Three “left-field” solutions to Arsenal’s striker conundrum

Gonzalo Higuain off to Naples, Luis Suarez over-priced and more baggage-laden than an extremely baggage-laden thing, Wayne Rooney. In terms of potential reinforcements to the forward line, things are starting to look desperate at best for the Arsenal faithful for this summer. With most of the world-class talent available this summer now (if ever) unavailable to us, I’ve had a rummage around the last chance saloon and in amongst the shaking, foetal-positioned corpses of Gooner #ITKs found a few alternative options that could help to turn around what has become another summer from hell for, well, everyone involved with the club:

1) Romelu Lukaku

Whilst prising away a player with such potential from a London rival would undoubtedly involve a level of delicate negotiation of which Dick Law can only dream, Chelsea’s pursuit of Wayne Rooney sees Lukaku likely to slip even further down the Stamford Bridge pecking order, and lends significance to every source of income the club can muster. Arsenal would undoubtedly be forced to pay a premium for the Belgian, but when you’re looking at £45 million plus for Luis Suarez, a man whose footballing ability is matched only by his ability to both look and act like a particularly vicious, excrement-ridden garden rat, a likely £25-35 million fee for a player with all the attributes Arsenal require, and time to significantly further develop, starts to look slightly more palatable. He’s clearly unproven at Champions League level, but anyone who saw much of him last season on loan at West Brom will know that this is a potential Premier League star in the making.

2) Cesc Fabregas

Man Utd’s very public, and (thus far) hilarious pursuit of our former captain is one of a myriad of reasons that make this transfer unlikely to materialise, but we certainly have the funds and history to make it happen, should the player be interested. While Cesc is clearly not the out and out forward that springs to mind when thinking of our current requirements, there’s a certain amount of sense that can be made of such a transfer if you think really, really hard about it. Cesc’s deployment as a “false 9” both for club and country in recent years means that he is hardly a stranger to a role further up the pitch, and given that we play a very fluid front three, and that both Podolski and Walcott like to drift inside, the option to play Cesc as the nominal focal point in games where guile is more important than directness could be an attractive option for Monsieur Wenger next season. On top of that, there’s the added bonus of further emedding the little-boy-lost look David Moyes has been sporting for the last few weeks, while the prospect of “bringing Cescy back” should be more than enough to sate the obstreperous  foaming masses who seem only to exist in a digital environment. If current mutterings are to be believed, a £35 million bid could be enough to bring back the finest player ever to grace the Emirates pitch in an Arsenal shirt, and serious consideration should be given to such an option. If, that is, he actually would want to come back. Gulp.

3) Bring Marouane Chamakh back into the fold

Just joking

The real 3) Leandro Damiao

Many will turn their noses up at the thought of signing a player so heavily linked with the LWC’s over the past few seasons, but of the three listed here this is the most realistic prospect. He’s young, talented, and at £25 million offers significantly more value for money than Anfield’s most repellent inhabitant. Would he improve the squad? Undoubtedly. Would he be an instant first team player? Most likely not, but that’s the situation in which we now find ourselves.

So there it is. Three “out there” paths we could take. For what it’s worth, in my ideal world we’d be back in with a Napoli-confounding, Italian-gazzumping, record-smashing last minute bid for Gonzalo Higuain, but failing that I don’t see the harm in sounding out Barca over Fabregas at all- such a move, if it came off, would resound far beyond the first team pitch and is the kind of signing that could finally help to overcome some of the fractures that are really serving to divide Gooners this summer.

Come together to bring your Arsenal back

And ‘lo, a Christmas miracle did come to pass. Following another slightly iffy penalty decision that went our way, followed by a strike that could have made Arterta look very silly indeed in other circumstances, Arsenal FC have now won three league games in a row for the first time this season. This, allied to an elevation to third in the table, has helped the disquiet surrounding the club to abate somewhat.

Indeed, the ire has subsided to the extent that one of the knuckle-draggingest specimen of Gooners felt emboldened enough to attack one a fellow away supporter for holding an opinion that is different from his own. For me, that marks a trough in what has been a particularly miserable few months to be an AFC supporter.

