Gabriel Jesus’ Role Must Change if Arsenal Are To Compete. By Goonerboy
Good day lovely Arsenal family. I must be the first to admit that I have become so accustomed to that winning feeling, that I felt terrible that we could only manage a draw at the St. Marys, which is a testament to the kind of expectations some of us have started placing on our team. That is, to challenge for the title. You cannot blame us because it is evident that this season is set to be a strange one.
In recent years, Liverpool has been the only team truly challenging City for the title and is always in title conversation every season, however, their slow start to the season means they are no longer in that conversation right now, given the standards City has set. As things stand, the only team that is appearing to challenge City right now is Arsenal as other teams you would expect to put up a challenge are also not convincing enough. Chelsea and United are in transition, while Spurs are also inconsistent at the moment. Yes, things change very quickly in football, opinions and predictions can change in a matter of 3 weeks, which is why every game is a battle, the more reason I was gutted we could not capitalize on the dropped points over the weekend, it felt like a loss.
Now, a lot of people have highlighted why we dropped the points, and I am not ready to regurgitate that again. However, I would summarize this by saying we drew because we were not RUTHLESS, we once again failed to take our chances and Jesus was the culprit.
I must say that I am not suggesting he is not good enough or pressing the panic button here, but trying to point out a few things.
Before he was signed, there were concerns that he is not really a striker and that Pep did not even consider him to start as a CF last season, even when they had no traditional striker.
But the optimists among us felt that he only needed the trust of his manager in that role, but I think we are beginning to see the signs that he may not be the best striker for us as far as goal-scoring is concerned. I said goal-scoring because he has other attributes required for a modern centre-forward – pace, trickery, movement, strength, power, balance, hard-working, and link-up play, but he seems to lack that ruthless finishing ability. Here is the conundrum, should we persist with him and hope he develops that, or look to find a solution? I would opt for the latter.
When we renewed Nketiah, I remember thinking it was not a good idea to have both Jesus and Nketiah as strikers simply because they are almost similar. It’s like having Giroud and Wood as your strikers, very similar profiles. It was evident against Southampton that Nketiah cannot offer something different from Gabriel. That is why I think if we are to compete, we need to acquire the services of a traditional number 9 to provide another dimension to our attack.
What that means is that Jesus would revert to his former role at City, a player that can fill all 3 forward positions, the only difference being that he would be a starter with us. We need to go all out and sign a forward like Victor Osimhen, Ivan Toney, or even Calvert Lewin in that particular order – I reckon Victor would be expensive but bringing him in January would add a major boost to the team.
Based on the above, we can have the following line-up up front:
Gabriel. Osimhen Saka.
Now, if Saka needs a rest, we move Gabriel there and play Martinelli on the LW. Ideally, we should go for another winger, but getting Osimhen would cost a fortune and we may not be able to get another winger. If the money is available, and we are serious about challenging, I would go all out and add Mousa Diaby and Victor Osimhen to our attacking options as I believe with that, we now have a team to not only challenge for the title but provides a squad depth to compete on multiple fronts.
Otherwise, recall Pepe, sign Osimhen and get a Partey replacement in. We have to take advantage and strengthen our position for a title push, we can do it! COYG!
Goonerboy
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