Composure is the name of the game. By Galen.
It is common knowledge that since the departure of ‘Judas’, Arsenal fans have been asking for a new striker. The manager have insisted that, in Olivier Giroud, we have one of the top strikers in Europe. In all fairness to the manager Giroud has made great progress this season. The big question from most fans is if Giroud’s progress is enough to take us to the next level? This season when Giroud got injured against Everton and the scans showed it was bad we went for Danny Welbeck. Upon the signing of Welbeck, LVG declared. “I have given all the players a chance to convince me of their quality
“Yes, Danny Welbeck was here from when he was nine. He has played, after his (2010-11) loan at Sunderland, three seasons at Manchester United, but he doesn’t have the record of Van Persie or Rooney, and that is the standard.
Danyy Welbeck came to Arsenal having scored 29 goals in 142 games for Man United. Those statistics do not guarantee confidence. Agreed though he is very strong and pacey with an unbelievable work rate. A few years ago Danny Welbeck and Giroud would have been exactly what Arsenal needed as we had debts. But we are thinking about the ‘Next Level’. Welbeck scored 4 league goals in 25 games which is clearly not good enough for a player with Premier League experience – playing in a team that wants to win the Premier League.
Fillipo Inzaghi in his book “The mentality to be a winner” talks about the qualities and the mentalities a player or coach needs to get to the very top. When it comes to strikers, one of the most important quality of a top striker is a non-football quality, but more a mental quality, which is “Composure”. You can talk about Welbecks’ football qualities like pace, strength, off the ball movement, or Giroud’s qualities – like technique, strength, heading, first touch and movements off the ball. But without composure and the right mentality you can’t be a top top striker.
Composure is all about the knack of keeping a cool head. This is clearly vital when your striker is through on goal with a chance of scoring, as a high composure attribute will see them keep their head rather than buckling under the pressure.
How many times have we seen Giroud or Welbeck fail under pressure? Just when you expect them to be calm and get it done is when they fall the most. Olivier Giroud got a tiny bit of criticism from The King and he just let his head drop. For the next six games it looked like he was still thinking about what the King said about Arsenal not being able to win the League with Giroud up front.
Welbeck and Giroud are Arsenal quality and with them we shall still make the top 4. But Can Arsenal win the league next season with Olivier and Welbeck as strikers?
That’s the question for every Arsenal fan? For me its a clear NO!
Galen
They are not good enough for 2nd choice as well…
If our new first quality choice striker is injured we need someone equal as good to backup and score goals….
Oh for another Ian Wright!
Would prefer an Eduardo/Bergkamp type. Someone who brings goals, composure, moments of magic that win games.
Giroud and welbeck are very good players no doubt! But we need a clinical finisher like lacazette or morata!
Morata? Are you kidding me 15 in like 45? Everyone needs to stop getting ahead of themselves and believing everything you read
Where do I begin???
Giroud scored 19 goals in 36 appearances. A reasonable contribution to the team as a Forward. A bit slow but he certainly knows where the goal is and how to hit the back of the net.
Wellbeck scored 8 in 39 appearances. I’m not saying anymore than that because I’ve been on DWs case lately. Suffice to say when your position is as a forward you would hope that an eye for goal was in your armoury. we need a sharper implement than DW, it’s as simple as that if we want to truly challenge.
Your mind is made up so not gonna argue with you. But would hate to see your inaccuracies and misrepresentations go unanswered. Made 34 apps so not sure why you keep repeating 39. DW has made 15 starts for us at CF with minutes equivalent to 14 games. Scored 6 in 15 CF starts. Scored 8 in last 18 for England. HE HAS PLAYED CF FOR US 15 TIMES. I will say it again…..no only kidding.
So when we talk of DW as a CF and make comparisons with other CFs please, let us talk about those 14 games. If we are going to talk about him as RAM/LAM then lets talk sensibly about his 2 goals in 19 apps there.
Sanogoooooooooooo! Is our secret weapon. Soon to be unleashed
lol
It was my joke..u r just a bit ahead of me.
It is not a joke, Sonogo is the real deal. This season he will score 40 goals and become a legend. Then break both legs, retire and smoke weed for the rest of his life.
