GIVEN OUR ATTACKING STATS, DOES SIGNING A STRIKER REALLY MATTER.
With just over two weeks remaining till transfer deadline day Arsenal are in a rush against time to sign more players, with it being reported that we’ve lodged our first bid for Merino after weeks of verbal negotiations this could be a sign of a flurry of transfers towards the back end of the window.
Players we’ve been linked with through out the window have been strikers. From Sesko to Isak to Gyokeres and recently Osimhen we’ve been linked to a whole host of them, with most gooners (myself included) being in the agreement that signing a striker is something we have to explore this summer, however we must take a look at our current squad evaluate and ponder whether we actually need a new striker coming through the doors before the window ends.
Looking at plain stats such as total goals scored in the league last season then I wonder if we actually need an out and out number 9.
I personally think that our system suits a more facilitative striker who still chips in with goals, but mostly helps to bring others into the play. This is perfectly exemplified by the fact that we had a wide variety of players chipping in with the goals, Our Highest goalscrorer’s tally of 16 goals speaks volumes about how the goals are shared among the squad, but we just need each player to score a few more this time around.
Also with the back of fully fit Jesus and Havertz we may just have enough to go the distance, even if we do have problems to fix with such as the shot conversion rate.
KENNETH BENJAMIN
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It’s funny to see an opinion that one has stated repeatedly throughout last season being voiced now in such a garbled fashion 😀
The answer is yes and no. Yes, Arsenal don’t “need” a goalscorer, and no, they don’t need to score more goals. Last season, arsenal scored 91 goals in the league, just 5 shy of City, and 20 in the CL (avg. 2/game). This while only having settled on their main striker halfway through the season (Havertz only started being fielded regularly as a “9” around Week 26, scoring 8 in 12 since then) and while not having the use of the player who was *supposed* to be the main striker basically throughout all season (Jesus was rarely in any kind of shape). In the meantime, a full 17 players scored at least once during the campaign, and 4 got into double-digits by the end. This isn’t what a side that struggles for goals looks like. This is what it looks like when a side has a number of options up front and is using them with a degree of efficiency.
You’re not a Gunner at all talking like this you still want us to go back to the system that elude us the premier league trophy last season, what can we win with our number of goals, second fiddle second time add a number 9 striker to it and see were we’ll be, sitting in your comfort zone we don’t need a striker I bet you no striker no trophy this season .Pep is not stupid to sell Gabrieljesus he’s not a typical clinical finisher he need to get the job done for him whislt brought in halaand and won UCL. I suggest Gabrieljesus Jesus go to right wing with saka we get a striker like gyokeres with harvert in 9 position, hopefully Merino is coming and with this team arteta will send PEP out of England
You said it all. Move Jesus to the wing, get a striker to compete with Kai, With Merino coming in, our team would be so balanced we will be scoring goals
for fun
We scored 91 league goals last season, it’s an amazing number of goals. If we sign a top striker in this window he might add some goals, but it will not change the total number of goals very much. We could even score less goals because a striker might change the dynamic in our play. When scoring 91 goals last season Arsenal do not have a goal scoring problem, but if we could get a world class striker I will say thank you 🙂 COYG.
Kayshanky….All Arsenal fans have different opinions ( right or wrong ) it doesn’t mean they are not a Gunner. I have been supporting them since 1969 and have different opinions to some on here, doesn’t mean I ( or them )are not a Gunner.
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A new striker isn’t just about adding more goals, it’s about giving us additional ways to play. We’re already performing well, but with a pacy, ruthless striker, we can be more versatile and unpredictable. With that added dimension, we could have taken 4 or 6 points against Aston Villa last season and beaten Porto over 180 minutes.
Thank you for your first sentence.
The call for a striker is MORE than just being a finisher, it is about having a different dynamic and options.
Replace Jesus as striker with Gyokeres, Isak, Sesko, or others of this like, and you will see the difference.
Opposing CB’s will defend completely differently; harder to double team our wingers and cover threats through the middle.
Jesus flops too often to supply a physical presence centrally, especially around the box.
If there was a player available with the right profile at an affordable price it would still be a challenge to sign them as that’s what every top club is after. None of the players currently available fit that bill. Players with little or no EPL experience, one season wonders, massive egos &/or poor injury stats who want huge wages, are just not worth the risk. Much better to keep Nketiah & Nelson & play them more often.