It’s a difficult time to be an Arsenal fan, no doubt. The politics implicit in following the club has reached epidemic levels; it’s simply impossible to try and take part in any Arsenal-inspired debate on or offline without getting embroiled in the flood of angry opinion from both sides of the board/Wenger divide. And look, I understand the concerns being raised- there’s no doubt we have some really deep issues both on and off the pitch which need addressing as soon as possible, but I am seriously worried about the way in which we’re going about it.

The level of invective flying around is genuinely shocking, and there’s only one other set of fans who I think are this prone to disgusting behaviour towards one another. Is the example set by Liverpool FC really one we ought to be following? This, remember, was a club with real title and Champions League winning pretensions reduced in a few short seasons to mid-table mediocrity, whereby our own current circumstances are an aspirational pipe dream. Where the soap opera surrounding the club’s ownership and manager was stoked up and fuelled amongst the fans and the media to create a level of hysteria from which they have never really recovered. The furore reached such heights that it began to seriously affect the club’s on the pitch performances, and it was this dip in form that lost them their Champion’s League berth. Their long-standing manager was forced out, and the vortex of instability was such that when new owners came in, they have really struggled to correct it despite huge levels of investment. That noxious attitude has reached permanence within the club’s support, and manifests itself in performances at Anfield that are often quite simply (a)pathetic.

This is a model towards which we are veering. At the moment, the relative weakness of our nearest rivals, combined with a few results that have just about kept us in the hunt for third are allowing the club to keep it’s head above water. If we should go through another sticky patch over the next month (and looking at the fixture list, this is a real possibility), then that poisonous atmosphere will redouble, and the knock on effects could be catastrophic.

What I would say is that we need to accept that the current set up of the club will remain as it is until at least the Summer, whatever the potential merits a change might bring. At the end of the day, we are all united in our ultimate goal, which is to see Arsenal football club hammer the opponents in every match, smite the Spuds on a twice seasonly basis, and win every competition we enter. The fans have a very real role to play in this, and presenting a united front on the terraces is the only way that we can help the team to achieve to the best of its ability – for now.

There are some very talented individuals in this squad, but the collective performance is not there and, alongside some tactical issues, a lack of self belief is one of the most important causes of this, and we are hindering rather than helping this problem. There is no better confidence boost than the collective roar of 45,000 supporters willing you on, and that will only come if we work with, rather than against each other.

When the time comes, we should ask questions, and our voices should be heard. But mid-season where the team is struggling to establish an identity is not the time for fundamental change. The way in which many are expressing themselves is in no way conducive, whether for a desire for change or for stability, or indeed for our on the pitch performances.

Remember beating the Spuds 5-2? Remember beating the Spuds 5-2 again? This team is capable. That it takes the ready made atmosphere of a derby to help them play to the best of their ability is a damning indictment of our approach as fans. The team and the set up behind it is not perfect, but we need to get behind our club, or else we risk causing something a lot worse than an away defeat to Bradford in the COC: the end of Arsenal FC as a genuine force in the Premier League.

UTA.

Three ways to create more chances, and a call to arms for Gooners everywhere

Exhausting week in Arsenal land, eh? This time last Sunday I sat here basking in the afterglow of a comfortable 2-0 win, despite a faint concern that both goals came from dodgy penalties. Since then, we’ve lost a shoot out to a League Two team, blocking out most likely route to silverware this term, and the shit has hit the fan big time.

The debate over Arsene’s future has never felt this serious before, especially as many of his most persistent defenders have had to confront the issue head on this week, rather than the disdainful dismissal that has been the general norm until now (incidentally, this piece in the Daily Mail by Tim Payton of the AST is a rather pathetic attempt to deflect from the issue at hand).

There are a lot of valid arguments both for and against, but let’s be honest here: Arsene Wenger will continue as manager of Arsenal Football Club for the foreseeable future, and the structure of the club will remain the same. With this in mind, I really think it’s important to focus on what actually can be done within the existing set up, rather than pissing and moaning about it?

Given, the individual talent at our disposal, it’s clear that there’s a deeper issue than the bodies on the pitch. Much of this will of course be to do with the mental side of things; I’m torn over whether the players lack confidence, or are simply convinced (a la Arsene) that their collective ability will eventually win rewards with persistence. However, to my mind, there are certainly tactical issues that, if sorted out, would lead to an increase in our effectiveness on the ball, and represent a relatively quick win.