Guys, Jackson Martinez going to AC Milan. confirmed.
I didn’t fancy him though. There few forwards available.
Cavani – still need to prove himself. He has every attribute. But too costly.
Higuain – I think Napoli is asking too much. Heard 50m same as Cavanis
Benzema – I don’t think wenger will go for him. Have to sell giroud if he comes.
Lacazetta – is the one I want. Young strong, good dribbler.
Vietto, Bacca, Etc etc these are all second choice.
BTW, I have high hopes on yaya sanogo..!!! Just kidding!!!:):)
Just so I understand…
Cavani, after three 30+ goal seasons in Italy, two 25+ goal seasons in France, and almost 30 goals for Uruguay needs to prove himself?…
Meanwhile Lacazette has never played outside France, not played for his country at a championship, and hasn’t played in the CL….yet he’s “the man” for you?..
Did I get that right?
Thank you!
Did u see cavani playing as striker when Ibra was injured? He dint play by his standards. But if he regularly as striker n with our midfield who knows he could do better. Even Blank said he is not playing well even as striker. I don’t mind getting him though, he is way better than Giroud.
Lacazette, he scored few goals in penalties. But other goals are class. He is younger than Cavani he has all attributes to become WC striker. We want such a striker not a tan-in, hold up play strikers.
Cavani doesn’t like PSG it’s fairly obvious to see. That aside, for a guy to not be loving life at his club and to still casually sweep 25+ goals away says a lot about him.
No he looks a shadow of his Napoli self, but that arguably provides more excitement as just imagine he discovers that again in the red of Arsenal? And if he doesn’t, then he’s still a 25+ goals per year man as proven. Not much I can scrutinize with the lad honestly.
Cavani? How do you expect PSG to sell him? What about the 250K in wages? PSG won the treble in france and they want to dominate europe. Just How do you expect them to sell Cavani? People even mentioning him are Delluded.
Benzema? Madrid will only sell Benzema if the get Aguero? I have more chnaces of playing for Madid than they have of signing Aguero. This is city they cannot be bullied. The money they have is limitless. Just watch thier space and see how the spend this summer.
Vietto. Almost done deal woith Atletico de madrid. I guess we was kinda slow.
Costa? lol
Aguero? Lol
Ibra? LOl
lewandowski? LOL
Muller? lol
Lacazette and Gonzalo are probably the only 2 really top class forward that could take us that bit further I think. May be Arsene has a couple of surprises.
If we let Chelsea buy Higuain? We might as well continue with fighting for 4th place.
And the surprise is Arteta converted to Striker so he doesn’t have to run around quiet as much as in midfield.
Who knows Wenger can pull off some surprise. Let’s see.
I think he will surprise a lot of you! 🙂
Funny you don’t factor in Theo into the equation. Like I’ve said many times if Theo Alexis and Olivier play as a unit then yes it is good enough. You have 3 great players that can score 20 plus. You also seem to forget that the Ox and Danny can improve and both could have very good years playing on either side of OG.
Also OG complements Jack and Aaron especially as they use OG like a target and play one twos as they drive towards the goal getting the pass back.
Olivier’s passing is something that Danny can’t do as well right now but playing back to goal well is only something few can do do anyway.
If Ox and Danny have great seasons on top of the 3 mentioned above goals will come.
No what’s funny is how the first defence most Arsenal fans have of Girouds goal tally is this “link up play”…..as if no other ST can score AND provide.
Giroud is a good ST, but he’s not in the same bracket as Benz/Cavani/Higuain. He’s our BEST option at ST hence the debate. Ask any neutral fan and none will have Giroud among the top 10/15 ST’s in Europe. Now if we consider ourselves one of the top 10/15 clubs how about we have some of the top players per position?
What makes you think higuain is so good? He is not at the level you think he is I don’t think he’s that big of an upgrade on giroud. This might be completely wrong but I see him struggling like soldado in the prem
Why do I rate Higuain? Well watching him his movement, finishing, use of the ball, technique, is all first rate. Then statistically he’s a proven top performer.
