Are Arsenal just one player away from greatness? by JH
A lot of fans are very disheartened after our loss to Barcelona, many people blaming AW once again, and I think they are wrong, but they are also right.
They are wrong as they have taken this loss as proof that Wenger is tactically inept. This is a false assumption, our tactics were perfect. We limited the best front 3 of all time to just a handful of chances. But we had chances ourselves, Oxlade-Chamberlain finding only the goalkeeper from 7 yards. Giroud was in when he tried a reverse pass for an absent Theo Walcott, Giroud saw a header brilliantly saved by Ter Stegen. Which brings me to why it is Wenger’s fault.
Olivier Giroud, often the poster boy for Arsenal’s failures recently, and while supporters of the Frenchman would say that his goal record speaks for itself, I agree, it is a testament to “quote” how many clear cut chances we make. I believe nearly every striker in the Premier League would have a good record for Arsenal, we create chances at an unmatched rate.
We have the best number 10 in world football. Mesut Ozil has created more chances so far this season than the much heralded former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard ever managed in his best full season or Ryan Giggs, in fact he is well on his way to having the most creative season the Premier League has ever seen. But therein lies my problem, in a season where Ozil has created over 100 chances, why have only 17 been converted?
Simply put, he plays behind some of the most wasteful players in the country, how many great chances has Theo Walcott missed this year? What about Giroud?
I am of the opinion that a good striker in front of Mesut Ozil should look for at least 25 goals, at least. Imagine if you will, if we had Lukaku instead of Giroud, how many would he score? He is already outscoring Giroud and he plays for Everton (not meaning to sound disrespectful) we make comfortably more chances than they do, imagine a share up top, he would be looking close to 30-40 league goals already, a Costa, a Higuain, an Aguero, a Lewandowski. Hell I even think a Charlie Austin would have more goals right now than Giroud. Now of course this is just my opinion and pure speculation, and I know most of the players I mentioned are unobtainable, but if we really set out to get Lukaku, shouldn’t we be able to get him? Sure Everton are not going to be willing sellers, but everyone has a price, and I don’t care what anyone says – we can afford him.
People will say we need a better defense to challenge, people will say we need a new RW too, but I think all we need is someone that is going to convert his chances, we need a finisher, I have said for 3 years now, why have a Mesut Ozil when you don’t have a finisher? Giroud is not sharp enough, clever enough, ruthless enough, simply put he’s not good enough.
This summer I expect Chelsea, Man City, Man United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, maybe Barcelona and Juventus to spend more than £100 million this year. Players will be on the move, we have £250 million, surely we can find the assassin we need in front of goal to make us true challengers?
What do you guys think, will a true goal scorer make us challengers? Or do we need an overhaul of our squad? Let me know what you think we need in the comments.
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By Jonnhirons