Gabriel Jesus, so much more than a striker
Gabriel Jesus has had a somewhat rocky season, picking up a few injuries and stuff that’s seen him miss a few games for both club and country but when he has been fit enough to play, he’s performed incredible so far this season and looks to be one of our most dangerous threats when going forward. With the year almost over, Arsenal fans will be praying he manages to stay fit through this busy Christmas period and into the new year.
Jesus has not really stepped up when it’s come to scoring this season but he’s been a huge reason why Arsenal as a squad have been scoring so many goals and creating so many chances. Linking up incredibly well with both Bukayo Saka and his fellow compatriot Gabriel Martinelli and all three have looked like a dangerous force this season and seem to be able to read each other’s movements like it’s the back of their hand.
He’s been particularly impressive in The Champions League and has walked away from all 4 of our games probably our best player and has managed to score in every single Champions League game he has played this season. Walking away with a goal in our first match against PSV, then scored our only goal in our loss against RC Lens, then scored a goal and got an assist in our 2-1 win over Sevilla in Spain and then again with another goal and assist in our 6-0 demolishment of RC Lens.
He really feels like a big game player and someone who leads with experience. Although he is clearly scoring and assisting a lot of goals, he is so much more than that and I think this season has really brought out his best qualities, on and off the ball. He’s a true workhorse and never gives up, he has the ability to hold up play and line it forward for his team to have more open chances. He brings a sense of calmness and it’s like it spreads to everyone around him.
Newcastle and England legend Alan Shearer spoke on Jesus after the Wolves game and said this “He’s not a goal scorer, he never has been. When you look at his numbers, he brings more to Arsenal’s game than goals, he’s got one in nine this season. That will improve and that has to improve”.
“I’m not going to say they can’t win the league without having a 20-goal striker because City did it with Gundogan when he got 14 or 15 I think. Chelsea did it with Lampard when he had 14 or 15”.
And personally I have to agree with him, if he can stay fit I think he brings so much to this Arsenal squad that goes unnoticed and because he’s a striker everyone focussing on stats and numbers but it’s more what I see him doing off the ball than on the ball that really impresses me.
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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I agree with Alan. The issue with Jesus is not about him not scoring,at least not for me. The issue has been his fitness. As long as he’s on the pitch,he’ll make others score. Take our goals against Wolves for instance.For the first goal,he holds off a defender,links up with Tomiyasu who squares it for Saka. That goal doesn’t happen without him. That move from him also takes away a defender,which creates more room for Saka to run into.For the second goal,his positioning in the box is perfect,which allows him to make that pass to Zinchenko who cuts back for Odegaard to slot it in. We saw what he does in the Champions League too for our first goal scored by Havertz.
There are no stats that can fully describe what he does- he’s arguably the best forward in the world at what he does. You just can’t judge him on goals scored alone.There was a time Liverpool was the best club in Europe. Instead of a typical striker,they had Firmino who is more of a facilitator,just like Jesus. Like Jesus,Firmino didn’t score lots of goals but he made Liverpool’s attack flourish.We just need to keep Jesus fit.
But at least he should be able to take chances when presented. Lacazette was also so good at hold up play and play making but he was eventually sacrificed for not scoring too many goals which is required for striker. If we want Jesus only for ball distribution and hold up play then better play him behind striker and bring new out and out central forward. We cannot make excuses of our weak points. We are leading by 2 points and still need to play Liverpool, Aston villa, west ham and brighton to conclude first half of the season. So until that Liverpool match I not consider ourselves as league leaders. We cannot always rely saka, Martinelli or odegard to score and its first responsibility of Jesus to score being in that position and I would expect at least 15 or more goals from him which doesn’t seems to easy as of now.
We are league leaders and hopefully it will also be that way on the last day of the season.
Scoring enough goals is a requirement for a striker; but, how many are enough when the team scores goals which it would not have without the extraordinary efforts of the striker?
