Breaking the Goal Drought: The struggle and triumphs of football's strikers

“As a striker, I believe you're judged on how many goals you convert or how many goals you can assist. At the end of the day, even if someone doesn't watch the game, they look at the scorecard and see whether you did or didn't score.”

Sam Kerr, Chelsea WFC

The first time I heard about a player experiencing a goal drought was back in 2009.

Ballyboden-born Damien Duff, who took the helm of the Shelbourne men's senior team in 2021, had failed to score for Ireland for six years, something the media were all too keen to highlight.

"I know it's been a while since I scored for Ireland,” Duff preempted to The Evening Herald, “I don't need to be told, and it's not as if I haven't thought about it... it's not good, and it's not something I am proud of - going so long without a goal for my country.”

Duff would later express his disappointment with his eight-goal international tally to then fellow RTE soccer pundit, Eamon Dunphy.

"I was obviously desperate to score in a World Cup,” he revealed, referring to his 87th-minute rocket against Saudi Arabia in the 2002 World Cup, his tongue-in-cheek celebratory bow making the morning's front pages. “It grates on me now that I didn't score many goals for Ireland.”

While the discrepancy between his internal expectations and actual rate of conversion in the green shirt undoubtedly plagued Duff, his position as a winger afforded him some reprieve.

Kiefer Sutherland as Peter Crouch

The same cannot be said for former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch.

Bought for £7m by Rafa Benitez for the sole purpose of executing in front of goal, a failure to register for the 24-year-old felt like life or death.

“Frankly, it was the worst time in my football career,” he revealed to Paddy Power speaking of his first 18 games in a contractually agreed four-year spell at Anfield. "I remember my dad saying, ‘you’re going to a massive club, European champions at the time, just get your first goal, and your confidence, and you’ll be fine'.

"I thought, ‘yeah, I’ll get in there, get one early, get the monkey off my back, and then bang’. But it just wasn’t happening.”

Not unlike a concussed prizefighter who, the morning after an embarrassing knockout, is rendered incapacitated by the fear of judgment, a specter of shame cast a shadow over Crouch's ungainly frame as he ducked around the streets of Liverpool.

“Everywhere I went, people knew,” he recalled. “It was on the back of the papers. I think the total time without a goal had clocked up to 24 hours, and on the front page, one of them had Jack Bauer from 24 mocked up with different pictures of my face looking in anguish, and I thought it just couldn’t get any worse.”

In such a seemingly hopeless and dire situation, how does a player brace themselves to put in another shift?

"The first port of call is to start having a conversation about what they look like when they're at their best," Sports Psychologist Dan Abrahams tells ESPN’s Nick Miller.

"What are they doing, what runs they're making, what their movement's like, just trying to break that down into simple statements or key words. For example, a striker might say, 'I'm alert and lively,' so you build a mental structure around those words.

"That often makes a massive difference on the pitch, because they walk onto the pitch thinking, 'I just want to look alert and lively today. I know what that looks like and feels like. That's how I will judge myself today, and I won't worry if I don't score.’”

In addition, Abrahams believes that positive self-talk, combined with visualisation of desired output, can cancel out the negative physiological effects that accompany an unforgiving internal narrative.

"When you get stressed, you get desperate," says Abrahams. "You go in the direction of frustration or anger, or you go the other way and get despondent. Your anticipation slows because your muscles are tight.”

Reduced athletic performance is not the only offshoot of an anxious or frustrated player - their psychological state can also influence the efficacy of their brain's ability to absorb and react to complex information.

Co-author of ‘The Brain Always Wins’, Dr. John O'Sullivan, as reported in The Guardian, outlined the mechanics behind the way in which a striker's neural pathways misfire when under stress.

“Decision-making is a complex process that involves the coordination of several brain structures,” he stated. “In particular, the amygdala is a lower brain structure involved with emotional processing, and the prefrontal cortex, which controls the cognitive aspect of decision-making and considers the outcome expectancy of the various options.”

