A modern target man doesn't have to be tall or particularly good in the air, but if he has them attribute in his locker - the more the better.The archetypal examples of this are: Costa, Drogba, Aguero, Lewandovski (particularly at Dortmund) and Ibrahimovic (particularly at Barcelona).The main skills that are needed are: comfort on the ball when it is played into feet, and the ability to hold the ball up and bring others into play. If the striker has the ability to run beyond, and score goals with his head even better. This type of striker has continued to develop.
We can now see the likes of Messi, Firminho, Arnautovic playing this role in a different way. Rather than running beyond the back line, or scoring many goals with their head, they play more like link men. They let the wide players take responsibility for running beyond the back line and they move deeper setting up the moves that break the line. Essentially midfield overloads.The obvious example at the minute is Firminho. He plays the role as creater, despite ostensibily being the furthest man forward. He actually plays a more offensive role out of possession - with his role in the high press. When Liverpool are leading in games, they often swap Salah and Firminho's roles: Salah plays on the last line of the defence in the centre of the three (Firminho's role).Completely different to what Firminho does when they are not in front in games, but ostensibly the same role.The reason is to help benefit from the counter attack, when the lead is obtained using out and out pace down the centre as the weapon of choice.
As for Hogan, I've seen him play a dozen times down the years.He's a small but squat individual. Not disimilar to Sharp in this respect.He's quite strong and good with his back to goal when the ball is played into him on the ground. His link play is very good, and suits small neat interplay with skillful midfielders/strikers. He also likes to play on the last line of the defence looking for the through ball. He will annoy United fans with the amount of times he gets caught offside, but will score goals with the quality we have from midfield.When he times his run correctly, it will often result in a goalscoring chance. My concerns are his injury record, and whether he has lost the explosiveness he had pre injury. Not whether he will suit the style of play.