These centre around our inability to convert possession into clear cut chances; our number of shots on target has been quite frankly pathetic over the last ten games or so, and here are three things Arsene could do almost immediately to address this:

1) Bring Rosicky back into the team, move Cazorla wide left.

This would be the most attractive to Arsene, I think, simply because it doesn’t involve spending any money in January. The point has been made elsewhere (I think it was Stillman, but apologies if not) that Cazorla is not quite the creative force he’s often made out to be. The “dubious” penalty last week was only his third assist of the season. He’s taken on the “Fabregas” role within the team, but likes to play slightly further forward than Cesc did. This means that he often receives the ball very close to the opposition back four, and therefore lacks the space to find those defence splitting passes, supposing that the runners are there to be found. The team has looked much more threatening with Rosicky on the pitch since his return, as his neat passing, runs from deep, and defender-harrying tends to move the whole team further up the park. Although it does not address the underlying issue regarding a lack of width that adds to our problems breaking down teams, having a tricky player on the left who can beat a man and actually produce a final ball would certainly breed plenty of chances. Another bonus is that Lukas Podolski becomes an option at centre forward- introducing more depth and competition for Olivier Giroud and reducing the need to sign someone in January.

2) Play Francis Coquelin at the base of midfield

At the start of the season, Mikel Arteta was moved to the deepest of the midfield three. He gained many plaudits for his discipline and reading of the game as Arsenal got off to a decent start, but his performances have dropped off recently. It’s no secret that, not as weirdly as it seem, Arsenal were far more effective with Diaby linking the play between our two Spanish maestros rather than the talismanic Jack Wilshere. Jackie, for all his brilliance, is a quite different player and the link between Arteta and Cazorla has been much more difficult to establish with Jack’s more languid presence representing the pivot. The logical solution is therefore to push Arteta forward slightly, and play a more defensively minded midfielder behind him. Coquelin is that player in our squad for now, although Moussa Sissoko has been linked today, and he’s shown enough in his run outs this season to suggest he deserves a chance. This of course leads means that one of Arteta and Wilshire will be left out but, as much as it pains me to say this, that might just be for the overall good of the team.

3) Bring in a genuine wide player (or two)

There are real problems with width in this team, which are compounded by Olivier Giroud’s relative lack of contribution to build up play (and when I say relative, I am aware this is relative to our former best striker in the Premier League). Playing two “wide” players in Podolski and Walcott who both prefer to play through the middle means that we are very narrow, which in turn places more pressure on Cazorla to create. Given point one, this might not be the most sensible game plan. Bringing in someone more likely to stay wide on the left will utilise more of the pitch, force opposing defences to de-compact, and give Cazorla that bit more space that could really unlock his potential. This does not mean that I think we should start bombarding the opposition with crosses, simply that we need a way of working opposing defenders out of position, and this is much harder to do when less of the pitch is being used.

So there you have it. Three relatively simple things Arsene could do to help us get scoring again. I could also have referenced the possibility of signing a more mobile striker, and with Arsene candidly talking up the abilities of Stephan El Shaarawy recently, it’s a distinct possibility.

Arsene Wenger has proven his ability to turn things around many times at this club, and he deserves more respect than he has received recently. All is clearly not right at Ashburton Grove at the moment, but the soap opera that surrounds the club is helping no-one, and its the fans that are fuelling this as much as the media. While airing our concerns is important, let’s not forget that it’s what happens on the field that really counts. Let’s pull together, get behind the team, and see what happens. UTA.

Plenty of Llorente: sign him up Arsene

When I decided that my first blog was to be on the Sunday morning after a pivotal game, I knew there was a strong possibility that I might not have much choice about the subject matter. As it is, with a clinical, slick, and in no way controversial victory in the bag, I’m free to write about an issue that’s been bugging Gooners for a while: strikers, and the January transfer window.

Despite a lot of our problems recently revolving around the (lack of) click-age of our midfield triumvirate, there’s no doubt that this has been compounded by a lack of depth and quality amongst their compadres up top. To a large degree, there is a tactical element to this debate; there are issues with width and interchangeability which really need addressing up at London Colney, however it’s the stark lack of options for the central berth which concern me most, and about which we may be able to do something relatively quickly.

