Why Bruno Fornaroli is a top striker (Analysis)
I think it’s more than fair to suggest that Bruno Fornaroli is one of the best strikers the A-League has ever seen.
He’s scored 86 goals in 150 games, scoring 51 for Melbourne City and 35 for Perth Glory.
One of my favourite players to have ever graced the competition, his skill, quality and ability in front of goal has been incredible to watch over the last 7 years.
But the big question is, how is he so good?
Despite his small stature for a striker of 1.74 m, Fornaroli is your typical number 9.
This has been evident with his heatmap over the last three seasons, as he tends to operate at his best when he’s in and around the final third of the pitch.
2019/20 heatmap
2020/21 heatmap
2021/22 heatmap
Over the last three seasons, we have seen an evolution of the spaces Fornaroli tends to occupy and this depends on the tactical set up of the respective coaches.
When he was with Melbourne City, the then head coach, John van ‘t Schip fluctuated between systems but the most common were the 4–3–3 and the 3–4–1–2.
If it was the 4–3–3, Fornaroli would act as the number nine where he would look to operate in more central positions.
If it was the 3–4–1–2, the Uruguayan would operate on the left of a strike partnership with Harry Novillo. This would allow Fornaroli to cut inside and bend shots into the top corner, as his technique set him apart from most strikers in the competition.
We saw a similar variation of this when he first joined Perth Glory under Tony Popovic.
The heatmap showed that Fornaroli would often operate in the left half-space, but this was done for a different reason.
The Uruguayan's link up play and understanding with Diego Castro was critical during the 2019/20, season as those two would often combine to create chances for themselves or to overload the left hand side, which would then create space on the right for someone like Chris Ikonomidis or Joel Chianese to exploit.
More recently, Fornaroli has operated as a lone number 9 for the Glory where he’s been quite mobile across the front third.
This is because both Richard Garcia and Ruben Zadkovich have utilised Fornaroli in a manner where he can operate as a target man to facilitate build-up play and progression through the thirds.
So when we analyse what specifically Bruno Fornaroli excels at, I believe four main areas sets him apart from most;
- Hold up play
- Movement
- Ability to turn his defender
- Technique
Hold up play
It’s honestly incredible how strong Bruno Fornaroli is despite his physical frame.
Aerial duels are his weakness as he’s too small to compete for them but on the ground, it doesn’t matter who he’s up against, it’s very difficult to get the ball off of him.
Fornaroli’s hold-up play is without a doubt a technique that all young strikers should look to model their game off.
He likes to back into his defender, and stay side on. The reason is, that if he stands upright, the defender can see the ball and they can poke the ball away.
So in this example below, Fornaroli is side on and holding off the defender.
The beauty of having Fornaroli in your team is that his ability to hold the ball up can often lead to dangerous situations going forward.
Now, the organisation of the Brisbane defenders above is quite poor. But notice how when Castro makes his run around the defender, Fornaroli pokes it into the stride of the Spaniard.
Then you get a situation like this.
The pattern of play that I spoke about earlier, where in the 2019/20 season Fornaroli and Castro would occupy areas in and around the left half-space to create space on the right is seen above.
Movement
When you analyse all of the top strikers in world football, clearly one of the most important aspects of their game is preparation and with that comes off the ball movement.
Clearly, someone like Fornaroli would want to create space for himself or for his teammates, so he has to make his movements at the right moments.
He’s quite an intelligent footballer, as he knows where and when to move in order to get on the end of crosses or through balls.
One example where he used his movement quite effectively was against Adelaide United in early 2021.
There was a counter attack not long after the beginning of the second half, with Andy Keogh on the ball.
Bruno Fornaroli makes an initial run in between the two defenders, however, that’s not his intention as illustrated below.
He used a technique known as a double movement, which is used to trick defenders into thinking the striker will be going one way, when they’re actually going the other way.
A few seconds later, Fornaroli is now in space and has just received the ball from Keogh as a result of his double movement.
Now I could be highly critical of the defender for not having anywhere near good enough situational awareness, but instead, I’ll appreciate the know-how of Fornaroli.
He knew that there was space, but as is everything with a striker, the ability to move at the right time is so crucial.