Vz I get your point,but I think Jesus is a superior footballer to Lacazette. In addition to hold up play,he brings other things that the Frenchman didn’t have. He’s a monster at pressing-Guardiola once described him as the best pressing forward in the game. In addition to that,he has close control,trickery and dribbling skills that cause chaos for defenders and open up space for teammates. The fact that he can seamlessly swap positions with the other forwards during the game is another trait he brings that Laca never had. A combination of all these traits makes it easier for those around him to score.Most importantly,Lacazette was let go because he was on the wrong side of 30 for a team trying to rebuild around younger players whereas Jesus is in his prime.
I also diasagree that we cannot always rely on our wingers. That’s like saying Liverpool cannot always rely on Salah or Real Madrid of the last decade not relying on Cristiano Ronaldo. I think the game has evolved to the point where a significant goalscoring burden now falls on the wingers. Think Salah,C Ronaldo,Hazard,Bale,Alexis ,Mane ,Robben,Sterling ,Messi,Mbappe,Neymar – all scored lots of goals from the wings,sometimes outscoring their Centre forwards. Attacking midfielders like Odegaard too have goalscoring responsibility. We’ve seen,in the Premier League midfielders like Lampard,Yaya Toure and most recently Gundogan lead their teams to glory with goals from midfield.For the record,I’m not opposed to a CF with a different profile to Jesus; I’m just not convinced we’d score more with that type of striker than we do with Jesus.
OT: Saka has won the most points(11) with his goal contributions in the Premier League. Haaland is second with 10.
It was the same Guardiola who might have realized that he would need a prolific goalscorer than best pressing forward to improve already the best team in the world. He just did that and got the triple. In probably the all time great teams Ronaldo was backed by Benzema, Neymar and Messi was back by prolific Suarez, Ribbery and Robben was backed by rare Lewandowski and at present Foden and Grealish/Doku is backed by Haaland. If Mane and Salah were backed up by world class centre forward I assume they would have won multiple titles, not just one. Mbappe and PSG although great team has never been able to showcase their superiority in champions league. We just cannot under appreciate the importance of prolific central forward even in this modern football. The world class winger can definitely out score central forward but to make a great team wingers and CAM should be definitely backed up by one prolific center forward. Jesus have traits in him to be that player but he cannot simple acknowledge that goal scoring is not his best trait publicly and still play in that CF position. He needs to unveil his goal scoring potential and improve his overall goal contributions.
The quote about scoring not being his best trait was taken out of context Vz,as is common on social media these days sadly. He was answering a question from a journalist and you have to watch the entire interview to understand what he meant.
Well said. Jesus has so much more to his game than scoring goals. He brings players into scoring positions, directly/indirectly creates goals, initiates attacks and ultimately Arsenal wins matches which is the most important thing.
He was the architect of our goals with his hold-up and link-up plays. He could also win a lot of free-kicks and penalties with his tricks
I’d prefer to have a hardworking CF like Jesus and Nketiah than a lethal one but old like CR7, Lewandowski and Kane
It’s nice to have a clinical finisher like those old legends in our front-line
But we’d need to sacrifice one of our wingers or CMs to do high-pressing if we play with CR7, Lewandowski or Kane, since they can’t do constant high-pressing anymore
My ideal CF would be a taller, stronger and more clinical CF with Jesus’ skills, but that kind of CF is extremely rare
Gai, the idea of having a Center forward who doesn’t score goals makes no sense. A CF by job discription is first to score goals every other qualities is additional. Play making will get the fans excited and players applauded but only goals wins game. There comes a time the fans would want more. In the long run a number 9 would only be termed successful based on their goals return .Let’s not make excuse for Jesus he needs to improve and start scoring goals. I am yet to read or remember any lengendary striker who don’t score enough goals. Time will fail me if I amto start mentioning names. Jesus needs to improve!