“Decision-making involves a process of see-feel-do as decisions are based upon pattern recognition that is visual, emotional, and the context of experience – in this case, understanding the movement of players and goalkeepers and knowing when to facilitate action or inaction.”

To summarise, if your club's striker isn't aiming for the right side of the goal, or hesitates when they should let fly, a lack of emotional control is the likely culprit.

A lack of confidence may too be at the heart of the issue.

Tuck away without thinking

Take Alan Smith, the former Arsenal striker.

Winner of the Golden Boot in 1989 and 1991, Smith's performance declined with the arrival of Ian Wright at Highbury in 1992.

In his autobiography "Heads Up," Smith wrote: "I began snatching at chances I would normally tuck away without even thinking...You're not quite sure what you're supposed to be doing, and almost dreading chances coming to you because you're not confident at all.

"Shying away from getting into those goal-scoring positions is the worst thing you can do."

Reflecting back on O’Sullivan’s academic argument, I can’t help but recall an exasperated Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, sounding off on the touchline when forward Ramona Bachmann makes a number of questionable decisions in front of goal in the heat of battle.

“It’s not even on, is it. Why not go around her?” The soon-to-be USWNT manager fumes to her assistant on the touchline.

Cataloged in the Chelsea FC series entitled ‘One Team, One Dream. This is Chelsea’, we witness Hayes struggling to coax goals from not one, but two of The Blues' center forwards.

“Just how long can Sam Kerr go without scoring?” A TV pundit poses with relish, the number 20's luggage from down-under not yet fully unpacked.

Kerr, a prolific goalscorer in both the NWSL and W Leagues, has, beneath the overcast skies of West London, failed to hit the ground running in her first three games.

To add insult to injury, those whose position she threatens are quick to labor the point.

“It was a shame she didn’t get on the scoresheet,” forward Beth England reflects to the media, following another uneventful performance by the lead scoring Matilda. “She had a fair few chances.”

Ouch.

No real harm done; by the spring of 2023, the smiling assassin will hold the record for most goals scored in WSL history.

Teammate support

Yet the attitudes of teammates toward a non-maverick who finds themselves stuck in a rut can influence how quickly they extract themselves from the mire.

Take Brazilian center-back Marquinhos, who was quick to defend teammate Richarlison, despite his long-standing goal drought.

Richarlison had not scored for Brazil since their round of 16 victory over South Korea at the Qatar World Cup.

The 26-year-old, who joined Tottenham from The Toffees in the summer of 2021, had (at the time of his teammate's public pledge of support) scored just one goal in 31 Premier League appearances, including four outings at the start of the new Premier League season.

“We looked to relax him because his goal will come,” he reassured the waiting media. “He can’t be desperate to score right now; otherwise, it’ll be harder for him.

"He must relax; a striker needs that to perform to the best of his abilities... we told him this and in the practice yesterday as well. We are trying to help each other as much as we can. We want to see everybody well.”

Support of teammates and scientific explanations aside, by focusing solely on the number of goals that a striker converts, are we not overlooking other valuable attributes that our attacking players possess?

Take Arsenal's summer steal Alessia Russo. With 26 goals in 59 appearances over the course of three seasons with United, the number 23 has not been as fatal in front of goal following her trip down the M6 from Manchester to London.

However, as ‘In Focus’ footage taken from Arsenal's 2-1 Autumn comeback against Villa proved, Alessia Russo’s contribution in N5 extends far beyond knocking the ball over the white line.

In fact, her physicality and work rate with back to goal are next to none.

With ample resources and talent now at the disposal of clubs, should any manager in 2023 be relying on any one player to convert regardless?

As fans, and fellow humans, don’t we also have a responsibility to be cognisant of the pressures that the human beneath the club and crest invariably faces when not reaching either their or our perceived expectations?

