Viktor Gyokeres, Benjamin Sesko, Nick Woltemade: Premier League strikers struggling for goals - Between the Lines

Premier League clubs scrambled to add firepower during the summer transfer window, spending a record £1.92bn on players categorised as forwards. So why are so many struggling?

Even Erling Haaland, one of only three forwards to have reached double figures for Premier League goals this season along with Brentford's Igor Thiago and new City signing Antoine Semenyo, has hit a goal drought.

His blank against Manchester United made it five Premier League games without an open-play goal. In fact, his converted penalty against Brighton punctuates an eight-game streak without a goal in open play across all competitions.

Haaland is not the only one struggling to score goals. Between the Lines takes a closer look at Premier League forwards' dwindling numbers and the reasons behind the trend.

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Goals on the decline?

The average number of goals scored by forwards has dropped to its lowest point in a decade at 1.36 per game, down from 1.58 per game last season and 1.69 per game in the one before that.

Viktor Gyokeres found the corner from outside the box during Arsenal's 3-1 win against Inter Milan, but the Sweden international hasn't scored an open-play goal in 10 Premier League games.

Manchester United's Benjamin Sesko has only scored four times in 17 appearances. Newcastle's Nick Woltemade has found the net once in his last nine.

The numbers are part of a Premier League-wide decline in open-play goals. The average has fallen significantly this season as a growing number of teams place a greater emphasis on set-pieces.

While defenders are getting more touches in the opposition box, encouraged to get on the end of corners and free-kicks, forwards are getting fewer, finding themselves crowded out.

Crowded boxes and less space

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta articulated some of the challenges facing Premier League forwards when asked about Gyokeres this week.

"I think it goes for all the No 9s in the league and how difficult it is to play that position nowadays with the physicality, the dominance of the centre-backs and the quality of them, and the lack of spaces as well during the match for them to exploit," he said.

In the case of Gyokeres, the step up in quality from the Portuguese league to the Premier League has clearly exposed limitations. But he is not alone in struggling to find space where it matters.

Premier League penalty boxes have become crowded hunting grounds. The number of defensive and offensive players in the box when passes are played into the area has increased steadily in recent seasons, hitting a new high this term.

Naturally, it is harder for forwards to get shots off in that context. The increase, from an average of 8.3 players in the box in 2019/20 to 9.4 this season, is even more striking proportionally.

Increasingly, Premier League teams are prioritising off-the-ball compactness in order to nullify their opponents. A team is defined as being in compact shape when all of its outfield players are within 25 metres of each other vertically, as in the examples below.

As teams have honed their defensive shapes, using compactness to restrict the space available, it has become more difficult for their opponents to find vulnerabilities in open play.

Defensive organisation has improved, with teams now taking under three seconds to become compact during defensive phases of play, the average having steadily dropped in recent campaigns.

The window of opportunity for attacking teams has been reduced, with instances of defences becoming stretched also way down on previous seasons, from roughly 80 per 90 minutes in 2019/20 to 60 per 90 minutes in more recent campaigns.

The trend towards defensive solidity was apparent in the latest round of Premier League games, as the 10 fixtures yielded a combined total of only 16 goals. There have already been more goalless draws this season (17) than in either of the last two full campaigns.

Of course, for the Premier League's misfiring forwards, every individual case comes with its own nuances. But the numbers add up to less space and fewer opportunities, and provide context for the struggles of attacking players up and down the division

Read last week's Between the Lines

Don't miss our in-depth look at the rise in set-piece goals in the Premier League this season. What makes Arsenal so effective? And why are Liverpool struggling? We crunched the numbers on inswinging deliveries vs outswingers, long throws and more.

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