Fabrizio Romano insists that Arsenal are looking to ‘sign an important striker’ in the near future, but played down hopes of signing Fiorentina’s Dusan Vlahovic.
The Gunners currently have both Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah inside the final 12 months of their playing deals, and at present appear to both be leaving for pastures new in one of the next two transfer windows.
Folarin Balogun is being linked with a loan move in January also, having found himself as the fourth/fifth choice thus far for the striker role this term.
Even Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is being linked with a possible move away also, and Fabrizio Romano has now confirmed that we are in the market for an ‘important striker’.
“Arsenal’s plan, from what I’m told, is to sign an important striker in the coming months,” Romano said on his Here We Go podcast.
“Let’s see if it’ll be January or the summer. They were interested in Lautaro Martinez but Inter said: ‘no, wait until the summer’.
“They have an interest in Dusan Vlahovic but the player is not looking for this kind of solution right now. But Arsenal are looking for a young striker and they want to do something interesting for the club.
“I’d keep an eye on strikers for Arsenal in the coming months.”
I don’t think you will find a Gunner out there who would disagree with the need for a new striker to be brought in, especially with our previously-reliable goal scorer failing to find the consistency he showed in his initial years with the club.
I’m not sure if Fab is claiming that Vlahovic isn’t interested in such a move in January, or whether the chance to join Arsenal isn’t currently in his sights, but he would have been my preferred option to be honest. Relatively young, fearless, clinical and all-rounded striker who can score all-manner of goals.
Who would you most like to see lead the line next season? Could we make a big move in January?
Patrick
ESR is our leading scorer with Ode catching up. May be our midfielders will be our chief goal scorers? Auba is on 300k p/w so will see out his contract. Pepe cost 72mill so the club will want at least 50m for his sale. So we just have to perevere with the pair. Maybe we can sell Lacca to Newcastle for 15-20mill in January?
Then give more time to Martinelli and Balogun.
7th place can only get better.
Severe mismanagement over the last 2 years of contracts of the front men as well of zero long term plan for a replacement striker.
-Martinelli barely plays and is used as a wing so not in MA plans
-Eddie is leaving
-Flo gets zero game time
-Auba is non-existent
-Laca usually bench and leaving
So what’s MA’s plan for us?
Right none of our current strikers are at present good enough Aubameyang is finished Lacazette has never been the answer doesn’t score enough Nketiah never been good enough discount his England under 21 record that’s not top class opposition Balogun not ready for first team maybe I two years time if he progresses but has potential Marinelli again has potential but too injury prone and lightweight to be main striker We obviously need two proven strikers and ideally one at least coming in January window
Why is it always the players and not Arteta? How come all our strikers became duds at the same time? Food for thoughts?
Really don’t think all our strikers are suddenly useless. In fact, it sounds very unlikely. The problem is, we haven’t created enough chances, so they have lost confidence and joy.
If we could create more chances, I bet they would be scoring much more.
Considering the tactics over the last couple years, any striker coming in is likely to have difficulty scoring goals.
We are so slow in transitioning to attack, the midfield doesn’t create enough chances during the game, and we lack the direct and forward passing that strikers tend to feed on.
So much emphasis is placed on possession, that often times we tend to have possession without purpose. Endless passing, then recycle to the back line to build up slowly yet again.
Yes i agree with you @Durand. We kept possession football with no purpose, what our midfield doing is back-pass or side-pass most of the time, its very rare our midfielder put on 60-70 yards pass to our striker directly. Unless if we have a midfielder who can control the game from middle (we miss you Cesc). What i saw from our last 13-14 games in the league, most of our midfield player have lung burst stamina but MA don’t know how to utilize it. Our transitioning to attack really slow(it allow our opponent to get back to position and ready to break our attack.)
We need a midfielder who can run the show from middle and we need a striker who will ‘die’ for the badge.
Agree Durand. Being a striker in our team has become a very difficult task.
Top striker and a winger able to provide assists and also score like Berardi from Sassuolo
Well, here is my two cents worth.
We have been playing well against the lesser lights in the Division where are football carries us through. We have scored sufficient goals to win those games,
So why do we lose to the better teams in the league?
The problem is not so much an issue with scoring as an issue with being over run in midfield.
ONCE MORE I would suggest that first order of importance is to get another good physical DM to help us control the midfield better.
Hopefully then we will spend less time penned in our own half, trying desperately to play out from the back.
We lost the game against Everton because they out muscled us.
Against Liverpool Mane committed several early fouls before smacking one of our players in the head (the incident that so enraged Arteta).
Against Man United Maguire almost pulled one of our players arm out of its socket.
Against Everton, Godfrey committed several early fouls before “Intentionally” stamping on Tommy’s Face.
In all three games we were bullied!!!
I suggest we buy a younger player, but with more experience than Lokonga. in midfield.
Once we can control the midfield, then we can talk about forwards!!!!