Will Sanchez will be our ‘new’ striker?
Arsenal Wenger has suggested something that absolutely none of us will want to hear, as it seems that he has slyly ruled out the signing of another central striker, in favour of a player already on our books – Alexis Sanchez.
When faced with the conundrum of who to position up front last Sunday against Liverpool, in Arsenal’s opening Premier League fixture, Wenger decided to go with Alexis Sanchez over Theo Walcott. Today it looked like he was letting the two take turns of being the frontman. Realistically the pair were the only two players Wenger could choose from if he wanted an experienced frontman, as Giroud and Welbeck are both of course unavailable. As for Akpom or Sanogo, it would’ve been even harder to see the Gunners line up with either one of them upfront. The only issue is that out of the pair that Wenger had to choose from, neither have much ‘experience’ so to say of leading from the front line, but the thing is, Wenger sees both Sanchez and Walcott as strikers for Arsenal.
Wenger previously came out to say that he firmly believes Walcott’s future at Arsenal remains upfront as a striker, after Walcott himself said he would much prefer to establish himself again on the wing. Now in another turn of events regarding transfer targets, whilst Lyon’s Lacazette is netting goals left right and centre, with a hat trick and two goals in his last two games, Arsene Wenger now suggests he may just convert Alexis Sanchez to a striker.
When Wenger was asked if Sanchez’s future could be as a striker at Arsenal, Wenger said: “I think yes. I think it is worth to try as he has the quality to go behind. On the flanks he uses a lot of energy by chasing back and I would like to use his energy sometimes a bit more efficiently by going behind the defenders as he is a good finisher. He has played centre forward at Barcelona. He is technically top.”
What Wenger says is very true in the sense that he has the ability to play up front as a centre forward, because he does it successfully for Chile when he goes back on international duty. However notably Alexis works with another centre forward when with Chile, as he also did on the occasion he played as a frontman at Barcelona. However at Arsenal, Wenger is likely to put him up top as a solo striker and being alone up front is something I think he struggles with. Sanchez largely failed to make an impact in the Liverpool game and was much the same today, chasing loose passes and he wasn’t really able to get into the game. Sanchez does have a good eye for goal, there’s no doubt about that, but a winger is not as closely marked as a centre forward and Sanchez doesn’t have the physical presence to challenge all of the league’s top central defenders.
Is Wenger sneaking out of doing another deal in the transfer market or do you think Sanchez could be converted to a striker at Arsenal?
By AH
No he didn’t. He also looks like a player whose head is elsewhere.
He had a shocker of a game, he has the last two games. If he doesn’t want to be an arsenal player then perhaps he should just go. His body language says he doesn’t want to be there so prepare yourself gooners just in case we get a nasty surprise before the window closes.
Unfortunately it looked the same to me.
May be he is still getting back to his best in terms of fitness.
let’s hope all is well in the arsenal camp!
Alexis can play striker. He did play striker at Udinese and also from time to time for Chile. BUT he can not play as a LONE striker. He needs a striking partner.
If we want to play him as a striker then we have to change our tactics. We can pair him with Giroud or Walcott or Akpom or Wellbeck depending on opponent or form.
We have to play Ozil behind the two and a trio of midfielders behind them. This is a tactic with no wingers but with two of the trio of midfielders drifting to the wings to support the fullbacks. 4-3-1-2 and for very tough away games we can switch Ozils spot with a DM and play 4-1-3-2 or even 4-1-3-1-1 with Ozil back in and one of the strikers out.
I think it is the best way for Arsenal to play this season.
The two drifting midfielders and the fullbacks will have to work very hard but in Ramsey, Elneny, Xhaka, Bellerin, Monreal we do have the type of players that can run all day.
I know this may sound crazy but what if cf sanchez was an insurance for wenger? Sanchez is a hardworking runner and wenger compares him to suarez with the thought of him running behind the defense intelligently, something which we are hoping for with our fantasy striker. Well, the last 2 games saw cf sanchez leading the font line but how did that turn out? No goals at all.
Today, the fans are already seeing that sanchez is not meant to be the cf they hoped for and this could play into wengers hand.
Wenger will then get the right to say that even Messi can’t do well in an arsenal Jersey too because the tactic is not well done.
Sonargo would have been better there. Sanches in at least 3 chances with ball on his left foot fails to take a strike as it is his week side. A striker takes it with both sides of his run in behind the defence. To take off Oxy and not Sanches shows Wenger is scared to sub Sanches who is not the answer to a Henry. We need a striker even from the championship LG there is a Vardy down there or Kean,but Wenger will not buy as he has Welbeck,Akpon Giroud Walcott so he always goes for mid field players who we have at least 6 but he likes only 2 strikers on his books. And he still waits till the last 15 to use Subs why because he has no brain for tactics, as for Bould well his input is Zilch. Think it has finally arrived that Arsenal will end out of top 4 and out of the Knockout stage of Champs Lg. Then good by Mr Wenger thanks for memories and aggro CB
NO, NO, NO.. Alex best position is on the wing. We need a new striker of the type who can not only provided support for the other attackers, but who can score and add his own dynamic runs to the attack. If you look at Arsena’s stats for the last 5 years it shows clearly that our attack needs a vitamin injection:
GF – GA
2011 – 74 – 49
2012 – 72 – 37
2013 – 72 – 37
2014 – 68 – 41
2015 – 65 – 36
We need a goal scorer real bad, the current crop ain’t cutting it. A center forward I think is preferred, but if there is an attacking midfielder available who can score 20 + goals, I say get him. If we can score 80 + goals this season we can win the league.
