This is well known and documented fact. In footballing circles around the world, international press and café conversations through out Portugal, people comment on how Portugals main weakness is the lack of firepower up front. If Portugal had just one, one Fernando Torres, we could have won the European Cup back in 2004, gone a step further in previous World Cup and Euro campaings and not struggled through the qualifiers... My question is.. why does Portugal continue to produce world class Midfielders over and over again but not find..one...ONE world class striker? and... What does the FPF need to do to resolve this problem? Surely it is something that needs to be actioned instead of hoping that someone comes along through the ranks? A Striker Academy of some sort? Aim to produce someone by 2018? It baffles me.
Why can't most country's produce wingers creative players or even Right Backs like Portugal? It is what it is. This question has been posed to death and doesn't need another thread.
I think Portugal will always be missing something years from now we may have an abundance of strikers, but no midfielders or defense we just dont have the depth in our talent pool to have top notch players for every position. Fernando Gomes was a Portuguese striker who won two golden boots and the NT wasnt succesful. than there is guys like Manuel Fernandes from Sporting (scored 30 goals in 86 season and was controversially left of the world cup squad) Rui Jordao, Rui Aguas, Tamagnini Nene (not sure if he was a striker) ... anwyays seems to me Portugal always had good strikers up until the golden generation era..
Eusebio. I'm sure a good one will come around at some point. I think it the attitude of the youth to be too focussed on flash and technical ability that one touch then shooting isn't on their practice list which leads to poor finishing instincts. The game is so fast there is no time to think just react and our players are all about holding play and controlling the ball.
I was so eager to reply with Liedson's name that I actually typed in Liedson as my username... ! Obviously not home-grown but he's a temporary solution to the problem. I'm sure we have some striker out there somewhere ready to explode onto the scene. Unfortunately we don't have Roy da Silva to tap for resources anymore though.
Liedson is a good player, and he keeps fighting to score goals. I just wish he had more mass. I can see him getting pushed around by certain teams.
I remember a huge thread we had going on about Ricardo Vaz Te. He was supposed to be T. Henry by now. I think he's still on Bolton's bench. Maybe somebody will pop out of nowhere and come up big for us. Probably not by the WC, though.
His name is Joelzinho. You couldn't be more wrong. This is BS and we have our ways to guarantee that H. Almeida and Liedson will have an aciddent. Let's say...that...they fall in the bathtub...and by coincidence Joelzinho will be passing by. Yes, in the locker room, some might find that weird...but once he declares to be a striker, CQ will take him in a heartbeat.
Liedson in underrated, even when he played at Corinthians, because of his lightweight. However, the man is a fantastic goalscorer and he balance his absence of physical strenght with quickness and agility. Like we say in Brazil, Liedson is a monster.
Liedson really is a tremendous striker. The problem is he's already 31, so he's only a short term solution. Besides, answering to what was brought up in this topic, he wasn't born in Portugal.
I declared myself eligible during the summer, sadly, my club coach moved me into a winger role and used me sparingly in the striker role. We all have the Portuguese syndrome it appears..lol