Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke barely knew each other when the latter arrived at Manchester United in the summer of 1998, but the partnership they forged became the stuff of legend. In training, they were often found working together, practising runs, interchanges, dummies and combinations. That season they scored 53 goals between them as the club won the treble. Yorke shared the Premier League Golden Boot with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Michael Owen on 18 goals. Cole finished one behind. The top 10 scorers in the league that season were all strikers.
But the training pitches and scoring charts paint a very different picture today. Finishing drills are infrequent, possession is paramount and the league’s leading scorers are more often wingers, No 10s or false 9s. Traditional centre-forwards are disappearing. Opta data shows the sharp decline in their influence. Two decades ago, strikers scored 41.6% of the Premier League’s goals – 387 of 931. This season, the figure stands at 25.9% – 291 of 845.