Another area of his movement that’s pretty good is his judgement on when to make the run to receive the ball from a cross in a wide area.
In early February of 2021 when the Glory travelled to Adelaide, Fornaroli displayed his movement to an excellent degree that saw Perth get back to being level having gone a goal down in the first half.
Diego Castro and Neil Kilkenny engaged in some tight combination play in a wide area on the right.
We can see below that Fornaroli is staying close with his marker.
The moment Kilkenny receives the ball and gets his head up, Bruno Fornaroli dashes to the front post to get on the end of the cross.
It’s a pretty scrappy finish, but it’s a striker’s bread and butter to score those types of goals.
Ability to turn his defender
Perhaps one of Fornaroli’s most recognisable attributes, his ability to spin around or away from his defender, mostly when he has his back to goal, is incredible.
Fornaroli as a striker is quite nimble and agile, which allows him to shift his weight and balance quite easily.
His first goal that he scored in the A-League when he was with Melbourne City was perhaps his best example of his ability to turn his man.
Below we can see Fornaroli backing into Melbourne Victory defender Matthieu Delpierre.
Knowing that Delpierre would get quite close to him, Fornaroli cleverly rolls the ball to his right, gets around the Frenchman and pokes the ball underneath Danny Vukovic.
Sometimes, he may spin his defender outside the box in an attempt to open the pitch and find a teammate.
His rabona pass to Anthony Caceres before he scored his wonder goal against Melbourne Victory in the 2015/16 season showed his awareness, as a result of spinning his defender.
Leigh Broxham was very tight to Fornaroli, as shown by the diagram below.
The Uruguayan knew before receiving the ball a few things.
- The oncoming defender will get very tight to him
- There is space on the defender’s right
So, with those things in mind, Fornaroli spins in that direction leaving Leigh Broxham powerless in that situation.
Then came the iconic rabona pass before his immaculate dink over Danny Vukovic. It was a stunning sequence of events from Bruno Fornaroli.
Technique
It hasn’t been overly common in the A-League to see a striker that has the technical qualities, particularly with how the ball is struck, that Bruno Fornaroli has.
During his Melbourne City days, it was quite common to see Fornaroli bend the ball into the top right hand corner having taken up a position in the left half-space.
For instance, the goal he scored against Adelaide United in the 2016/17 season was incredible.
He received the ball in space, and was able to drive forward and bend in a wonderful strike.
When he moved to the Glory, those shots weren’t necessarily as common as he brought along power and violence instead with his strikes.
Take his goal against Wellington Phoenix in the 2019/20 season.
The big mistake from the Wellington defenders was allowing Fornaroli to be facing the goal but also allowing space for him to exploit.
What happened next was Fornaroli getting the ball onto his right foot, where he then smashed the ball into the bottom right corner, leaving the Wellington goalkeeper stranded.
Brief Statistical Analysis
Fornaroli is a very good striker, there’s no doubt about it.
Statistically, he performs very well and his key has been consistency. Over the last few years, his goal conversion rate has hovered around the 15–17% mark.
That’s pretty good given he mostly operates as a lone striker, and it’s a lot more difficult to score a large number of goals as a result due to those sorts of strikers being quite isolated at times.
The Uruguayan is not afraid to shoot, as he has consistently averaged 3.5 shots per game in the last three seasons.
He’s been quite accurate with his shots as well, as of those shots he’s been getting roughly 1.5 of them on target per game.
When we also look at his xG, he hasn’t overperformed massively over the last few years either.
In the 2020/21 season, he had an xG of 12.5 and scored 13 goals.
The following season, he had an xG of exactly 8.0 and went on to score 8 goals, albeit he was injured or on international duty for the Socceroos for a fair portion of that season.
Concluding Thoughts
There’s no doubt in my mind that Bruno Fornaroli is one of the best strikers the A-League has ever seen.
His hold-up play, movement, his ability to turn his defender and his technique are incredible qualities of his that he has consistently displayed to a high level during his time in the competition.
Approaching 35 years of age, it’s unknown if Fornaroli will continue playing in the 2023/24 season, so it’s best we savour all of the moments, big or small, he has over the next few years as he doesn’t have long left in his career.
