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