right - Robinson has had one promotion as a manager and that’s when he had Will Grigg and Benik Afobe, with Dele Alli playing off them for good measure, in League One. If you look at clubs that have been promoted across the levels in recent years most of them have been driven by true goal getters. We had Roofe, Luton had Hylton and then Collins who each fired them up a division, P’boro have got Toney and Eisa presently, Charlton had Lyle Taylor as did Wimbledon before them, Rovers had Matty Taylor, Sheffield Utd had Sharp, Norwich had Pukki, Wigan had Grigg, Bury had Maynard, Tranmere had Norwood, Doncaster had Marquis, Grimsby had Bogle, Accrington had Kee... more often than not if you can get someone hitting 20 a season, you’ll have a great shot at doing something through that alone. At this level, however, you do need to hope for a bit of a lightning in a bottle moment unless you’re willing to really back yourself and pay the money to bring somebody in. That’s why I’ve been so keen to see more of Agyei - we know Mackie doesn’t offer anywhere near what a team looking to get promoted requires, and Taylor is nearly 30, only on loan and has had niggles all season that have robbed him of consistency. He could be that bolt from the blue that so many teams need. Maybe he wouldn’t be, but you’re probably not getting promoted with a half-fit striker who can’t play two games in a week, and a 34 year old former winger who will be lucky to get you five a season. That’s what I can say for sure.
