Who can forget that telepathic little and large strike partnerships at Liverpool between John Toshack and Kevin Keegan or perhaps Emile Heskey and Michael Owen? This is not to mention the fruitful partnership between big man and little man at Chelsea where Tore Andre Flo and Gianfranco Zola got on like a house on fire. Or perhaps Tottenham's Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch who even got together for Portsmouth and England too or maybe Newcastle United's Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy?
It is a factor that may have died out in the modern day game but the classic little and large strike partnership has previously been a feature of many teams starting eleven’s of yesteryear.
With the classic 4-4-2 formation having been seemingly retired in favour of ultra-modern, contemporary versatile formations such as interchangeable 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 types being employed or the deployment of 4-1-3-2 structures given the contributions of a certain Frenchman whose influence indeed created the ‘Makelele holding role’, the classic little and large combo up top is sadly a fixture that appears far less frequently in modern day football as a whole.
Our initial thoughts regarding the perfect little and large combination up top would probably resonate with so-called ball ‘hoofing’ outfits knocking a ball long into a beanpole forward that expertly completes the donkey work by knocking down the ambitious driven pass into his diminutive trusty ally who emphatically steers the assist into the net.
Typically, the small heroic guy would then go wheeling off to celebrate in front of the home supporters while the tall assist maker would probably receive a few less glorious pats on the back from team mates engaged in the birth of the attack.
Representing the true essence of team work at its finest, it is sad that there are so few examples of big man, little man strike combos prevalent nowadays so let us take this moment to cast our eye back across yesteryear while selecting the top ten best little and large strike pairings of all-time.
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