English Premier League: Examining the Lack of Versatile Attackers This Season

The opening seven games to this EPL season have been really, really fun. 

Chelsea have been looking like title favorites, Southampton and Swansea find themselves in the top five, and Manchester United are somehow fourth despite shoddy defense early on.

However, amid all of those headlines and drama, a head-scratching trend has emerged, unnoticed to most fans.

The all-around attacker is nowhere to be found.

By the Numbers

After a scintillating 2013/14 season, there are currently only three players in the entire EPL on pace for eight goals and assists apiece by the campaign's end: Angel Di Maria and Wayne Rooney of Manchester United and Raheem Sterling of Liverpool (WhoScored.com)

This would be the fewest number of players to fulfill the eight goals/assists landmark since the 2008/09 season, where the only players to do so were Stephen Ireland, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Dirk Kuyt.

Player/Team	Goals	Assists
Stephen Ireland, Aston Villa	9	9
Steven Gerrard, Liverpool	16	9
Frank Lampard, Chelsea	12	10
Dirk Kuyt, Liverpool	12	8

Since that season, where the 4-4-2 was used a league-high 334 times, via Bloomberg Sports' Jimmy Covedale, the EPL has undergone a massive formational and tactical shift.

As of the 2012/13 season, the 4-2-3-1 look has been the most popular among EPL managers, being used a total of 366 times last campaign.

This formation, with three attacking midfielders supporting a lone striker, has led to more fluid attacking, where someone in this front four could find themselves all over the pitch regardless of their starting position.

The results from last season, where this formation was the most prominently used, were staggering. 

Seven different players—Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Rickie Lambert, Yaya Toure, Wayne Rooney, Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud—assisted and scored eight times each, with Eden Hazard, Kevin Mirallas, Daniel Sturridge, Christian Eriksen and David Silva falling short by one in either category.

Player/Tean	Goals	Assists
Luis Suarez, Liverpool	31	12
Steven Gerrard, Liverpool	13	13
Wayne Rooney, Manchester United	17	10
Rickie Lambert, Southampton	13	10
Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal	10	8
Olivier Giroud, Arsenal	16	8
Yaya Toure, Manchester City	20	9

Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

Early on in the 2014/15 season, it seems that the 4-2-3-1 remains the prominent formation, but the versatile attacker seems to be far more scarce, at least statistically.

Let's see why that is.

Examining the Change

This season in the EPL, lots of teams seem to be shifting towards the use of extremely specialized players: A player to defend, a player to score, a player to assist, etc.

And while few would say that Sergio Aguero couldn't produce a nice assist, or Cesc Fabregas couldn't clinically finish a goal, their specialized roles simply don't ask them to perform those tasks.

On Chelsea, Fabregas' sole job is to feed the ball to Diego Costa. After seven games, Costa has not registered a single assist, and Fabregas hasn't notched a single goal, yet Jose Mourinho is surely pleased with Costa's nine goals and Fabregas' seven assists.

Similarly on Southampton and Swansea, Dusan Tadic and Gylfi Sigurdsson have the sole job of feeding the ball to Graziano Pelle and Wilfried Bony respectively.

Aditionally, West Ham playmaker Stewart Downing (one goal, three assists) is tasked with providing to Diafra Sakho (four goals, zero assists), and all West Bromwich Albion is asking its young starlet Saido Berahino is work hard and poach inside the box (five goals, zero assists).

The intrigue of the 4-2-3-1, or the 4-3-3 as well, is that it highlights the versatility of the truly elite players, but perhaps hides the weaknesses of lower-tier players.

Whether Angel Di Maria is played in a 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, or 4-4-2 diamond, he is likely to score and assist goals, as these are both skills he has in abundance. The 4-2-3-1 allows for players like Di Maria (even though United aren't currently using it), or Lambert, Giroud and Hazard to showcase their versatile set of skills in a fluid formation.

Just the same, however, would Graziano Pelle be criticized for his lack of playmaking skills if he was played in a front two without Dusan Tadic beside him, or would Gylfi Sigurdsson's scarce goalscoring come into question if he wasn't in a role that was designed for him to mostly pass?

Managers of mid-to-lower-level EPL teams have to work with the talent they have around them, and the 4-2-3-1 or the 4-3-3 lets them showcase the best qualities of their players without having to ask them to do much else. 

At bigger clubs, the 4-2-3-1 has the potential to fuel many eight goals/assists seasons, while players at smaller clubs will often end up with a lopsided stat line.

In hindsight, the seven players who scored and assisted at least eight times apiece last season actually seems like something of a fluke, and should not be something to be used as a guideline for the future.

Out of the group of seven players, only three really have the ability to produce similar numbers: Giroud, Rooney, and Ramsey. Giroud is currently injured, somewhat contributing to the dearth of players on pace for eight and eight.

In terms of the other four: Gerrard largely benefitted from penalty kicks, with 10 of his 13 goals coming from the spot, and Yaya Toure scored the most goals in a season in his whole career, and only has one so far. Luis Suarez is off to Barcelona, and is an otherworldly, rare player who can play in many formations, and Rickie Lambert is currently riding pine at Liverpool.

Clint Hughes/Associated Press

The Bottom Line:

The EPL's mass shift to a 4-2-3-1 has transformed the transfer policy of many teams to aim for specialists, with certain areas of need such as passers or scorers almost exclusively filled. This means the box-to-box midfielder, or Frank Lampard-esque scorer and playmaker has become increasingly rare, and is often pigeonholed and limited to fit a certain, specific need. 

This trend has ballooned the stats of players on one end, and often diluted them on the other.

With the rise of the priority of specialized roles, don't expect this to change.

Stats and info via ESPNFC and WhoScored.com, some info found from writer's research.