Well, stick with Nketiah and Nelson and see Arsenal end up in second or even lower come end of the season
Then expect trophyless again
During the first half of last season when the team was not scoring enough goals, I and a few of my Arsenal colleagues at work had this same debate, conversation. Many were saying that we needed a striker hence why we were struggling to score goals. But i kept saying “We did not need a striker as such but what we needed were the likes of Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Trossard etc to get back to scoring / finishing off many of the chances we were squandering. In the first half of last season it seemed like the new system was taking longer for the team to get used to. It also seemed like our forward players were slacking so we needed them to get back to the sharpness they all showed the season before.
Then in the second half of the season they started finishing off those chances.
A new striker wouldn’t be bad but I am not as concerned about that as most of our fans. To me a new midfielder is crucial than a striker. In my opinion we have enough goals all throughout the team, all that needs to be done is for our attacking players to carry on being dangerous in and around the opposition. The goals will always come. And if I can remember correctly, we have scored more goals each season since Arteta joined. Every season we do better than the last in terms of goals scored.
Saka, Havertz, Jesus, Odegaard, Martinelli, Trossard etc all need to just carry on scoring like they have shown time and time again. We will be fine.🤞👍🙏
A physically-dominant CF in the mold of Giroud would likely enable us to vary our attacking methods, which would increase our productivity
I guess Arteta and Edu have realized the need for that kind of CF, hence the approaches for Vlahovic and Sesko
@Gai yea I agree. If Arsenal have considered BSesko before that means they deemed CF position necessary. Selling Nkethiah out for 30m this season is gradually becoming unrealistic. Bouthmout just bought Poto Evanilson according to BBCrepprt after OMassel pulled out. Nkethiah did noting special season to warrant 30m strikers position totally different from midfielders it’s about your returns on the field. Arsenal may have to lower their price it’s mid August already.
Nketiah is a 25-year-old homegrown striker, so there should be some suitors for him before the transfer window is closed
If not, we could still use him to play CF and LW
We scored lots of set pieces goals. We need more options like a goal scoring striker. We scored lots of goals some of which came from set pieces. Teams may now prepare better against our set pieces and so a complementary striker brings in another option.
We also scored many goals that were from open plag. You can also say that teams might also now prepare better against us in open play, what’s the point of a striker then?😊
But on a more serious note, it does not matter how teams set up from setpieces / corners, some players are just naturally / instinctively good at scoring from headers, Gabriel is very good anticipating headers. I don’t care how anyone sets up, if a player is good something they will find away. If a striker is good at poaching they will find a way to score in a poacher way. If a striker is good at hold up they will find a way no matter how the opposition teams set up. If a players is good in tight spaces, they will find away to wiggle out of those tight spaces in most games etc..
We have very commanding CB’s, plus the likes of Havertz that are good in the air, they will score a given number of goals from setpieces no matter what the opposition does. Won’t score headers in every game but will get their 5-8 headed goals a season.
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When Wenger won more FA cups in his final years than he ever did earlier it didn’t count and now it’s the be all and end all?How about assess the overall picture and give an opinion based upon that, did we outperform the impossible for Arteta to ever match Liv/Kloop machine 2 years in a row or or was Klopps carabao cup more important? Is ten hag better than arteta because he won the fa cup last year? Should we consider man united the title challengers to city this year?
Legacy is built on trophies and ultimately Arteta will be judged on that but it’s very early days for him and most judgment seem like cope/chip on shoulders/desperation to not be wrong.
Don’t see anyone clamouring for a certain Wigan manager who got relegated whilst winning the FA cup. Almost like people understand cups are luck in general but use it as ammo when convenient.
Apt.
Reply to a deleted I think Izoke comment
Reply to a deleted I think Izoke comment..
Won’t let me reply to my own comment so think it’s bugged because of that. Test
Test confirmed
Get rid of Nketiah and sign Toney
On this topic (headline) it’s fine but worth remembering we scored more goals than ever in Premier league history (perhaps helped by the trend towards more goals and probably and area for improvement) whilst having the best defence in the league.
