Does everyone still agree with the general theme of this thread that we don't need a main goal scorer?
It doesn't have to be one way or the other.
I've fallen in both camps because I prefer a side which shares its goals around rather than being geared towards one central striker a la United with van Nistelrooy because I think a side's ceiling - both in terms of playing style and results - is higher with the former strategy. Moreover, we are always likely to be more of the former than the latter under Klopp with or without a top class striker.
Equally, however, I recognised that the player we've been using as a striker for most of the season cannot hit a barn door consistently and to compete on all fronts you need a striker who can take his chances and even create some for himself when the team is not playing well as a whole (and therefore will struggle to share the goals around).
We haven't had that player in this squad since Sturridge's decline and it's a gaping hole which needs filling in order to do the "win when not playing well" thing more frequently, hence why I've been boring people since October after that horrible 0-0 draw against United when Firmino missed that chance due to a lack of pace and a lack of finishing ability which has since reared its head on numerous occasions and cost us points. Just as I feared it would.
We've got the lads who can get 8-12 league goals every season: Mane, Coutinho, Lallana, Firmino. Wijnaldum has shown at different clubs he can do that too, even if playing in his current position and style getting anything beyond 5 or 6 would be a bit of an ask.
But you're going back a long way since a side last won the title without an individual who scored 20 goals in that season. United in 2008-09 is the last time, at a time when fewer goals were scored and football was generally a bit more cagey, but they still had the second best player on the planet banging in 18 in a season when he took his foot off the gas before his move to Madrid and had a defence behind him keeping 11 consecutive clean sheets.
I'm all for us being the best attacking side we can be. But with our rivals all having a top striker leading the line, and with the exception of Aguero (because he's being replaced by a different top striker) all looking near certain to hit that 20+ league goals mark this campaign, it seems a hell of an uphill task to try and finish above them with the leakiest defence and without any individual who realistically looks capable of going past 15.