We know that our options in this position range from the solid-but-not-spectacular (Giroud), to the anonymous (Chamakh), with very little in between. Given that our resident Moroccan hedgehog couldn’t make the bench at a bus stop (presumably he’s unavailable for 3pm kick offs owing to the lengthy daily appointments with his bathroom mirror and a particularly greasy bottle of engine oil), it seems we can expect some activity on the attacking front come January.

A return for Thierry Henry has been mooted, but as the venerable Arseblog has pointed out several times, that is at best a sticking plaster solution rather than the answer to our problems.

These problems are essentially a lack of depth and variety. So far this season Arsene Wenger’s go-to move has been to play the Great Forehead through the middle, presumably on the basis of his above average movement and ability to create space. A fine theory, but for the fact that he looks about as clinical in front of goal as a hippopotamus with chronic lumbago. We also have Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott “clamouring” to move inside and prove their goalscoring potentials, but given that each are first choice for their respective wide roles, considering them as back up strikers makes little sense.

What we need is a proven goalscorer to compete for starts with Giroud, but one who can offer us an alternative to the handsome French bloke’s explosive power and heading ability. One with the technical abilities to fit into our style of tippy tappy build up play in and around the box, interchange seamlessly with our strike hungry first choice wingers, and to create space for himself in what is usually an annoyingly congested opposition penalty area. Bearing in mind that I have essentially just described Robin Voldemort Persie, we see the scale of the problem, and this is where I come to the rumours that are circulating around the club in terms of possible recruits come the New Year.

Reports today suggest that Arsenal are close to tying up a deal to sign Dutch ace Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who would provide an instant answer to Arsene Wenger’s striking woes. If that sounds very much like tabloid copy, it’s because I’m hoping that we simply have another case of dodgy journalistic round hole, round peg-ism on our hands. Fine player though he is, I struggle to see what extra KJH would offer to a team with one very good (very handsome) burly poacher already on its books. Huntelaar’s strengths lie in his exceptional reading of play and lethal poaching instincts, but aside from this he offers next to nothing in terms of build up play and creating a fluid front three. A perfect game for him would be one in which he had three touches and scored three goals. This will never happen with the current Arsenal team, and such an approach would only serve to blunt the goalscoring potential of Theo and Podolski. For me, Huntelaar would represent a solution, an improvement to the squad, but a marginal one, and certainly not the solution.

Of course, we all know that Champions League quality strikers of the type described are few and far between; especially at our price range, and particularly in January transfer windows. Arsene’s forays into this area have generally been far from successful, with the likes of Jose Reyes, Andrei Arshavin, and Emmanuel Adebayor springing immediately to mind, and that might suggest that we err on the side of caution and wait until the summer to make a considered purchase.

Yet there is striking value to be found in the January window. As Football 365 recently pointed out, Everton, Newcastle and Fulham all proved that last season and this time around there is one name that instantly ticks all the boxes listed above as well as those of available, and at a fair price. In and amongst the likes of Huntelaar, Ba, and Zaha, we continue see the name of Fernando Llorente. I know Youtube videos can be misleading a la Bebe but, cheesy soundtrack not withstanding, check out this montage of “the Lion King”‘s best moments and tell me that he would not instantly improve not only our squad, but also our first team.

The guy has serious talent, and with only six months left on his contract would be available at a price that should precipitate even le great stinge Arsene Wenger to shiver with Scrooge-like anticipation. As well as all this, he’s the kind of signing that could really excite the fans and help address some of the very valid concerns that exist around the club’s ambition. Generally a signing of this calibre would give the club a much needed boost in morale, similar to what we experienced in the summer with the arrival of Santi Cazorla. He’s the real deal, there’s no doubt, which leads us to the only drawback.

There is, quite naturally, a hell of a lot of interest in Llorente from the likes of Juventus, Tottenham and Chelsea amongst others. We will face a real battle for his signing, but herein lies what could be the crux of the issue: if we are still a big club then we need to go out there and prove it. In many ways this is bigger than a striking issue, but indicative of the approach the club will take in the next few years.

We’ve recently signed the largest sponsorship deal in our history, one intended to bring us back into contention with the bigger clubs at home and abroad, and this is our first chance to send a signal of intent. It’s a challenge but we will have to accept facing this kind of competition for the best players, and we have to meet it head on.

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