Have a look at Galens article “why don’t Arsenal fans want Higuain”….I posted a statistical comparison of giroud and Higuain in their careers. Higuain is superior in every aspect. There’s simply farrrrrr more evidence supporting my view of Higuain than there is yours, he has proven himself at the level I state of him….I think it’s you who should clarify why you rate him so lowly.
How did you land at the soldado angle? Soldado never made the grade at Real….Higuain scored buckets there but wanted to leave to become a more focal ST. He’s continued his exploits in Italy and in Europe since.
@ Champagne Charlie
Thanks mate. This is not to put down Giroud or Welbeck. Its just to tell people that If we want to win the league we need more than that. Higuain scored 29 goals in all competition last season in a defensive Italy. Which is something Giroud welbeck podolski and Sanogo combine could not do. Its FACTS
this is Giroud’s best season in 3 years.
Giroud 14 league goals in 27 games.
Costa 20 league goals in 26 games. people forget this is Costa first season in England. And people saying Giroud doesn’t take pens. Costa doesn’t take pens either. In his first season he has done something Giroud cannot do in 3 years.
But i have seen people say Giroud is better than Costa or Higuain. We are all Arsenal fans but thats going to farrrrrrrrr.
There are some seriously delusional people on here.
I think the euphoria of our recent FA cup success has gone more than a little to their heads in terms of appraising AFC and our capability and potential.
Giroud isn’t arsenal level striker. Everyone knows that except some ppl. Alexis n Ozil has lot of expectation next season. V have to do well in transfer market, otherwise v ll definitely loose them. They are at right age n can move on easily.
I’m sure is Higuain is a superior CF to OG. Not so convinced about Costa being way better than OG – prepared to revise that after next season.
DC has basically had one and half outstanding seasons in his career. He racked them up first part of the season but all those clamouring for a big game player would be disappointed, few match winners in his tally, few against top 4, none in UCL and most accumulated in one sided routs and/or against bottom 10 teams. But both DC and OG have well in excess of 250+ top flight league appearances and Costa has a goals/game ratio of 0.39, OG has 0.42. GH has a career league goals/game ratio of 0.53. So, assuming he stays fit and settles we can expect 4 extra goals a season. Useful but not exactly day and night and a lot of ifs buts and maybes to be thrown in to the equation. It could be 4 decisive winners in a top 4 clashes. Could be 4 goals against Watford in a 7-0 rout. Who knows.
League goals for last 5 seasons for the 3.
10,22,16,17,18 (GH)
12,21,11,16,14 (OG)
6,10,10,27,20 (DC)
There is two stand-out numbers in there (DC’s 6 and 27) – the difference between the rest sort of merge in to blur of nothingness. Costa is a couple of years younger and is on a decent trajectory but he needs to have more than a season and a half to be properly top-notch WC. Higuain is there.
So Higuain for £30-42M (depending who you believe), assuming he settles and likes life in England, hits the ground running, stays fit and maintains form will buy us 3,4,5 extra league goals a season. Will it be the deciding difference? I don’t know nor does anyone else. Might be cheaper and equally effective to buy Cech and try and concede 3,4 or 5 less goals a season. Why not do both. We should expect either OG or TW to leave if AW makes GH the main man, which will make some happy but will undoubtedly weaken the squad and offset some of the GH gains.
NVM I just copied and pasted what I wrote on the other article to save you scrolling. But the following is their careers by numbers, looking at it over a long duration to see patterns and avoid one-season wonder type skewed arguments ala Lacazette. Higuain is pure quality, and someone of his ilk would be a tremendous asset to Arsenal.
Here’s the WhoScored breakdown covering Higuains time at Madrid/Napoli and Girouds time at Montpellier/Arsenal:
Higuain: 16514mins 131goals 50assists 80.1%Passing (1.4DisP 1.2UnsTch, per 90mins)
Giroud: 14733mins 80goals 24assists 67%Passing (1.7DisP 2.4UnsTch, per 90mins)
*DisP = dispossessed, UnsTch=Bad control per game
There’s your statistical evidence over the course of their careers, pretty obvious conclusions on every front. Couple that with simply watching a game of football and anyone who suggests Giroud to be superior or Higuain to be just marginally better is talking absolute fantasy. Higuain is a 40mil St while Giroud is a 20mil ST.
Would be good to see DWs stats by comparison.