Due to the exorbitant rates of currency in Premier League football, are both the media and supporters guilty of viewing footballers as mere commodities? And if so, are we in danger of losing sight of the human in the shirt?

For all the heartache and scrutiny a goal-scoring drought brings, the thirst for a goal, when quenched, is a player's nirvana.

Take Arsenal and Lioness fan favorite, Beth Mead.

Having returned to play following an arduous ACL recovery, Mead was keen to get off the mark and solidify her comeback.

Despite her best efforts, a goal eluded her.

Until it didn’t.

On November 26th, West Ham’s right back is deceived by the number 9, who deftly peels past her extended foot and casually lifts the ball into the top left-hand corner, her celebratory overhand right a stroke rumored to have caught Eddie Hearn's eye.

Following her second smash, courtesy of Russo’s trademark unrelenting pressure against the left back and subsequent assist, Mead looks to the sky, her hands raised, offering a silent thanks to her mother June, who passed away in January of this year.

Puskás 

Closer to home, if we traverse back to the year 2013, Shankill-born striker Stephanie Zambra (née Roche), who now wears the number 10 shirt for Shamrock Rovers, hits the news with a spectacular goal to close a difficult season-long goal drought with Greenougue club Peamount United.

Despite the grainy quality of the strike, the brilliance captured illuminates her touch, the conversion flowing effortlessly in sequence.

Controlling the ball with the ease of a kid playing a game of one-touch in the back garden, Zambra circumvents the defender, pivoting to volley the ball into the top right-hand corner.

With the video's release, mayhem ensues.

Garnering the attention of sports stars across the globe, Zambra’s worldie is nominated for the 2014 FIFA Puskás Award, making her the first female player to be included among the finalists for the best goal.

Yet despite the glitz and glamour that follows, including an infamous snap of the striker seemingly snubbing Messi and Ronaldo (a trick of the lens), when interviewed by The42.ie that year, Zambra speaks only to the feeling of relief and joy that scoring the goal invoked.

"I was just happy to score because I hadn’t all season,” she revealed. “It wasn’t until after the game that it sunk in. I’m up to four now from the last two games, which isn’t too bad."

The game could have ended very differently for Zambra, however, who risked exacerbating an injury in her determination to get off the mark.

As newly installed Ireland manager Eileen Gleeson explained back then when manageing the Peas: "After half-time we were walking out onto the pitch, and she had a slight quad strain. I was saying I might have to take her off as we had a game the following week and had to be careful.

“She said, ‘I just need to score a goal’. So I said, ‘right, score a goal, and we’ll see how you are’. Four minutes later, that was the response. See when that goal went in, I had an out-of-body experience. What a goal, it was a real cracker.

"Steph has provided many super goals, but that was special. She needed a goal to get going. With strikers, it’s a big confidence thing, so she just needed to open her account.”

The tenets of the seemingly effortless run of play executed by Zambra are reflected in Beth Mead's analysis of her performance as part of Arsenal's 5-1 decimation of defending European Champions, Lyon, in October 2022.

Football flow state

“I felt my free-flowing football,” Mead revealed to The Athletic. “I was gliding past people with ease. You have games where, in instances, you feel untouchable. You feel like you can play so positively and help your team. Things come off that you might not normally try. You feel like the conductor. You’re setting things on their way.”

What Mead described is a flow state.

This can be defined as ‘a mental state in which a person is completely focused on a single task or activity.

When strikers are immersed within this flow state, they know it.

When they miscue three yards from goal, they know it.

Like Duffer, when they haven't scored in six years, you can be damn sure they know it.

Will they eventually return to form?

Send us leaping off the couch in ecstasy?

You know it.

So let's give them a break and get ourselves up to Tallaght Stadium in 2024, where you're only ever one pass away from a Stephanie Zambra repeat.

Stat review of 2023 Women’s Premier Division season – formations, passing stats and standout players https://t.co/cJLvDyH5tfpic.twitter.com/y3EUkTuIJa

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) December 24, 2023