The Target Man has always been a cliché in professional football, but even more so the platitudes that state that they are only good for bringing down balls, threatening defensive intervals, fixing centre-backs and heading balls. If we look at La Liga's top scorers' table, strikers of the same profile stand out: Artem Dovbyk, Ante Budimir, Alexander Sorloth and Robert Lewandowski, with the sole exception of a powerful midfielder, Jude Bellingham.
Among them, Artem Dovbyk, a center forward, stands out who has played 74% of the minutes, scoring 24 goals and adding 8 assists. Numbers that have led Girona FC to play in the Champions League for the first time in its history. Artem Dovbyk cost Quique Cárcel around 8 million euros, but his market value has increased by more than 15 million. A perfect operation that is explained by a very complete striker with the ability to generate play, execute good movements without the ball and always occupy intelligent spaces to act.
Artem Dovbyk has been involved in almost 40% of his team's goals and stands out for being one of the strikers in La Liga who makes the most movements behind the defensive line and who best exploits the imbalances of rival defenders. He is not a striker who gives too much support to overcome opponents in fluid play with the ball, but he certainly creates useful spaces that are then used by his attacking teammates. It is surprising to see, in fact, that he is a striker who relies almost as much as Ante Budimir on vertical play to get past opponents and that he is far from strikers like Alexander Sorloth or Robert Lewandowski, strikers more accustomed to Míchel's style of play. However, he is a very aggressive striker who continuously strides for goals. He is, after Lewandowski, the striker who penetrates most into the opponent's area and belongs to the top 3 strikers who finish the most and who best occupies positions in the area to set up a shot.
It is worth pausing for a moment to look at Jude Bellingham's attacking numbers, as in addition to scoring 19 goals and adding 6 assists in the regular season, he is an attacking midfielder with the ability to be close to the best strikers in the division. With the exception of exploiting the imbalances of the opposing defensive line, something irrelevant to his role on the football pitch, in the rest of the tactics that help to understand the performance of the attackers in La Liga he borders on excellence and draws a modern, unusual, motivated and highly capable 10 for today's professional football.
Alexander Sorloth, on the other hand, continues to demonstrate the level he offered at Real Sociedad, but he has known how to adapt to a new style and has gelled perfectly with Marcelino. He started the season well scoring 4 goals, but since the new coach arrived he has found the best version of himself. He is the La Liga forward who is helping his team the most to overcome rivals through ball circulation and is one of those who is making the most breaking movements behind the rival defensive line. He is dynamic, hard-working, innovative and smells opportunities in the box.
The stereotype of the target man near 1.90 meters or above in height lacking the finesse required for the technical and tactical aspects of the position, are false in the modern game. On review of players in La Liga this season, we can see that the top scorers have height along with the technical and tactical ability to allow them to score goals and disrupt opposition defenses.