ANOTHE 9MESS YOU'VE GOT US INTO!

Cole: The centre-forward position is now a dying art

- MARK MCCADDEN

ANDY COLE has sent out an S.O.S. - Save Our Strikers.

The former Manchester United hitman, who scored 121 goals in 275 appearances for the Old Trafford giants, has bemoaned the lack of poachers in the modern game.

He reckons Erling Haaland is the only frontman in the Premier League who is as happy with a tap-in as with a 25-yarder into the "top bins".

And Cole fears for the future of the game if academies don't drill into their youngsters the fact that a goal is just as valuable, no matter how scrappy.

He said: "If you look at the academies, I don't think centre-forwards are coming through now.

"Kids want to play as number 10 now. For me, there is nothing better than watching a number nine run into the box and get a tap-in from five yards.

"If you put it in the top bins it's still only a goal. That is my thought process.

"In the next generation, you will see the number nine coming back and kids who want to run into the box and get tap-ins, instead of hanging around the edge of the box and trying to put one top bins.