In typical Poacher style, Holland has no teammates to support him, so he has no influence.
City lost 0-1 away to Arsenal in the eighth round of the Premier League on Sept. 9 at the Emirates Stadium in London, England. The loss was City’s second straight and dropped them to third in the league standings.
The star of the show was Holland. Holland is the quintessential poacher-style striker. He uses his excellent physicality to create space in off-the-ball situations, working diligently to crack the opposition defense, then breaking the line to time a teammate’s final pass, slipping into the gap between the center back and fullback, or staying completely on the outside and cutting inside.
He also has a tremendous amount of finishing power for a forward. He’s left-footed and has a powerful shot and kicks well into the corners, making him very difficult for keepers to stop. He’s also quite fast. His pace is similar to that of a winger, which makes him difficult for defenders to stop when he leaves space behind him.
His biggest drawback is his ability to get involved in the game – he’s a classic poacher, so if his team’s overall performance is slipping, he’ll get extremely little involvement. If his team is losing the battle in the middle of the field, he will often be found trying to penetrate from a similar position to the opposing center backs, and if his team’s attacking play is not going well, he will be invisible in the game.
This shortcoming has become all too apparent with the absence of De Bruyne and Rodri. He’s been a different player this season than he was last season, and the biggest difference is the presence of De Bruyne. Der Bruyne hasn’t played this season due to injury, and without him to support him, Holland is dying.
He’s scored eight goals this season, but he’s been missing a lot of big chances and hasn’t been on top of his game. In particular, he’s been isolated a lot, because unlike Kane, he doesn’t come down to help when things aren’t going well.
Holland’s problems surfaced in the two games City lost. First, against Wolverhampton, Rodriguez was sent off and Wolverhampton played a ten-back defense. With less stability in the midfield and the inability of the midfield to feed the wingers, and naturally the wingers to feed Holland, Holland was literally isolated and unable to do anything.
It continued against Arsenal. He was completely erased by Arsenal’s center backs Martinelli and Saliba. With a 69% pass 안전놀이터 completion rate, 23 touches of the ball, and 0 shots on goal, he was absolutely terrible and earned a rating of 6.3.
Without a player to support him and feed him passes, Holland will continue to look like this. For Holland to continue to prove his class at the big club, he needs to improve his style.