Arsenal strikers are NOT scoring enough! We NEED more!

Walcott and Giroud have a point but Arsenal should score more by DN

There have been statements made by the Arsenal forwards Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott this week and they both spoke about the Arsenal attacking side of things, understandably. And while they both made good points, I have to pick fault with some of what they said and say that, in my opinion, Arsenal are not scoring enough goals.

Young Theo referred to how Arsenal have been doing really well recently in taking the lead and how this gives the team confidence and makes it much more likely that we will win the game. He is right of course, but I don´t think we have really been making the most of this advantage.

Once we are ahead, we have the pace with Walcott, Welbeck, Alexis and the Ox combined with the pure craft of Santi, Mesut, Rosicky, Ramsey and Wilshere to then go on and punish teams on the counter attack. We don´t do it enough!

Giroud spoke about the fantastic and numerous attacking options as well and also suggested that as long as the defence does it´s job then our forwards will win us the game. Well that should be the case, but it has not always come about.

We´ve only scored five goals once this season, against a terrible Aston Villa. And we managed four just three times, twice against Galatasaray and at home to a managerless Newcastle. But we have dominated so many games and have failed to really finish teams off. That then puts more pressure on the defence. United at home was a prime example when if we had taken the chances the defence would not have needed to be exposed and we would have won the game instead of losing. Walcott makes it sound like we should just take a 2-0 lead then take a breather for the rest of the game BUT, look around us, goal difference could be crucial to the final finishing positions and the teams above us have an equal or better goal difference….

Arsenal have got great striking power but we need to use it better! So lets play great for the whole game tomorrow and not sit back when we have a lead!

Dave

Tags Giroud Walcott

26 Comments

  1. usually when we dominate games though, we also keep clean sheets. It means we only get a 2-0 when it could’ve been more, but keeping clean sheets should be a big priority of Arsenal’s because too many times in our past we have been horrible at keeping them. Only have to look at earlier this season to see how badly we defend at times. We may not have 6-0, 5-0 games several times a season like City or Chelsea, but as long as we pick up the points im fine with that. We usually drop off after 2-0 a little bit, which I think is okay as long as we are still in control of the game overall.

  2. Chelski have Costa (with Remy and Drogba as backups) 1st place
    City have Aguero (with Bony and Jovetic as backups) 2nd place
    We should have Top striker (with Giroud and Welbeck as backups).

    We simply cannot win the PL without a top striker

    Yes we have Sanchez and Walcott, but Chelski has Hazard and Cuadrado, City has Dzeko, Nasri, Navas

    Wenger must sign one of the following:
    1. Cavani
    2. Dyabala
    3. Jackson Martinez
    4. Lacazette
    5. Suarez
    6. Mandzukic
    7. Benzema
    8. Higuain
    9. Falcao (Maybe he will perform better with us)
    10. If none above at least another forward (non-striker) like Reus

    1. What is difference between Giroud and all this nine strikers you named above here,who among them is better than Giroud now? You should lean to appreciate what you have, You just want to have big name in the club doing nothing..What is Falcao doing for Man U or Higuain doing for Napoli? You are even rating Lacazette ahead of Giroud as a better striker. even J Martinez,i bet you don’t watch football.

      Gunners 4 life One love

        1. 18 goals in how many matches and how many does Giroud have in his few matches with injury? We all should be honest to ourselves. Giroud is not bad and when he was injured we really know what we all missed in him.

    2. How many times you gonna post this?

      Giroud is a top striker and is better, or at the very least as good as, Dybala (are you kidding?), JM, Lacazette, Mandzu, Higuain. So that leaves us to go for Cavani, Suarez, or Benzema (I’m just going to ignore the fact you put Falcao in there, NOT for this league). That the best way you can think of splashing 40mil?

      The quickest way to make this team better would be to sort out the very middle of the park. A top drawer DM, and a solution to our b2b inconsistencies (whether that’s getting Rambo clear of his job, or buying someone). Do that and our attacking trio of Alexis, Giroud, Theo will score plenty.

      Gonalons/Schneiderlin would do much more for us than Cavani. Coquelin has shown the value of a good Dm, but you’re looking at the Matic effect all over again if we sign an elite one. THEN we can talk depth at ST. For 40mil you could get a Cavani, or you could get Schneiderlin and Benteke.