We should always improve and aim higher but is interesting when you score the most goals in your history whilst picking up the 2nd most points behind the invicibles, with one of the youngest squads and have the best defence in the league whist having a squad thats total cost was not in the top 4 and whose wage bill at least the year before was not in the top 4 (last season will be confirmed in jan) is labeled questionable and proof of nothing.
Just find it fascinating the lengths people go to in certain regards. Less a this topic comment and more I’ve ignored certain comments throughout preseason as to not engage in the enviatble flame war.
But the addition of a proven goal scorer will bring in more goals overall as well as those from the rest of the team.
The weak (goal scoring) link currently is clearly Jesus. In fairness, I guess we can expect more than the pretty miserable 4 PL goals he managed last season (which put him at 9th position in Arsenal’s PL goal scorers for 2023-24 – and he’s a striker!).
So Jesus played 27 PL games and scored 4 goals. Comparisons can be odious, but nevertheless let’s compare that with Haaland at City who played only 31 PL games but scored 27 goals.
Obviously, Arsenal will be unlikely to get anyone near Haaland’s level but 20+ as season would be a considerable improvement on Jesus and Arsenal may just need that extra firepower across the whole campaign.
@Bertie, please be considerate of the change of moving Rice and Havertz forward in the second half of the season, the form and formation we take in to the new season
dwelling on first half of the season formation and performance is redundant, the problem you are looking to solve has already been solved in the second half of the season performance
astonishingly much of the fan base still refers back to the first half of last season as the a big problem that needs solving, can you not see our second half of the season (14 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss) performance has addressed that?
i read so often Arsenal have a goal scoring problem, record high goals scored in a PL season alone should be enough to close that down, but add to that extrapolating our second half of the season goal scoring to 38 games delivers a PL (all teams) record of 120 goals
on top of that Arsenal was top, ahead of Man C, in xG outperformance, i.e. Arsenal were statistically the most clinical goal scoring team in the PL
goal scoring problem, £100m new striker desperation, nonsense
I don’t think we even need to score more goals, just the right goals at the right time. It’s all well and good hitting teams for 4-0, 5-0 and 6-0, and don’t get me wrong I enjoyed those games a lot last season, but losing 2-0 at home to Villa or 2-1 to Fulham is what cost us.
No squeaky bum games, please.
possibly the best comment this transfer window, congrats Ben! what on earth are you doing on JA?
noting that most of those 5 nil / 6 nil thrashings were also in the second half of the season following crucial positional change of Rice and Havertz both moving forward – a system and form we take forward in to 2024/25
Arsenal had exactly the same goal difference as Man C, it was a matter of how that goal difference is spread
Much appreciated, thank you! This team is fabulous, and I still think over performing when relative individual talent is compared across our squad and City’s but that gap closes more each season and Calafiori coming in while City have lost Alvarez could be all it takes to swing the league in our favour.
Arsenal 100% need a striker. No striker means 2nd again….wake up!!!
Arsenal getting ready for 2nd place by not signing a ST
I agree a top scorer would be an ideal addition to our team but where is that top scorer? It would be imprudent to sell Nketiah and get someone of similar calibre or even worse. Everyone has been on the lookout for that top scorer but there aren’t many of them available. So, here is the dilemma: Do we just buy any striker around, or stay as we are until we get a befitting striker? I, for one, would rather we wait until we identify a quality player. We have sufficient fire power to win the League without a new striker: Havertz, Jesus, Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, and Trossard plus the occasional goals from Gabriel, Rice and even White and Saliba. I also expect a goal or two from Carafiori and Timber, not to mention Merino (who is being talked about). We need not panic. Our team is all-round and they will do the job.
Arsenal FC needs to sign a striker. It’s true we scored so many goals last season in the EPL but the home loss against WestHam, away losses to Fulham and Newcastle, and both losses to Aston Villa shower that as dynamic as out attack could be, it could still be tamed by a highly organized and disciplined defence.
It is for games like these that we need a clinical forward who can covert the half chances to goals or create a goal from an ingenious move. Havertz wastes a lot of chances, same with G Jesus although G Jesus is capable of creating a goal from no where. Nketiah has shown he is not reliable in converting chances or creating goals on a regular basis. Therefore a clinical striker is highly recommended.