I’m really surprised the level of criticism that Gabriel Jesus has received this week.
Due to his work rate and winning mentality, I thought he would be protected from any backlash from our fan base, especially with it his first season in North London.
The Brazilian has gone 7 fixtures without finding the back of the net, leaving some Gooners to scratch their head and conclude he’s not a striker who is going to score 20-25 League goals a season.
When the likes of myself pointed this out when we were winning games, I was called negative, now it is an issue when dropping points, you are accused of being fickle.
He’s a great subject matter to study how the modern fan works.
They don’t want to hear any critique on their club unless it happens to be their opinion.
In reality, go back to pre-season and most supporters said we needed to recruit at least two senior forwards.
Since January we had lost Aubameyang and Lacazette, two experienced players.
We all welcomed Jesus (and still do) because of the many attributes he offers to make us better.
Simply though, being prolific is not one of them and never has been.
In the space of 12 months our attacking options had gone between Auba and Laca to Jesus and Eddie Nketiah.
That’s the same Eddie who managed to score in just three League games last campaign, who the manager watches in training and deems good enough only for the cups, and bizarrely has a portion of the fan base who don’t think someone on 100,000 pound a week should be expected to ever make an impact off the bench.
These same people will wait for him to sold to a midtable side, then admit he’s not good enough, it will be too late!
The likes of Saka and Martinelli found the pressure of being our creative output during a top 4 race, too much to handle.
That’s not being harsh. We had the youngest squad in the division (now the 2nd) so logically there will be moments of inexperience.
They needed help.
Edu has corrected that, but we needed more – and only our great start to the season let him get away with that.
He knew all year Laca was leaving as a free agent, he knew we hadn’t replaced Auba, he knew we needed two players for that position …….he got one!
So common sense would say if the pressure of a top 4 race was too big for our youngsters, so would the pressure of a title race now?
What you can’t do is defend our owners, technical director, etc, then be shocked when the squad is lacking.
Because it’s not Jesus’ fault.
He’s never been an out and out striker.
Yes, he wanted to play in the middle more at Manchester City, but look where Pep Guardiola mostly trusted him.
On the wings, due to his energy and immense tactical understanding.
On Champions League nights he would trusted to do specific jobs on opposition players.
Never post-Aguero did one of the greatest coaches to ever live trust Jesus to be his main reliance on goals.
We know what we were getting when bought him, so it seems harsh 4 months later to be judging him on being anything different.
It would be like a company interviewing for two candidates, one needing to be a driver.
You hire one candidate due to so many strengths, but you see on their CV they can’t drive.
If you only employ him/her, you can’t be angry with them months later because they haven’t got their driving license.
It would be the company’s fault for only hiring one individual when the criteria was two.
So, I’m sticking by Jesus because to me he’s brought what he promised.
He will chip with goals, but finishing is his weak part of his game.
He brings so many other qualities.
The only thing wrong with him at the moment is looking jaded.
When the Saints equalised last Sunday, he didn’t have the freshness to go to another level.
I wouldn’t have taken him to Holland, I would have given him a week off to be fresh for Forest.
Jesus needs an alternative striker to link up with.
It’s not his fault Arsenal didn’t have the ambition to go and get it.
Dan
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