Put A little perspective on things.
But you really think for the money being quoted higuain is worth it? one of his biggest criticism is that he doesn’t show up in big games and doesn’t perform. Besides this year that is very true alot of his goals came against “lesser sides”.
Higuain is an upgrade to giroud, but he is still in the same class as giroud which is right below world class. And I’m not sure he would improve is as much as people think, and I mention soldado because they kind of have the same style and attributes
I’m not one to lap up those sweeping statements, whether he shows up for the big games would be there for all to see if he or another were to join. Fact is you pay near enough 40mil for ST’s who score 25+ a season and can hack it in the CL.
He ticks every box and would be a great addition, 20/30/40/50mil I’m not concerned in the least given the average fans hit every ticket he buys. About time the club took a financial blow if it would cast us forward to title challengers. ST’s are always THE most expensive players on the market, if Ozil can fetch 40mil I have no qualms about a Higuain doing similar. Truth is if we had put 50mil at Liverpools doorstep we could’ve already had a world class ST.
The reality is 12months down the line after watching a ST like Higuain score 30 and put us on the brink of a title would people give two sh1ts how much he cost? Not likely. If Falcao had come in and took United to the title the 20mil would’ve looked a steal, now it looks 19mil too much. As long as we get a ST of note I’m not concerned with the fee attached.
Napoli’s owner is difficult to deal with and (according to ArsenalFanTV) recently stated he wants 72 million pounds. He’ll never get that but will hold out for 40 million or so. Higuain is not worth that much.
Giroud is good enough.
Wellbeck Sanogo
Campbell and Podolski
are not good enough but are
contracted for years.
We still need another striker but
what do we do with the 4 deadwood strikers?
Big IFs my friend.
Surely if we are serious about being BIGTIME then we have to have a contingency plan
IF Ox is injured and does not set the world alight &
IF the miraculous transformation of Danny into a talented goal scorer does not occur and he remains an athletic trier with little technique, control, vision or goal scoring capability (aside from a side foot from 3 yards out)
I know it won’t happen but if it was down to me Danny would already be sold and I would be using that money to buy my team a proven goal scorer such as Edison Cavani so that we won more games and gave us the best possible chance (alongside a sound defence) to win the league and in Europe.
As I said not only will we not sell DW we will not buy a striker and we will finish off the top spot like every other year.
LVG:
“Yes, Danny Welbeck was here from when he was nine. He has played, after his (2010-11) loan at Sunderland, three seasons at Manchester United, but he doesn’t have the record of Van Persie or Rooney, and that is the standard.”
KEYWORD : STANDARD!!!!!!!
He then showed impeccable judgement, and spent welbeck’s fee and more on a season loan for Falcao which had much less of a goal return than Welbz had for us.
Falcao for whatever reason had a mare of a first season in the PL with Man U for sure!
BUT If he signs for Chelsea or another team (Liverpool?) I think you will see a different animal entirely..
Form is temporary but class is permanent and he is Class, just look at his record over the years for prove of that.
You have some crystal ball there – certainty that our players will fail and certainty that all non-AFC players will somehow always come good. If Torres, Shevchenko, Mutu, Eto’o etc can bomb at Chelski then so can Falcao.
SAF:
“But that drop doesn’t concern us because he still applies himself really well and still looks to score, still looks to get a chance and with that kind of courage he will eventually become a regular goalscorer. Maybe he doesn’t appreciate us moving him around in various positions and we’ve maybe overused that because he is young. But his value to the club is there because I know he can do a job for me in any of those positions. It’s a fantastic asset when you have a player who is as adaptable as that. But I think he will find his role through the middle once he gets that maturity and gets into a more consistent way of scoring”.
KEYWORD(s): SAF!!!!!!!!
I think we should sell Podolski, Campbell and Sanogo
Podolski for £10 million
Campbell for £5 million
Sanogo for £2 million
Use the £17 million approximately towards a new CF. So if we sign one for 47 million we reduce it to 30 million and so forth.
New CF, Giroud, Welbeck, Walcott
Send Akpom on loan for more experience
Campbell and sanogo will be great maybe not the answer at the moment but definitely in the future
“Great”!
