Højlund and Nkunku carry Napoli and Milan with their braces, Lautaro fires Inter to the top.
There was a time in football when the No. 9 seemed obsolete. It was the late 2000s, Guardiola’s Barça were setting the standard, winning everything under the mantra “our No. 9 is space,” and his most loyal followers were already ready for the Copernican revolution of the “false nine.”
It hardly mattered that that Barça had the best player in the world in his all-powerful prime, or that they could rely on a Suárez who had very little “false nine” about him, being a pure striker through and through. The revolution seemed inevitable.
History, in the years that followed—those after Guardiola’s Barça—told a different story. So much so that Guardiola himself, to return to winning everything with his City (and without Leo Messi), shelved the philosophical concept of “space” and replaced it with the strongest pure No. 9 in the world: Haaland. And with him came a new trend in modern football, the giant, blond, Nordic striker.
Suddenly everyone was hunting for the “new Haaland.” It didn’t matter that the technically “old-school” one was just 23 in his first year at City and is only 25 today.
Pure No. 9s were back in fashion—preferably tall, blond and Scandinavian. And when it comes to following trends without real planning behind them, splashing millions of euros (sometimes invested, more often wasted), Manchester United of the past decade are second to none.
So it was that in the summer of 2023 the Red Devils, in response to the Haaland whirlwind across town at City, signed his near namesake (and, in their intentions, his equivalent) Rasmus Højlund. The Danish striker, born in 2003, was coming off 9 goals in 32 appearances (20 starts) in his first Serie A season with Atalanta. Even the name—so close to Haaland—didn’t hurt.
If a handbook on managing and launching young talents existed (and if it did, Carlo Mazzone would have written it—just look at how he protected a very young Totti in the all-consuming environment of Rome), page one would read a single word: “patience.” But patience requires planning—something that, as noted, has been foreign to United for well over a decade. And so poor Højlund was thrown straight into the Old Trafford arena, in front of a demanding fanbase, as the red answer to the sky-blue cyclone.
The result: a disaster, and a major talent—along with a €70 million investment—fed to the wolves of criticism.
Højlund’s first season in Manchester wouldn’t even have been one to throw away: 10 goals and 2 assists in 30 matches, 25 of them starts. The problem was the comparison—Haaland, who the previous season, his debut with City, had posted 36 goals and 8 assists in 35 Premier League games, and who would finish the 2023/24 campaign with 27 goals and 6 assists, nearly tripling the output of his near namesake and very distant equivalent.
With the double burden of a €70 million price tag and the “new Haaland” label—while the real Haaland was right in his prime—failure was almost inevitable. And indeed last season, Højlund’s second at United, the Dane collapsed completely, scoring just 4 goals in 34 matches. Outcome: sold.
That’s where Napoli’s foresight and planning—despite an emergency—came into play. They seized the opportunity and moved decisively to replace the injured Lukaku: a €50 million deal. A huge sum by Italian standards, but a bargain for a striker of such quality, who knows how to score and can make an immediate impact in Serie A—for the next ten years as well. As long as no labels are pinned on him.
Napoli clearly understand that in today’s football (as in football of all eras, first-wave Guardiola blaugrana aside) the No. 9 is fundamental—and they acted accordingly.
Big Rom was supposed to be replaced next summer anyway, or at least the issue should have been addressed regardless of his 2027 contract. It’s evident that the Belgian’s career is entering a natural—if still respectable—downward curve (14 goals and 10 assists last season).
Instead of looking for a stopgap while hoping to rush Lukaku back, Napoli opted for a programmatic solution: seize an opportunity and bring forward the changing of the guard. With the intriguing, still unexplored possibility that, one day, they could even count on both—giving the Partenopei an extra, powerful boost in the chase for the fifth Scudetto in their history.
And that brings us to the present day—taking the long way around, admittedly, but following a logical thread that leads straight to Matchday 17 of Serie A and the title of this piece, dedicated to the importance of the No. 9s.
On the day of Højlund’s decisive brace in Cremona, which relaunched Napoli after the slip-up in Udine on December 14 (with the Supercoppa triumph in Riyadh in between), two other No. 9s in our league made their voices heard and reminded football just how crucial center-forwards are: Milan’s Nkunku and Inter’s Lautaro.
For the Milan man it was a real calling card after a stop-start beginning to the season; for the Nerazzurri captain it was yet another confirmation. But the point is the same: to win matches and fight for the Scudetto, you need goals from your No. 9s.
Inter, Milan and Napoli have surged to the top of the table thanks to their strikers’ goals, and they know that to stay there and battle for the title until the end, they’ll need many more matchdays like this one. With their No. 9s leading the way.
L’articolo The importance of the No. 9s proviene da Soccer Made In Italy.
