Happy you've gotten this far. Now that you have been pulled in by the headline, we will suspend referring to this vital position as striker and refer to it by its more informative, position-based name, center forward.
The immediate and obvious objective of the center forward is to score goals. Aside from the goalkeeper's primary task, there is less debate when it comes to the center forward on what is job number one than any other position on the field.
That is the collective starting point from which an infinite number of preferences begin to be explored with the most logical follow-up question. If we can agree the center forward's primary job is to score goals, the follow-up question is, how? That all by itself has consumed the minds of coaches, players and fans since the game was created, and a myriad of different goal-scoring types have emerged.
If you explore this position deeper beyond scoring goals and how they will be scored, there is then only the matters of what they should do to aid chance creation? How much and how do they participate in build-up? How do they help their team release pressure?
Do they press? How high do they press? Do they defend? Do they defend by not defending and on and on it goes. It's the simplest of starting points: this player needs to, more so than anyone else, score goals. It's also the starting point of the game itself; scoring goals is the main objective.
Everyone wants the center forwards in their team to be multi-dimensional goal scorers. They want someone who can run in behind and beat the keeper, take players on 1v1 and beat them, make runs into the penalty area and get on the end of crosses and cutbacks. Score with their head, score with both feet, score from range, put backs on rebounds and from direct free kicks. But those types of center forwards are rare; there have probably been moments in the game's history when no such player was active at the highest levels of the game.
And at present time, the New England Revolution also find themselves with a center forward of limited capacity. But so do the other twenty-nine MLS teams; it's then more a matter of how limited is Dor Turgeman and do the Revs have other options in the team who could offer a different, still limited, range of skill and goal-scoring capabilities.
Turgeman has shown himself to this point to be capable of scoring from close range. Of his seven goals for the Revs, six have been from inside the penalty area and all within the width of the six-yard box. Two of those six have been inside the six-yard box itself. His two most recent goals were of the poachers variety, arriving at the right place at the right time for a one-time finish.
But poachers thrive because they have a sixth sense. They end up at the right place at the right time too often for it to be coincidental or luck. Turgeman can score a poacher's goal but has far too many moments where we wonder why he wasn't where he should be. He doesn't seem to have the poacher's instinct.
No problem!
Poachers are just opportunists anyway, getting the last touch and all the glory. What else can he do to be a goal threat? This is where the concern starts to develop.
Turgeman isn't blessed with tremendous speed over either a short or long distance. That limits his ability to make short, darting runs in behind and create chances off through balls. He has teammates like Carles Gil and Peyton Miller who can offer them, but he lacks the speed and quick recognition of the space for a run to be made.
The Revs have a few players, Gil (who can deliver any type of ball you want), Ethan Kohler, Alhassan Yusuf, and occasionally Brooklyn Raines, who can offer long passes out of the Revs half for Turgeman to break in behind and get on the end of. Which he sometimes does, but often it does not produce a chance on goal. Again, his lack of outright speed and speed on the dribble means defenders he initially beat can catch him. Even someone like Mamadou Fofana, technically limited as he is, can at least offer up a few long clearances per game that a different player might do more with.
Alright, so he's not a speed merchant, doesn't have great instincts, and isn't adept at beating players off the dribble. He's still found a way to contribute to four goals and four assists this season. Does he offer enough in the build-up play to offset his not-so-outstanding goal scoring record to date?
He does not.
Turgeman is amazingly uninvolved in build-up play for long stretches of the game. He averages just over 25 touches and 10 successful passes per game; both are in the bottom percentiles for center forwards in MLS.
And it's not because he's making constant decoy runs to open up space or dropping deep into the midfield to draw a center mid and open a passing lane for another player. He just is not involved; oftentimes in recent games he doesn't even appear to be drifting ball side and getting ready for the moment to intervene.
This is harsh on Turgeman, but it's also a fair assessment. He isn't a clearly identifiable type of center forward, and he doesn't have one consistent type of goal he can score. The capabilities of some of his teammates are also not the culprit of his limited impact.
Even Matt Polster, bravely and blindly wandering the wilderness that is his foray at right back, has knocked in a few balls begging to be tapped into the back of the net. Gil can set up anyone if only they know how to set up themselves, Miller has gotten better at picking his head up and looking for threatening runs from his teammates, and Yusuf can deliver some nice passes of his own.
We should expect more from Turgeman once Jack Harrison replaces Marcos Zambrano and Ilay Fiengold relieves Polster at right back. But the more we've seen him play, the more he just doesn't look like a center forward that can get it done in MLS.
It's hard to see what his best qualities are and how he could become more productive with a better supporting cast. He is starting to look like a center forward who dominated in a league far below the level of MLS.
If this continues once Harrison and Feingold return, the Revs do have interesting options to turn to. Leo Campana is unlikely to be one of them.
Campana has had his own struggles when he's played, and his biggest struggle has been playing for any reasonable length of time since he joined the Revs. He can't be counted on; even if he came back in and was playing well and scoring, the pattern of his time here suggests the next injury will be right around the corner.
Luca Langoni and Diego Fagundez offer the intriguing options to have a different profile at center forward. Both have a deep level of game understanding; they read attacking situations well and know how to find space, get on the ball, and make things happen in and around the opponent's goal.
Langoni would offer excellent speed to get in behind, a legit ability to score and assist with both feet, and beat players off the dribble. His quality on the ball and ability to run in behind would drag center backs deeper, opening space in the midfield for Yusuf to move into and isolating wingers 1v1 with more space to operate against their direct opponent. Langoni could rotate and switch positions with Harrison and Miller as well, a truly dynamic front three.
As Marko Mitrovic pointed out after the Houston game, Fagundez is adept at breaking down a packed-in defense. This ability could be utilized from the center forward position. Fagundez can find space where hardly any exists. He would be able to make quick, short runs in behind and make something of the passes he gets thanks to his close control.
There would also be moments for him to drop between the back and midfield lines and receive and turn. From there, he could look to combine with Gil and Yusuf or deliver a through ball to Harrison or Miller and knock it wide for Fiengold on an overlapping run.
These options should be explored over the next couple of months while still giving chances to Turgeman. Come playoff time, if Turgeman is still hit or miss, the Revs will need other options to turn to. If that doesn't come from a new player or a suddenly fit, firing, and durable Campana, it may need to come from Langoni (if he's still around) or Fagundez.
No striker can do it all. It's down to finding one who does enough to be a consistent threat in front of goal. Is Turgeman doing enough to give you confidence he can be the spear of the attack for the Revs this fall?
