da wazamba： The Premier League was once filled with potent goalscorers, but in the last few years they’ve become a continually rarer breed. Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City still have enough finance to attract the world’s front-man elite, but Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal haven’t been quite so fortunate.
da roleta： Indeed, all three have struggled for firepower up top this season; Emmanuel Adebayor’s two goals in eight appearances is the most of any striker on Tottenham’s roster, Arsenal find themselves dependant on Danny Welbeck, but combined with the injured Olivier Giroud, the Gunners’ forward cast have netted just three times this season, whilst Liverpool front men Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli, in the seemingly eternal absence of sidelined Daniel Sturridge, have bagged just one Premier League goal between them.
Readily available, prolific finishers are heading slowly towards extinction in England, but there is one Premier League front-man currently standing out from the rest of the herd – Swansea City’s Wilfried Bony.
Continuing his consistent form into a second top flight campaign and boasting a more than reasonable £19million release clause, how long can the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs continue to overlook the free-scoring Ivorian?
Former Eredivisie strikers are always met with serious doubt in England -thanks to the prior short-lived Premier League careers of Mateja Kezman and Alfonzo Alves -even those who arrive with such incredible statistics as Wilfried Bony, having claimed 37 goals in his final 36 league appearances at Vitesse Arnhem.
But stocky, powerful and aggressively assertive with his 6 foot frame, the Ivory Coast international always felt like a good fit for the Premier League – he certainly wouldn’t shy away from its challenging physicality. The only genuine question marks were over the calibre and consistency of Bony’s finishing, and whether his evident brutishness could be matched with technical quality.
Well, any doubters were silenced in abundance last season as the Swansea star claimed 16 goals to finish as the Premier League’s joint-sixth top scorer.
That’s an identical haul to Manchester City’s Edin Dzeko and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud – two strikers privy to far greater service in terms of quality and regularity – and one goal more than Romelu Lukaku, the 21 year-old worth a whopping £28million according to Everton. Most tellingly, he found the net against all of the Premier League’s top seven clubs with the exception of Chelsea, scoring twice past Manchester United and Manchester City.
That’s not to suggest the striker is simply an instinctive battering ram of goalscoring prowess – although power and potency are by far Bony’s greatest strengths. His talismanic role in Swansea’s relegation battle last season demonstrated a real appetite for responsibility, whilst four assists, a pass completion rate of 75% and an average of 1.4 fouls drawn per match – a statistic only bettered by four Premier League strikers, Giroud, Christian Benteke, Marouane Chamakh and Luis Suarez – suggests a rare intelligence and cuteness to the Ivorian’s target man style.
So bring on the difficult second season, the inevitably tougher and less popular follow-up album, where injuries, raised expectations, distracting advances from bigger clubs and the simple matter of opposing defenders discovering intrinsic weaknesses, has seen so many Premier League strikers fall flat before.
Who remembers Arsenal apparently looking at Michu – the Spaniard now on loan at Napoli after scoring just twice in his second Premier league campaign? Or Blackburn’s Roque Santa Cruz? He netted 19 times in his debut Premier League season, but scored just seven goals in the following three years before being loaned out to Real Betis in summer 2011.
Enough of the one-season wonder nostalgia. But if second seasons are the true litmus test of a striker’s durability in the Premier League, Bony is currently passing with flying colours.
He’s bagged four goals in nine appearances this season – remarkably similar to his near-one-in-two strike rate from last term – including a goal against Leicester City last weekend that consisted of a behind-the-leg-flick-on, converted into a one-two by Gylfi Sigurdsson, followed with a cool finish into Kasper Schmeichel’s bottom left corner.
Exceptional stuff from a striker famed more commonly for his physicality than nifty footwork, and marking the first time Bony has scored in three consecutive Premier League outings, one could argue the 25 year-old is already showing improvement from his impressive exploits last season.
That’s not to say Bony is completely void of weaknesses or afflictions. The striker’s conversion rate of 17% last season isn’t as high as one would automatically assume based on his goal tally. Furthermore, as is always the case with recruitment at Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs, it remains to be seen if the Ivorian can handle the added pressures of a big club – expectations are inevitably higher, the scrutiny is more intense and key players will be called upon to perform at least twice per week.
That being said, Bony’s ability to balance out the Europa League with the Premier League last season, making eleven appearances and scoring five goals in the former tournament to bring his campaign total to 25 to 48, gives some evidence that physically, the Swansea assassin is capable of making around 50 outings across all competitions per season.
Likewise, it’s often forgotten that he’ still just 25 years of age. The relative pace Bony possesses is an influence on his game, but more instrumental than intrinsic, barring serious injury, he could still be luxury to another five to eight years at top level.
Every transfer comes with a risk and there’s a common feeling that the Swansea striker is due a dry patch. But as he continues to enjoy free-scoring form, the £19million-rated front-man becomes more and more a risk worth taking. If Arsenal, Liverpool or Spurs don’t take the punt by next summer, a foreign suitor undoubtedly will.
[ad_pod ]
[ad_pod id=’ricco’ align=’center’]