Strikers are big news. There is no doubt it is the glamour position of the team – no wonder every young player wants that position. Micheal Owen, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samuel Eto’o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are all making news in Europe. Scoring goals has never been so expensive.

The importance of scoring in grass roots soccer was summed up by Sepp Blatter the Fifa President. Het said even if a side loses 10 -1 they have achieved one of the objectives of the game namely scoring goals.

But when you find a good striker it doesn’t end there. However good they are at scoring goals you need to coach them in the art of receiving and controlling and playing the right ball once they have done this – whether it’s a shot or a cross they have to know what they are doing.

Strikers need to be able to beat players, to create their own space and finish off the moves the rest of the team create.

You need to treat your striker like you do your goalkeeper and get them doing specific exercises that make them better at what they do. Watch these three clips of Ibrahimovic teasing defenders and creating space that he can exploit for his team – it shows you just how hard an attacker has to work to open up the space they need to create goal scoring opportunities.