Golden Boot Race to go to the Wire as Strikers Struggle
With England a goal down at half time and in line to surrender the chance to finish top of Group B, Roy Hodgson had a tough decision to make. While most thought that Sterling would be sacrificed at the interval after another ineffective display, the manager's decision to replace Harry Kane came as a shock.
It was not that the Tottenham striker was unfortunate to be withdrawn having struggled once more to have an impact, but Kane was earmarked ahead of the tournament as the one man who would need to shine for The Three Lions to progress. As it was the changes proved to be vindicated, with both Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge scoring from bench to secure a last gasp victory, but Kane's troubles followed a pattern of the tournament so far.
The night before, France also secured yet another dramatic late win to become the first nation to book their place in the knockout stages of Euro 2016, but it was a frustrating night for one Frenchman in particular.
Try as he might Olivier Giroud failed to convert any of his five efforts at goal, with a great headed effort that clipped the post representing the closest that the Arsenal striker came to even hitting the target. He was replaced late in the second half and while the raucous reception of Andre-Pierre Gignac in his stead owed much to the former Marseille hitman’s return to the Stade Velodrome, Giroud was once again on the end of a fair amount of abuse from Les Bleus’ fans.
Despite the resentment of some sections of the home support - generally those loyal to the absent Karim Benzema - they need to appreciate that Giroud’s struggles followed a trend. Indeed, France fans can be thankful that their lead striker this summer has at least found the back of the net where so many others have failed.
There was a feeling ahead of the tournament that there would be a lack of world class striking talent on show and that does, to some extent, already seem the case. The pre-tournament favourites in France, Germany and Spain were all thought to be lacking in that regard, making a prediction for the Golden Boot winner very difficult. The race for that particular gong does seem like being a very tight one, with 4 or 5 goals already looking likely to be all that is required.
It’s early doors of course, but the centre forwards that were tipped to lead their teams to glory this summer all struggled in their opening encounters. Robert Lewandowski, favoured by many as the best number 9 at the tournament, failed to have a single shot against Northern Ireland before drawing another blank against Germany, while Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays that role for Portugal, had 10 by comparison - a normal figure by his standards but freakish for any other player - but hit the target just once. Meanwhile Ibrahimovic, who entered the tournament as the top scorer in the league season previous, was kept very quiet by a centre-back partnership of John O’Shea and Ciaran Clark.
Elsewher Kane and Romelu Lukaku have struggled to have an impact, while Mario Gotze underwhelmed when facing Ukraine and Poland, and Alvaro Morata faded before being substituted for Spain. All in all then, given that Arkadiusz Milik starts in behind Lewandowski at international level, there have been as many goals from centre-backs this summer (4) as there have from starting centre-forwards (Giroud, Bale, Pelle and Szalai) at the time of writing.
Graziano Pelle (8.07), who was among those doubted as far as being capable of scoring the goals to fire Italy to the latter stages of the tournament was concerned, is the only out and out centre-forward currently ranking in the top 20 rated players this summer. Elsewhere Lewandowski only picked up a rating lower than the 6.34 he earned against Northern Ireland in four league starts last season, Morata only secured lower than his 6.48 in three starts, Ronaldo (6.48) and Lukaku (5.79) only lower in two starts and Ibrahimovic didn't pick up a single rating in Ligue 1 last season lower than his 6.20 against the Republic of Ireland.
There are reasons to take into account though, not only for such a meagre return from strikers but a tally of just 33 goals from the opening 18 matches in total. The expansion to a 24-team tournament has led to a number of somewhat predictable encounters thus far, particularly in the opening round of fixtures. The pattern of the underdogs sitting deep and frustrating opponents has been clear at times, and while some predicted that the competition would diminish due to the qualification of weaker sides, Hungary - who were an underdog themselves in their opener with Austria - remain the only side to go into added time at the end of the game with more than a one-goal margin ahead of Friday’s matches.
As the groups begin to take shape one would expect the games to become more open, with the so-called lesser teams knowing that they need to go for the win at some point, and so the race to become this summer’s top scorer should heat up. It was always likely to be a marathon and not a sprint but the predicted frontrunners have fallen behind. Here’s hoping they find their feet after underwhelming opening performances, otherwise it will be up to the midfielders to continue to show their star quality in a tournament that has somewhat predictably lacked as much in most of the matches to date.
Which striker, if any, will emerge as the real success story of Euro 2016? Let us know in the comments below
