Games like Fulham are the reason why we sadly need a number nine!
After hitting five goals in the space of four days against Sporting and West Ham United, a few members of the fan base were quick to get carried away and point out the reasons why we don’t need a striking addition. As short sighted as that may be, you just can’t blame them, because sometimes we are just a brilliant team, a brilliant team that doesn’t rely on the individual brilliance of one player in front of goal to constantly get us out of trouble.
Sharing the goalscoring burdens has been a strong suit for us in the last couple of seasons, however we cannot say we won anything major as a result of that. The games where everyone clicks into gear, those are the ones which may not require the individual brilliance of a center forward but games like this, against Fulham, where you dominate the ball without any real threat aside from set pieces, these are the games where a top quality striker is needed.
We saw a lot of instances from the last two campaigns where we fell short, an off day from this usually well oiled machine was detrimental to our campaign. The two striking options currently within our walls (Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz) are just not the profiles needed in such games. The former is badly low on confidence, not scoring in the League for us since January, yes January!
While Havertz offers little when the team is not on song. There were a couple of moments when set through on goal where I thought a different profile like an Isak, a Gyökeres or even a Sesko would do better. Havertz is a graceful runner into space but when it comes to making those powerful runs under pressure, he fails.
Now I’m not blaming the strikers for the dropped points at the Cottage, other areas were also at fault, however better recruitment in the forward areas could’ve been done a couple of windows ago. We never really prioritized attacking signings under Arteta and now the Spaniard might be wishing he did.
Just an opinion, would love to get yours. Thoughts gooners?
BENJAMIN KENNETH
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Striker wasn’t the only issue but part of the larger problem. Havertz and Jesus are not strikers and they will never be. Havertz can score here and there but he will never be consistent. They both lack strikers instinct. Look at how suprised Jesus was when Rice floated him a ball in the box. We need someone who can come in and change the game. Someone that scores when it matters the most.
Did you know that Isaak at Newcastle has scored one more goal than both Saka and Havertz? He has 6 goals while Saka ane Haverts both have 5 goals in the EPL currently. But many of our fans think he is having a better season than Havertz.
Again, I think that it’s more than just this magical consistent striker that many have convinced themselves of..
With the amount of chances we create Havertz should have more goals than Isak. If Hevertz is in Newcastle he will have less than what isak has now. Plus isak missed more games than Havertz. So stop comparing them.
I agree with goonster. We do need a cf but Isak isn’t the one. Even the Newcastle fans want Giroud type cf to play alongside him. Gykores is the most lethal out of all the cf however is all round game isn’t great but he makes the most sense.
@Ibrahim
Where is your evidence that Isaak missed morw games than Havertz? How many more games this season? The last time I checked they are both played the same amount of games, or may be Havertz one more game at best..
And check out the highest scoring players in the EPL, most are Midfielders or Wingers. All these top class strikers at other clubs don’t seem to be doing that much either..
Yes. We definitely need a better striker than what we have at the minute
Our best striker is Havertz
Our best finisher is Trossard but he needs to come off the bench
“We need a clinical striker” is just the latest surface level shiny object that many fans have latched onto. Many Arsenal fans have convinced themselves that this magical striker would have magically transformed us.
And again I am not saying that a clinical striker would be bad for us. I just don’t agree with the sensationalism as always.
Man City currently have the best striker in the game but they are struggling to win games at the moment.
Man United bought a striker in the summer. Has he made a difference to them?
Liverpool bought a £85 million striker (Darwin Nunez) some time a go. What has he done?
Spurs bought Solanke. What major impact has be had in them?
Chelsea bought a striker (Nicholas Jackson) what has he contributed to their team since last season?
Even Isaak has score one more goal than both Saka and Havertz.
I have just looked at the current EPL Top scorer list for 2024/25 and most are Wingers and Midfielders..
It’s more than just a striker..
Does anyone remember when Havertz scored a goal literally out of nowhere? I mean a real strikers goal. Even Jesus scored a couple of those on his debut season. Havertz is not a striker, hes good at deputizing forward position but not a pure striker by definition. Not bashing him, hes just very limited.
People can say we don’t need a striker and while I totally disagree. Most big trophies ( and small) are won by teams with top strikers. We have never won a trophy without a proper no9. Part of our problem in some games, this season and the last two, was because we haven’t got that proper striker, who actually plays and reacts like a striker. Our problems are bigger than that but it would give us more options.
HAVERTZ is grand to bring on when we are loosing and play 2 up top he offers us height but not much more we need a deadly striker a one that smells a goal a wrighty type
Absolutely . Presently arsenal.lacked a deadly striker that can challenge good defenders .
Isak here.we come !!
