Irrelevant. We have 4 midfield positions up for grabs really. One midfielder will always be Flamini or Arteta. The striker will always be Giroud. Those four remaining midfield positions can be played by any of Ramsey, Wilshere, Ozil, Cazorla, Walcott, Rosicky, Podolski and Oxlade-Chamberlain (not to mention the one of Arteta or Flamini that didn't fill the DM slot). It's pretty certain that AW doesn't care if you're a wide player or a central player... any four from those eight (or nine if you include Arteta/Flamini) can play together. I think eight (nine) players vying for four positions is enough competition. Unless we sell one of them. I suppose if we got Reus that would be pretty much game over for Rosicky.
Reus is better than anyone we have in his position. He is comfortably better than Theo, Caz and Pod. In fact bar maybe Messi, Ronaldo (and on current form ) Bale he is the best in the world as a WF. He is genuinely World Class.
"Adv. 1. in fact - in reality or actuality" is different from saying he is the third best player, FACT!!!!!!!!!!! Ya smug tit.
Carzorla is better than Reus. Technically superior and more versatile. For me spending £30 million on another attacking midfielder would be stupidity of the highest order. A World Class mobile CF is what we really lack. Our midfield is arguably the best in Europe.
I'd like to see us sign Lars Bender and Marco Reus. If those players become available you simply don't turn down the opportunity to sign them.
Meh.. Lars would be a good signing but to be honest I've been highly impressed with both Flamini and Arteta this Season. Both are experienced and in our fairly young squad this is important. The other thing is Ramsey is currently irreplacebale and Wilshere is just starting to get back to his best. Seems a bit un-necessary to add more midfielders (particularly when we only have 1 recognised out and out CF.) I would much rather we splashed out on a player like Cavani, Suarez or Lewandoski.
I'm slightly baffled. Why are we focused on bolstering our midfield when we currently have the best one in the PL? We really need to focus on getting a world class CF. only issue is: 1. A striker of a high quality will more than likely be cup tied in the CL (not too devastating as I don't expect us to progress further than the quarter finals). 2. No club during the winter window would be crazy enough to let their top striker leave. Unless he is deeply unhappy. 3. He will be extremely pricey. Will Arsenal be willing to spend "Ozil" level money again? Our focus should be the league.
Arteta and Flamini are entering the twilight of their careers and whilst the experience is good, we need to start thinking about a long term replacement for the holding MF player, that's why I mention Lars Bender now because he's going to end up at one of the big clubs sooner or later and I'd rather it was us. Also if Reus becomes available, we'd be mad not to go for him. I don't dispute that a striker is a priority, but what I'm saying in essence is that we shouldn't ignore other players if they become available simply because we're only concentrating on a CF.
Exactly, Arteta is 31 and Flamini is 29, so we do need a long term replacement. Also Bender can play at right back as well in midfield. So offers cover for two positions and he is probably good enough to play as a CB as well.
I understand your point Piskie but as far as Bender goes, we missed our chance in the summer. It's World Cup season and even if we signed him now, we would be overstocked in midfield. Plus he recently signed a new deal.
We made a bid for him in the summer, so that shows that Wenger is keen. He might go back in for him, but I don't think Bender is going anywhere in January. All the new deal does is ensure that his club get a decent transfer fee for him.
Forget Lars Bender, he's signed a new deal recently so isn't going anywhere. I say we go after Sven Bender. He's basically the same player, minus a few leadership attributes.
At some point we'll need to replace them but in that role I think you can still perform at the very highest level at 34/35 years old. I'd be as little more concerned about Arteta's body holding out than Flamini's but I don't think we need to worry about the role for a while yet, in any case I know there's a couple of highly thought of lads in the academy, there's a Rwandan kid who I've heard good things of...
I doubt we're going to sign a new DMF in the January window, would say that's not even on Wenger's mind at all. Long term Wenger may even opt to use Wilshere as our defensive middle man, Wenger has always said he feels Wilshere's position is best as a deep lying midfielder, so Wenger may use him for that role.
Aguero! I'll sell my mum for Aguero she ain't worth much but I love her thats how much he means to me only 24 he's best year are still ahead of him.
If Liverpool drop down to about 6th by January we should just go all out for Suarez... he'd be even more fed up by then.
I think we should go big in Jan . I'm with Cini if Liverpool are down the table have another punt for Suzrez. Bid for Lewandowski (dortmund will obviously say yes to any amount over 10mn i reckon) but convincing him will be so damn hard - but officially he can't hold contract negotiations with Bayern till a month before so there is a small chance. Flacao, Benzema etc etc lets aim to get an elite striker. At worst it will cause the bigger clubs into action which will mean a merry go round of strikers which means we have a good chance of getting one. Otherwise get someone in for 6 months on loan and re-evaluate in the summer (as between Giroud, Pod, Theo there is enough there to get through a season especially with one more on a short term basis).
I'm with you boys. I said in another thread that Liverpool have a poor squad (decent first 11) and they have an over reliance on Suarez and Sturridge. Now that Sturridge is out injured for a few weeks, there will be a lot of pressure on Suarez to deliver, as they literally have no one else to look to. Not only have they got limited creativity in midfield, but they have a lack of quality up front too. It's going to have to be the Suarez one-man band again to keep them at the top half of the table. They should drop down to 6th or 7th and hopefully he'll see sense and ask for a move to Arsenal.
I noted the same before we played them, the notion was laughed off though. The fact is, is that they don't score enough from midfield and that is costing them points. Yes you need your strikers to score, but you also need goals from other sources when those players fail to perform or are out with injury.