I beg to differ, Sylva. Look at how Firmino made his teammates score when Liverpool won EPL/ UCL and how Aubameyang didn’t bring his teammates into play because he focused too much on goal-scoring
In the past, a traditional CF might’ve worked to win major trophies, but a modern CF should help his teammates to win the midfield battle nowadays
What I am saying doesn’t negate what Jesus has done or his doing for Arsenal. His primary responsibility as a striker is to score goals. Pls check Firminho stats his goal returns per game still better than Jesus. Arsenal not winning Epl when Auba was around was due to other factors. Laccazet has similar skill set as Jesus but better goals return.
Jesus’ productivity at Arsenal in all competitions was pretty good as compared to Firmino at Liverpool and Lacazette at Arsenal, according to Transfermarkt
Jesus has played 47 games for Arsenal and produced 16 goals/ 10 assists in all competitions, which means his productivity was around 55.32%
Firmino played 362 games for Liverpool and produced 111 goals/ 79 assists in all competitions, which means his productivity was just around 52.49%
Lacazette played 206 games for Arsenal and produced 71 goals/ 36 assists in all competitions, which means his productivity was just around 51.94%
OK. But if I may ask you why do Arsenal need another CF if Jesus is all sufficient?
Jesus is injury-prone, his hold-up play is inconsistent, his aerial ability is generally weak and Arsenal might need an alternative to their diminutive CFs
Yes we can, it was our defending that collapse in the last campaign that ultimately lead to the big got away.
Absolutely, and another factor I believe was that Jesus was still not quite recovered mentally and perhaps even physically from his very serious injury.
Being league leader only point difference cannot be taken into account and more important is the opposition left to play and last season when we were leading by 5 points, we still had games with Liverpool, mancity, Newcastle, Brighton, chelsea, westham in final 9 fixtures while mancity had arsenal, westham Brighton and Chelsea in final fixture and it was unsurprising we eventually lost title to city. Big team huddle has been even more evident this year. Only time will tell what will happen but had we have to win title then getting that healthy lead at the top before congestion of difficult fixtures is essential, so is getting important goals from Jesus.
Yes Jesus probably doesn’t score much, but that’s okay once he keep doing what he does best like against Wolves.
His contributions are tremendous, he’s the cog in Arsenal attack, we have a much higher percentage of winning a game with the Brazilian in the team, that means he doesn’t have to score.
A fit Jesus is more than a handful and oppositions knows it.
That’s right. He’s neither a 7,8,9,10 or 11, but has elements of all those positions, and we’re lucky to have him in our team. And this constant sniping is a pain.
I agree Jesus contribution in team and he may be one of our better players, but we cannot just keep on ignoring if he continues to fluff between the lines. Last season our season was officially over after we lost to brighton and Jesus was at centre, we didn’t score any in that match. Winning that winnable game probably would have given is title. Last season we lost points in six out of our final nine matches when Jesus was leading the line and effectively ending out title hope. So, though he is integral to Arteta game plan, he need to be making difference is such crucial stage and give his best effort to take chances and increase his goal contribution.
Gunsmoke, our defence didn’t cost us the league IMHO, Individual errors did, coupled with injuries I’d say. Top that up with the less cover in defense which I reckon is way better this season.
Yes Ken, two noticeable differences over the last campaign and am not sure if it’s by design, we seems a bit more patient, with a little more grit, maybe we play with a little more maturity.
Am seeing a little more covering for one another not sure if its down to team chemistry, we are still making mistakes but not paying for it.
Even Magalhaes seems a little less exposed though the Ukrainian continues venture foward.
We definitely looks more solid as a unit, though the free flowing football as last season is not quite there as yet barring the first half against Wolves.
We will always make errors, but is how we learned from it and recover,
Man city goal keeper makes lots of error, yet no one speaks of it because they typically win in style.
Yes the injury to Saliba probably our best defender was pivotal, We lost Tomi at a crucial time as well.
I agree with you Daisy.
Although our chances of winning silverware this season would be enhanced if we signed a better C.F in January
G.Jesus is very effective on both flanks and a great cover for the C.F. There aren’t many options on the market as no team would want to lose an important player mid-season. That’s why I think we should try Toney, but if Brighton wants obscene money for him then let’s see off the season with what we have.