Definition of great in English:
adjective
Of an extent, amount, or intensity considerably above average
Wellbeck/Sanogoals will be great?
Yeh, just like
Messi/Pele/Maradonna/Cruyff/Stefano/Zidane/Ronaldo …
I’d add Wellbeck to that list for circa £12-17 Million.
Bung a few mil on top & buy (as Charlie points out) a proven goalscorer for both club and country over numerous seasons a.k.a World Class such as Edison Cavani.
Then we have loads of lolly left over for the rest of the required acquisitions.
Welbeck as a striker costed us the title while giroud was out injured, if it was not for those girue goals after the injury we could not finish in top four however he is not good enough to win the title for us,I think akpom and Walcott have it all that we are lacking in girue Wenger should give them a chance,otherwise if we can get aubemayang I can bet my manson on wining the title he can play anywhere in front attack and scored 25goals from the wing
SELL
Podolski for £10 million
Campbell for £5 million
Sanogo for £2 million
(Thanks Fred)
Wellbeck for £17 million
£33 million towards Edison Cavani circa £40 – 46 million
On top of this: Flamini out / top DM – fiesty Midfielder with some craft in > *Kongo kid, Morgan schlingerling , Vidal, kryzkweijikk …
( * spelling on some names may not be 100% correct)
So Martinez has chosen to join AC MILAN even though it was ‘believed’ that Arsenal were interested in the striker who has scored 92 goals in just 132 games since joining Porto three years ago.
To Paraphrase an online rag..
AC MILAN met his release clause for a reported £25.5Million.
WHAT THIS TELLS ME FELLOW JUSTARSENAL MEMBERS IS THAT WE SHOULD GIVE UP ANY HOPE OF A NEW STRIKER COMING TO AFC THIS SUMMER!!!!!!!!
why?
– he was an AFC fan, and said if they come for me I couldn’t refuse’
– he was cheap
– he was prolific
– South American
– wenger praised him and his abilities
What does this mean?
1. We did try but took the piss again with our valuation
OR
2. (Which I suspect is the case) is that Arsene thinks we currently
Have a plethora of world beating attacking talent and we couldn’t possibly improve upon it.
#SOS
Keep calm AOT long window to go yet, have a little more faith….you can peddle these comments when all’s said and done should we not bring in a ST of quality this summer. I’ll even join in!
Yeh. I’m a little short on faith in regards to AWs ability
To deliver the goods really. I believe he will once again miss the opportunity to sufficiently improve the quality within the team and consequently improve our chances of being truly competitive.
That and fail to free up space within the squad by hanging on to players who also aren’t of sufficient quality.
I know no-one wants to hear it but I think that my morbid forecast will come true. I will gladly hold my hands up if I’m proven wrong and will be happy that I am but history tells me this won’t be the case.
Well if he is going to Milan, great pedigree but mid-table and on the slide, then Wenger must be in a very long line of managers who passed on him.
Well the King said it and I believe it, Girioud is not the striker who can win us the title, his priority is not hold up play, and its not like he’s the only one who can do that.
It feels a little disappointing when you see all the other teams around you are announcing signings and you’re just stuck in rumours…..somebody please tell, what are we doing……..only if anyone knows and no rumours please, enough of it….!!!
Has anyone ever considered Klaas-Jan Huntelaar? He’s playing more for Netherlands than even RvP these days. But, regarding OG, he’s nothing more than a journeyman that, admittedly, has some nice touches now and then, but is nowhere near a world-class striker. Far too many goals missed when it was easier to score, composure in front of goal lacking. A world-class striker is what we need if we want to win the EPL. Danny also is not there – he might get there sometime in the future, MAYBE! Walcott is not the answer either, although he might think so. Don’t let the FA Cup Final fool you into thinking that he’s the answer. But in combination with the mentioned striker, he and AS could form a lethal combination that doesn’t have to be far behind the current Barca front trio.
No one has considered KJH because he’s a downgrade on what we already have, he’s had one prolific season in the last five seasons, the other 4 have been less than average.
giroud will never improve..i respect him becouse he works very hard…welbeck willnever bcm a WC striker…thumb me down but i always wonder why we bought him…WE NEED A STRIKER
What about Jovetic. ……