Just watched Match of the Day, and have seen the travails of Hojlund. On twitter there were the usual “he just needs one to go in and he’ll be away” sort of posts.

But it got me thinking, what examples are there of players that struggled at first, but went on to be really important and effective strikers? Obviously, youth team players that came through the ranks don’t count. Really just big signings at big clubs.

  • ripthelidoffit@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Diego Forlan. Took ~20 games to get his first goal for United, later in his career he won multiple European Golden Shoes

    • laurentffn@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      In the spirit of the question, I would say he’s not a good example. I’m more talking about players that make it at the club they initially struggle at.

  • xxconkriete@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Thierry Henry. It was a big concern early but once the lamp was lit he didn’t stop, and as we all know he went on to have a legendary career.

  • iWillShagYourDad@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    On this debut, Henrik Larsson passed the ball to Hibs player chick charnley who then scored the winner. He turned out all right for us

  • ArSeeFurtyFree@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    It’s a lesser example but Dzeko at City arrived in January 2011 and I think only managed to score twice (league goals) until the end of the season (6 in all comps.).

    He then went on to score 19, 15 and 26 in his next three seasons in all competitions.

    I remember thinking we’d signed a bit of a dud but he ended up being fairly reliable, albeit not spectacular.

  • farqueue2@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Miggy almiron. Not a striker but couldn’t score to save his life for a couple of seasons

  • smcl2k@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Henrik Larsson passed the ball straight to an opponent on his Celtic debut, leading directly to the winning goal. Over the course of that season, he scored 19 goals in 46 appearances.

    He went on to score 223 goals in 267 appearances over the following 6 seasons.

  • karelaar@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Ibrahimovic took a long time to get going at Ajax and was regarded as a quite poor finisher

  • Spillsy68@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    From what I recall, Didier Drogba had a slow start in his first season and went in to become a Bridge Legend.