      1. Well said, 100% with you CC – so glad you said that because it saves me the time of repeating it. It is all about priorities and balance and maybe the time to take a punt on a £50M striker is somewhere down the line once the platform is there. Nothing against FC as he contributes regularly and is normally fair-minded but this particular mantra of his does get on my t*ts. What I particularly enjoy is how this list evolves and changes with an almost perfect correlation to who has become flavour of the month or has only recently been punted around in media circles. Thus you see Dybala and Lacazette come in to the reckoning as the likes of Balotelli, Michu, Ba, Benteke, Remy et al fade out without mention. I also like the inference that we are supposed to be quaking in our boots with excitement and bowled over just at the mere mention of some names; I mean really, why throw Nasri, Navas, Jovetic, Cuadrado etc in there as “proof” of secondary goal-scoring prowess. Around 40 PL goals between them to date in about 12 or 13 PL seasons. It is pure “console-theory”. I doubt if Fred or anyone else has even seen Dybala or Lacazette play a match. If you look at the whole goal-scorer thing from high up there are only 2 guys who get close to a god-like “guaranteed goals” status; Ronaldo and Messi and even they have the benefit of world class team mates, 30 odd “easy” matches a season where they can fill their boots, operating from a stable system for a long period of time now etc. All the rest are in the 0.4 – 0.6 career goals to game bracket; including OG. Further analysis will show that whilst OG is at the lower end of that range he would be nearer to the top in other secondary categories such as assists and creativity. He would kill off most of them on application, attitude and ability to stay fit as well. Close analysis of all the rest of the names will flag up inconsistency, skewed goal-scoring records in lesser bully-boy leagues, inability to adapt to new systems/teams/countries, inexperience, inflated price tags, entirely different types of strikers that would mean changing our system etc. I bet every coach in world football would love it to be just so simple – spend £40M – £75M on a striker and Bobs your uncle. I have not given a single extended thought in about 30 years now to Arsenal having a lack of fire-power across the team – but spend many, many nights worried sh**tless as to how we can stop conceding so many.

  3. We need theo to get back to his best form, which he is slowing returning to! Would love also if danny boy hits his peak and starts banging in the goals left, right and centre for the gunners! It would do his confidence a great deal! Coyg!

    1. What is Walcott’s best form? He’s never been a leading player, scores goals for a few games in a row, then goes quiet for a bit, then picks up again – he plays well in spurts, not consistently. I’m more concerned that we get Ramsey back to his best form – he showed last year that he COULD do it consistently but he’s fallen off the wagon completely this year. Just a matter of time with him.

      Also, disagree you NEED to have big goalscorers to win the league. Chelsea have done it more than once with Drogba as their main striker, and he usually didn’t score that many in a season – most of the time no more than Giroud scores for us now. It’s great if you have a striker like that but it’s also important, probably more important, to have goals coming from many different positions. Has to tie in with a strong defence in either case. You do need someone who can make a big difference in attack in the big games, and so far only Cazorla has ever really looked remotely that sort of player, although you can definitely see Sanchez doing that in the future imo.

      1. Are you on some sort of medication?

        Where does this site pick up these guys?

        When was this time that Walcott went quiet? What plant have you been living?

        Look I don’t mind when a player is criticised for WHAT HE IS ACTUALLY DOING WRONG. In Walcott’s case that would be injuries and missing chances.

        People can say, “well he has just come from injury” or “injury isn’t his fault” others will respond by saying, “his finish still could be better when he is sharp” or “preventing injury is part of his job, i.e releasing the ball and managing his body better”

        That is a discussion from this dimension. In this dimension Walcott scores and gets assists even when off form.

  4. Why is everyone on the Dybala hype train? Not many people have really seen a whole game of his and he’s not world class yet. At this moment in time Giroud is better than him.
    I would go for Lacazette!! Absolutely amazing playing, speed, power, finishing, bags of goals!

    1. Because he’s good and will get better, speaking for myself I’ve watched him a few games and I would love for him to join us. I honestly can’t say with Lacazette because I’ve seen very little but from what I’ve been reading he seems a good capture too…

    2. Definitely agree on Lacazette. Dybala is incredibly talented from what I’ve seen but not necessarily the goalscorer the article is talking about, very dangerous though. Lacazette looks like he could score a lot of goals in PL and his all-round game looks very good. It’s very rare for forwards to score in France at the rate he has this season.

      1. I too like the look of Lacazette but you can guarantee one thing Arsenal will be monitoring him – Wenger will know his mum’s maiden name, his preferred aftershave and what brand of breakfast cereal he likes best. We also know a fair bit about prolific Ligue 1 scorers with Wiltord and Giroud – if you look at the L1 Golden Boot list apart from a few guest appearances from the likes of Benzema and latterly Ibra you have to go back a long way to find a name that grabbed the attention of world football – Papin in the 80s and 90s.

    3. Dybalya is quality he has a strong frame.he is excellent at Free kicks ,dribble , shooting , passing, shielding the ball, first touch,and decent in the air

      In 22 games he has a combined 18goals/assist

  5. Keep in mind, we have Alexis scoring plenty of goals. He’s the dominant goalscorer in our team now. When you’re competing with world class players in other positions it’s far more difficult to score as many goals.

    Benzema doesn’t score as many goals as you’d expect for a Real Madrid striker, why? Because Ronaldo is the main man and gets the goals.

    Strikers have struggled at Barcelona too because of Messi’s dominance: Ibrahimovic, Suarez at the moment, even Thierry Henry.