Cliff we have to be careful , when Man city first sign Haaland they struggle to win, he was scoring but the team wasn’t winning, it’s a delicate balance
Can’t solely blame Jesus. We are the 6th highest scoring team in the league, and not long ago we were first. And yet our highest goal scorer is just 6 goals. This is because anyone from our team can score, so we are truly a team. I would hope for more goals from Gabriel/Saliba which was deadly from set pieces last season (Combined 5 goals)
He will start scoring again. But we have several people who can score goals including Jesus, Saka, Trossard, Martinelli, Odergaard
But in the summer we need to get a more prolific striker
You don’t need shoes to run but it certainly helps a lot.
You don’t need your main striker to score 20+ EPL goals a season but it certainly helps when trying to win the league.
He’s not a striker, and never has been. Forget that he wears number 9, and just think of his game. He’s invaluable to Arsenal, and as long as he stays fit will contribute enormously.
He may not be a striker but he’s playing striker, the same way when Tomi plays LB we expect him to perform the duties of a LB.
Thing is, the role of any particular position is not set in stone. For the most part,how a role is played depends on what a coach wants(tactics) in combination with a player’s unique technical and physical abilities. That’s why you find a RB like Trent Alexander who is not really great at defending,but works well for the system Liverpool have. We’ve seen centre forwards like Firmino and Benzema who mainly did facilitate their wide forwards to score. Benzema would later in his Madrid career score more goals once his role was redefined.
Hi results as a striker in Champions League are excellent. .
Premier League is tougher than the League stages of CL and he like Saka has plenty of attention this year ! However his finishing could improve.
It is not an easy question to answer. Arteta has never set up tactically to incorporate a goal scoring striker, so it’s difficult to say what impact one would have.
In any case, would a 20 goal striker help the team compared to Jesus? IMHO I think we would be better off with a 20 goal striker.
Not only more goals from the striker, but also freeing up Saka and Martinelli from the constant double teams, because opponents would have to defend against a lethal striker around the box., rather than Jesus dropping deep.
Anyway, cannot say with conviction until we actually play a lethal striker and compare that to our performances without one. For now, it is merely conjecture and opinion.
If he doesn’t start scoring goals, it will make it doublely hard to win the league. One of the reasons we didn’t win the league last season was the fact he came back in the team and we didn’t score enough goals. Jesus is a good player but, repeating myself, he isnt a striker and never will be.
Jesus only ever gets called a striker by the media and on football blogs like JA, and Daisy Mae has jumped on that band wagon. I can’t think of one occasion of Arteta or anyone else at the club referring to him as one.
He’s a forward, and a very good one at that.
Er, we bought him from city as a number 9. He didn’t want to play on the wing anymore, he saw himself as a striker and so did Arteta. He wanted to play no9 at City, Pep didn’t want him there. The reason he came to Arsenal was because Arteta told him he would play him as a striker.
I don’t have a clue what they told each other, that was between them, but It’s never as far as I know been publicly said by Arteta or anyone that we bought him as striker. He’s number 9 only because the shirt had just been vacated by Lacazette.
Jesus did mention he was signed to play as a nine
Jax, Arteta bought him to play Stiler, thats why he came!!!!!!!
Stiler?🤣striker.
There has been a great drop in our scoring this season, same us the drop off in starting games compared to last season. Whether that’s down to a tactical changes from the gaffer I can only guess. Are we conserving energy for the run in? I even noticed we ain’t pressing as much. We need to improve in finishing the clear cut chances coming our way and fast!