If anything Alexis only showed us why we need a new striker.I wonder how you guys felt when Mr. Impact Sub was brought on.I find I very difficult to believe till this day how he’s an impact sub and how he’s even rated.Having said that, I think Lacazette is good but is not as good as you guys think tbh.I would however suggest Wenger to go for him because he’s a project yet to be completed and I believe he will bode well a Arsenal.I for one think Arsenal should have lost today’s game.There shoulda been a red card and a penalty given against us but hey thank goodness.I for one thnk Wenger is a daydreaming man and think someone needs to slap him to bring his mind back to reality asap and I ain’t joking.
I missed the game today because I had to work… can someone tell me how xhaka was?
I thought he looked good. Many a couple of interceptions and sprayed the ball around nicely. However, he seemed to play a bit within himself. Coquelin was the busier of the two midfielders. Today’s game underlines how important Coquelin is. He was excellent against Liverpool and was also good today. I think Xhaka will struggle to play as a sole CDM.
I wonder what the best midfield we have is? I quite like the Coq-Elneny( Elneny seriously under-estimated think).
That’s a tough question. Coquelin-Cazorla is already proven to work but it doesn’t have much physicality. At the moment I think Coquelin is a must. He’s just so good in interceptions 🙂 On the other hand, I sometimes see Elneny shy away from making challenges.
No doubt buddy, I just love a guy who will run for 90 mins. Seems like it’s hard to find that sort of energy. Away at man city a last season or the season before, where we won 2-1,the Coq-cazorla axis was beauty to watch.
We’ve tried Alexis as a striker before and it didn’t work. It’s clear as daylight Arsene as well as the club don’t intend to bring in a striker. It’s excuses, it’s this reason, it’s that reason why it’s so hard to bring players in. Wenger mentioned about the 600 employees at Arsenal getting paid a wage every month?? What about the fans that pay good money to watch the team up and down the country every season then? (Without fans there is no football). No ones asking the club to spend 300 million, we are asking to spend the money we
have to improve our current squad. Which we clearly haven’t done. It’s a real shame the way the club have gone about their business ?
we might aswell start a charity fund for a striker since the manager and bored don’t want to fund it
There’s no reason why Alexis can’t play striker. I mean he has it all – pace, finishing and aggression. But we’re where we are. Alexis as striker is another failed project like Podolski or Arshavin as striker. His natural instincts is to chase every loose ball. Strikers shouldn’t do that. He also rarely stays central. I think we’re better off playing Sanogo as a striker than Alexis. At least with Sanogo, you know if you thump the ball in the box 18 there’ll be somebody there to meet it!
It doesn’t really matter if he did or didn’t convince as a striker, Wenger doesn’t want to spend the money on a new one so he has to have an excuse not to. Last month it was Walcott this week it’s Sanchez next week it’ll be Akpom or Sanogo and then the window will be closed and he won’t have to come up with any more excuses. He says there’s no quality out there but how come other top clubs have nearly all managed to strengthen up front and I would argue our need was greater than theirs.
The problem is without Ozil our attack has NO cohesion at all and therefore no organization required to supply the front line. In addition, Walcott and Chamberlain didn’t help much either. Alexis thrived as a no9 for Barca because he had world class suppliers and top class wingers that knew how to cut the defence open, in my opinion he can thrive as a CF for Arsenal if Ozil plays behind him and we get another top class winger that can create and score goals. That way the defence can be stretched enough for him to exploit the spaces unlike today. Today Leicester had no trouble defending against Theo and Ox hence why it was easy for them to remain organized in the box and defend against Sanchez.
Alexis can be our Suarez but not with the system we play. It can only happen if our front 3 are good goal scorers. Eg Mahrez on one wing and a Martial type player on the other wing.
What we need is a striker… plain and simple. At this point, I don’t care who it is. Maybe he should have tried akpom and Alexis and ox either side. Or Alexis and Joel. I feel quite sorry for Joel, he’s being treated poorly in my opinion.
Wenger said he will sign players only if they are good enough to improve the squad. He must believe that there are no players left in the world that could improve the squad since he refuses to sign more players. By his own logic, Arsenal cannot be improved with additional signings.
He is mad!!!!
At the level of football played today experimenting is a dangerous occupation . In most cases you buy pedigree not invent it, Ibranohvic is testament to that. Sanchez is a world class player in his chosen position you don`t fool around with that, he`s an expert not a squad player. Buy a true professional centre forward and be prepared to fork out the money.
Wenger is trying to dodge getting a striker, Alexis not good enough up front on his own so Arsenal trying to not spend for the sake of spending. I can only hope its because Wenger is retiring at the end of this season and the money is being saved for the new manager to spend on the players they want.
Alexis doesn’t want to be at Arsenal and is in his last season with us.
The club values money and “resell” value too much to force him to play out his contract. He will not renew and be sold at the latest next summer when he has only one year left on his contract to make sure we get at least some money for him.
You can’t blame the guy.
Don’t forget, Arsenal is no longer a football club, it is a business first and foremost.