8 weeks ago many posters on the Liverpool board were banging on about how their defenders were better than ours... they wouldn't listen about how mediocre Toure was nowadays. 10 goals conceded in last 4 away games I used to be optimistic about January simply because we had money. Now I'm optimistic because we surely must look quite attractive to prospective players. Someone like Lewandowski or Suarez might look at us now and think, "you know what, I might actually do a bit more than just finish 4th there". Come on Luis/Robert... come and have Ozil, Cazorla, Ramsey and Wilshere supplying you
Exactly. They had Gerrard who used to chip in with a lot of goals but his best days are behind him and he doesn't have the legs any more for those deep surging runs from midfield. We are fortunate in that our goals are coming from all over the park, but this stems from our solidity at the back, which allows our midfielders to go forward more regularly. Also i think Wenger has instructed our midfielders to go forward more regularly, which has seen Ramsey, Ozil and Wilshere regularly in the box. This has compensated for our lack of a top quality CF.
The key to our flying start this season has been our defence, notably Mertz and Flamini, who have significantly strengthened our core. Not only do they read the game so well but they're leadership in defense and midfield has been a great help.
Precisely. A settled defensive unit is key. Which is precisely why having a squad system for the defence isn't ideal. If you have four top quality centre backs you'd feel pressured into rotating them (eg. Liverpool... though it could be argued that NONE of them are top quality). Which means your defence never settles. There's absolutely no point in us buying a top class centreback because I can't see how it would improve our defence. We have one solid backup in Vermaelen who never plays as it is. Kosc and Mert will be playing for years yet. Mert could go into his mid-30s easily as he doesn't need any pace.
Agreed. Vermaelen is a top CB/LB who struggles to get a game for us and our CB partnership looks very settled. Only missing piece for us is a top CF, if we get that then we'll be back to being one of the best in Europe.
Aguero would be amazing but City irnt going to sell. A striker should be our priority that's for sure. I also think If we are going to add a young German.. Draxler has greater potential than Reus.(and is a more likley signing as Wenger has previously attempted)
The danger in getting a Suarez or an Aguero type is that they will score more goals, but the goals from midfield will dry up. It could end up being a net loss of goals. As we saw a couple of times at the week-end, Giroud is a huge distraction for defenders, and if they get their marking wrong they allow our midfielders to have good chances to score. While I would like Giroud to put away a higher % of the chances he does get, I don't think getting a different type of striker is going to increase our goal tally significantly. I also think conversely Giroud has not been helped by us continually playing attacking midfielders on either wing. It has meant that he is being played almost entirely as a false 9. On top of that he is usually the only player who isn't a defender who is of any use in the air whatsoever, which means he is required to defend and to be the target for any ball played forward in the air. This limits what he can do attacking-wise. It may seem simple to just add up the numbers, and say, "Oh if we had a 30 goal striker we would have 10 more goals, because Giroud is a 20-goal a year man at most," but I think we would lose far more than 10 goals by replacing him, on both sides of the ball. If only because lofting the ball forward onto his head is a very viable way to escape the press we often face. I would be very surprised if we sign a striker, to replace or back-up Giroud, who is not good in the air (big) and who plays almost the same way, with (most likely) a very similar return in goals and assists.
As he's not getting a sniff any more at Citeh I'd not mind us enquiring about Dzeko. No doubt we'd get told to jog on but he's a very useful player and with the way Negredo is playing (crikey - I was convinced he'd be a dud) they'd never drop him. I still like Benteke despite him having an indifferent season so far. I see your point about Giroud's all round contribution but I think you're being unfair on the likes of Aguero and Suarez TT. Both contribute massively to their team in more ways than scoring and the likes of City in particular are getting their goals from everyone! Admittedly Liverpool's goals are all coming from Suarez/Sturridge but I don't think it's solely down to them being the focal point but rather that their midfield is sh*te...
You might be right about that. Giroud's hold up play is invaluable. Cavani would offer both the skill finisihing ability AND the hold-up play.
I like Giroud because he offers a lot to the team, but there's no way we'd see a net loss of goals by adding somebody like Suarez, quite the opposite in fact. He is a ****ing goal machine and with Ozil, Cazorla, Wilshere, Ramsey, Arteta and Walcott playing around him, he would be unstoppable in our team.
I get the point TT is making to be fair. The way we currently play suits a forward like Giroud, we use him to bring others into play, hold the ball up, battle for everything in the air and help out defensively on set pieces (this part of his game is vastly underated as he constantly clears corners). If we brought in Suarez we would have to adapt the way we play. I think we probably would get more goals though. I'd play Suarez and Walcott either side of Giroud tbh
I don't disagree with TT either. Just look at Dortmund or Bayern. Both play a similar system to ourselves and both use a big man to link with the midfield. Mandzukic is in my opinion NO better than Giroud but he's a workhorse and makes the Bayern team tick. The midfield flourish with the big guy putting in the work and bullying defenses. Dortmund are lucky in the fact that Lewandowski is also a TOP quality finisher and capable of playing the 'hold up' game.. But there arnt many strikers like this around. For me if we bought a Suarez or a Aguero we would need to change our system.
Suarez does a lot more than just score goals though too. He's brilliant at opening up spaces for other players and really good at taking on defenders, committing them and weaving his way into dangerous positions to set up others. I think he'd be a perfect fit for Arsenal. I'm hoping that Pool's loss to Hull is the beginning of the rot, because if we're top at Christmas and Liverpool are starting to slide, then you can expect Suarez' people to start ramping up the exit talk. My feeling is though that he'll be off to Real in the summer, regardless of where Liverpool finish.
Like the suggestion of Dzeko, but City are not morons and they are not going to sell to a direct rival.
. However, it would cause a lot of issues defensively. Right now the players that are excused defense are Giroud and Ozil. If we play Suarez, either he or Ozil is going to have to learn how to defend fast.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ove-for-out-of-favour-striker-Edin-Dzeko.html Like I said........
Arsenal have reportedly agreed a six-month loan deal for Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata. The 21-year-old was heavily linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur over the summer with the club reportedly interested in including the forward as part of the deal which saw Gareth Bale move to the Santiago Bernabeu. The youngster, however, stayed in the Spanish capital but has found a starting XI spot hard to come by with Bale, Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel di Maria ahead of him in the pecking order for the forward positions at Real. Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti will now let Morata leave the club on loan this January and the player has chosen to join Arsenal over their north London rivals Tottenham, according to Spanish radio station Onda Cero. I don't know how true this is!