    Alexis getting 20 goals for Barcelona last season is very impressive under those circumstances, especially as he played out wide – shows what a talent he is!

    1. Good post. Alexis is conveniently forgotten in many of these arguments – not sure why. Whatever you want to call him, striker, second striker, false winger, wide forward he is in our team with a primary function of scoring goals. People making lots of false comparisons with Giroud who is an out and out lone centre forward – Mandzukic, Muller, Benzema, Higuain are suitable for comparison. If forwards who operate in a 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 system are being offered up eg: Aguero, Jovetic and presently Cavani, Suarez and even Falcao etc who are not being played as lone strikers then Alexis should be included in any comparisons.

  6. I see Jack Wilshere coming good for us now that we have the semblance of a defensive midfielder in Coquelin, losing the ball while taking on players wouldn’t be as much of a disaster as it used to be.

    1. well he should try and loose the ball less then it won’t become a problem

      Jack has a 80%pass accuracy for arsenal dm that’s not good enough
      He has the lowest tackle succes rate in our first team this season
      He isn’t as good a dribbler as he thinks otherwise he wouldn’t end up hurt after each dribble (excluding the one that got him injured at Manu)

      I still believe he still has potential, but like ramsey last season I thought this would be his year to show what he has but it’s a fail so far.wish him the best of luck thou

  7. Many of our fans have a habit of disregarding what is ours and going for names they have heard or read about. I recall the times when some fans would even ridicule Thierry Henry for not scoring against big teams like Barcelona in the CL final. Wenger could have been stoned for not signing Loic Remy, Falcao, Lukaku, Higuain, Demba Ba etc. What some people forget is that being a top scorer in Serie A or Ligue i is not the same thing as being a good striker in EPL because of different reasons which many of us should know. Just to recap the following determine a players goal scoring ability: the teams he is playing against, the players around him, the overall quality of the league etc. I recall how our fans would make fan of Giorud and even propose that he should be a reserve when we get Remy or Falcao etc. Do those people still say that anymore? I remember consistently defending Giroud and getting thumbs down for it! What we need to know is that our players are good and capable of winning games all they need is strong team spirit and resolve. There should be collective defending and collective attacking and no team will stand up to Arsenal. If the way we played against Man City is maintained no team can beat Arsenal.

  8. @Champaigne Charlie,if you say we don’t need a world class striker cus we have Giroud and I would say we don’t need another top DM cus we have Coquelin.I would like to remind you that statistically Coquelin’s performance this season has surpassed that of Matic and Schneiderlin so really do we want a big name player or somebody who delivers whenever he is needed? For CM, I think Ramsey is the best all he needs to do is to go back to the basis of the game and focus on his role and forget about goals but for now I would continue with Cazorla cus he has done well in that position till Ramsey is back on form.

    1. I completely agree with you. What we need is a player who delivers the goods not his reputation or some commentators’ views about him. Reputation will be useful if it is backed by performance; if not then it could as well be swept by the wind! Why would anyone lose sleep over Schneiderlin when Coquelin is doing the job well. Is it just a question of names so as to boast that we have big names or efficiency on the field. Just like I mentioned earlier does anybody doubt Giroud’s ability anymore? If there is still somebody who still doubts Giroud that cannot be a true gooner. All those people who were fond of bashing Giroud the bench or some extremists injury have been made quiet. Similarly Coquelin, Monreal, Bellerin have also made the critics confused. What all this means is that we don’t care who; what we mind is what. You may have a big name but if you can’t deliever you should be rested and somebody who delivers takes your place. This is the only way our team will achieve results not through artificial lables like ‘world class’, ‘big name’, ‘class player etc when such labels are not exhibited in one’s game. Didn’t our fans boo Ozil when he was not delivering iand prefer Cazorla inspite of Ozil’s reputation as a former Madrid player and world class player? This is what reality is about. It is not about labels but substance; not whether one cost so much or played for a certain club but whether one is doing the job. Didn’t Sanchez cost less than Ozil? Which of the two would the fans rather have? Hence our fans should stop their empty fascination with names of players they hear about and support our players who have started to deliver.
      Question is often asked by some artificial fans whether we can win EPL or CL with current strikers. My answer is why not? Which special striker did Liverpool have when they won EPL in 2005? What of Porto before that? Arsenal’s current problems are not due to lack of strikers but rather because of persistent injuries. Who doesn’t see what Giroud, Ozil and Walcott have done since their return? Suppose they hadn’t been injured where would Arsenal be? Can anyone tell me that if we hadn’t suffered injuries we would not be 1st or 2nd on the table? Hence instead of always crying for the unknown players we should request to have improved medical services at Arsenal so that opur injured players can return to form quickly.

      1. Small correction above: ” All those people who were—-” it should be wishing Giroud to be on the bench or at best to have an injury———“.

    2. With santi being no1 choice cm and poldi n campbell not nailing down a starting spot could a top Lm be more important than a top St?

      Draxler
      Turan
      Rues

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