I hear your point Goonster and i agree to a certain extent…however different teams have different issues which require bespoke solutions….as far as Arsenal is concerned we certanly lack the thrust that a specialised and clinical CF would no doubt provide ..especially in games like these…Harvetz was practically anonymous….as for the other plauers2you mentioned..Halaand for one has been nothing short of sensational since he came to City and his goals have been a major reaaon for their success recently…Nunez and Solanke are not top tier so no surprises there…as for Isak he is in an average team and id expect him to flourish in this Arsenal team….not saying there is a magic wand for our lack of silverware but the CF department is one that definitely deserves a proper upgrade and is our weak link ..in my very humble opinion
Haaland won City the CL. And he has won the Prem. Massive influence in both.
What? Halaand was so poor in that Man City CL run. People were pelting him all throughout and he was absolutely terrible in that final..
And what constitutes someone winning his / her team a trophy? Because the guy that scored the only goal in that Man City Champions league final win was “Rodri” a midfielder and not Halaand.
It reminds me of a similar talking point that many of our fans have parroted and still continue to parrot to this day: “Ozil won us our first (FA CUP) trophy in 9 years”.
Then you look at that FA cup run all the way to the final and you will laugh yourself to bed. Even in the final Podolski and him were the poorest players for us. Santi and Ramsey were our goal scorers and we scored the winning goal when Ozil had been substituted for being so poor. How could someone have won you a said trophy when they were not even involved in the goal scoring process? When they were not even on the pitch when the winning goal was scored.
But the narrative that he won us our first trophy in 9 years had to be pushed ahead even if there is no evidence to back it up.
I am not dismissing or saying that a striker would hurts us. A top level striker would transform every team but the simplification of the whole things is what gets me scratching my head..
For me the Fulham game showed up one of the problems Arsenal are facing.
Fulham concentrated their main efforts on defending our right side, and if you looked on the left side they left a big empty space, as they didn’t feel overly threatened by Arsenal’s right side, especially in the first half.
And that’s becoming a major problem for Arsenal. It seems to me that whoever they play there be it Martinelli, Trossard, Jesus, the left side hasn’t been anywhere near as threatening as our right side is. I f it doesn’t improve soon, Arteta needs to address it in one of the windows, whether it be January,(highly unlikely), or in the summer.
And just a note of caution concerning the set piece goals that we score, while I don’t care how we score as long as we do, the team need to start producing more from open play, for their confidence if nothing else.
Apologies, in my first sentence I meant overly threatened by our left side. (My bad).
@DEREK
Real Talk. I didn’t see the match, but watched MOTD and they k ll aid it out in the the same way. They also explained how Fulham nearly stifled our set piece prowess.
I think more than a striker, we desperately need a Plan B.
Havertz will score at least 26 goals this season we were told, because he scored 13 in half a season last season we were told.
That fine logic has aged like fine milk. We might celebrate a fine cheese come May.
The only thing we will celebrate come May HH, with be with every Arsenal win, Arteta’s win rate gets bigger.
Who needs Trophy’s.🤦♂️
I am hearing that Arsenal are looking at stop-gap strikers like Lewin, Jonathan David etc. If Arsenal buy a stop-gap striker, I will personally stopsupporting them.
They make a lot of noise in the market just to finally look for some cheap and ineffective players.
Why would you sell a young and vibrant player like Mika Biereth who is the reigning king in Austria from where Haaland and a host of others came to go and buy Lewin of David.?
Sounds crAzy, right?
Arsenal are a team that relies on two players – Saka and Odegaard to score their goals.
A clinical striker would help but then so would a decent left winger – Martinelli does not deliver and Trossard is best off the bench..
I would also look to offload Jesus, Zinchenko and Tomiyasu who are just creaming off the club.
That is not going to happen until the summer, if it ever does. so it will be another season of just making up the numbers…
GOONSTER i do get your point but do you know when Guardiola who was playing without a striker for while he still had to get Haaland because he knew what his team needed and Haaland was delivering, as for the final he was well marked because he was one of their threat, highest goal scorer in ucl that season with 12goals, even though he misses chances but still a threat at the front line. one of our major problem is a striker, if we have an Isak or kane type of striker i can bet we will be wining alot of matches, look at last season against aston villa it really showed because havertz missed chances and was out of place where a sharp striker would have buried those balls, we also need a sharp left winger like diaz,lookman, martinelli doesnt want to improve at all, trossard is trying but not consistent, jesus only offers dribbles and wasting time. we need striker and left winger to balance the team.
I think Pep got Halaand because he was a monster of a striker and still very young. A generational talent that became available at a particular juncture.. You don’t miss out on such talents..
If a monster of a striker like Halaand was not available back then then I don’t think Man City would have gone for any normal run of the mill striker. Pep tries to go for the top top generational talents.. Do you think he would have gone for the likes of Isaak, Osimhen, Solanke, Gyokeres, Zirkzee, Jackson, Ivan Toney, Watkins etc?
True Pep buys the cream but not always generational talents..sometimes he gets a player to fulfill a particular role if he is good enough to…like Delph..Kovacic