In as much as I like his hard work, hold up play and every other thing he brings to the team, Gabriel Jesus for sure should not forget that the primary assignment of a number 9 is to bang in goals. The earlier he remembers this and start scoring for the team, the better for him and the team. The problem with GJ is he does too much when and where he needs to do too little. He always wants to make the goals look too beautiful and Asa result of this, doing too much in the opponent box just to beautify his goals, forgetting that a goal is a goal no matter how you score it. He should take his time, watch and emulate the likes of Haaland who does not care about the beauty of the goal but only cares about the ball going into the net., which is more important. In my opinion, GJ is not a number striker that Arsenal needs and can never be. He’s not a striker, he’s a winger or a supporting striker. We need a striker, a very prolific one and we need it very fast. Gabriel Jesus is doing a very good job but not the man to give us the goals. He doesn’t have goals in him
No debate here. Arsenal team of last season scored the highest number of goals per season by an Arsenal team.
I look at Jesus’s contribution to Martinelli and Saka, similar to that of Firmino’s contribution to Salah and Mane. If Jesus is playing well goals will come for the team. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t buy a prolific goal scorer but we can win the league without one IMO.
Ping pong. You hit the nail on the head. Jesus at his best enhances Martinellii’s and Saka’s play. It puts him in a different class to someone like Lacazet whose huffing and puffing rarely amounted to much. There is still a big question mark though on whether or not Jesus alone can help Arsenal win the title. So much depends on Saka and Martinellii also staying fit and scoring more goals as well as a more consistent all round contribution from Trossard.And then there is Eddie who has everything to prove.
Like to hear from the females on this thread hope to hear from Shenel as well.
Arsenal may not be blowing teams away like a period in the last campaign, but with three weeks to go until Christmas, we are top of the pile.
But what makes our performance all the more impressive, is we have top the best league in the world, and top Europe cream on top football competition group stage without a so call prolific striker in the team.
And to think we do it with a game to spare.
This is truly impressive, surely we haven’t win anything yet, but we must learned to relax and enjoy,
answer to your question is “Yes” Arsenal can win the Premier League
goals and chance creation across the team is working really well currently – and Jesus has had his hand in those on the weekend, and CL he’s knocking them in for fun
Man City three draws in a row is timely reminder as to why Arteta has got it right this year, what is costing Man City right now is a drop in quality of defending, as a team – letting in goals costs teams points, and right now we are the best in the business at not giving opponents goal scoring opportunities and top of the League, a coincidence, no
if Arsenal can maintain these ‘defending as a team’ performance levels then we are going to take some beating, Jesus or no Jesus
Arsenal best attacking games came with Gabriel Jesus as the center forward. He creates chaos in the opponent defence and creates chances for his teammates. Who else is better at pressing and technically flexible like Jesus?
Arsenal can still win the League without Jesus scoring consistently, no doubt. The reason being Jesus’s game offers so much more than goals and his play and dribble brings in other attackers into scoring situations. That said, the primary objective of a striker is to score goals so definitely it would help to a large extent if Jesus consistently scores, which I am quite confident he shall be doing.
we should stop thinking about Jesus being a ‘striker’, a better description, and fitting with Arsenal strategy, is ‘centre forward’, i.e. centre of a front three
like Firmino at Liverpool in their heyday, Firmino played centre of a front three and brought out the best in his team mates like Salah, not judged just on goals of his boot but team success – as an attacking force Liverpool were unstoppable at times, whereas a traditional ‘striker’ can easily be man marked out of the game
replacing Jesus with a ‘striker’ is a highly risky, and highly expensive, strategy
what we lose from a Jesus ‘centre forward’ is now abundantly clear, and 30 goals a season from a ‘striker’ is not guaranteed
look at Nunez (£89m) and Holjund (£75m), the goals are just not guaranteed by spending big on a ‘striker’
the other risk is destroying the whole Arsenal team balance by a change taking out Jesus ‘centre forward’ chaos for a no guarantees ‘striker’
the games of others like Saka, Martinelli and Havertz might suffer, an even bigger goal gap for the ‘striker’ to cover
an unnecessary expensive risk we simply don’t need to take
replacing Partey, Elneny and Jorginho in defensive midfield is a far bigger and more urgent priority
You’re preaching to the converted (with me), all you need now is to convince about 75%. of the people here of the same. They’ve made up their minds he’s a striker, and a failed one at that. Had great game last night against Luton didn’t he!