Wenger to see where Walcott and Podolski fit back into team before spending big again
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 26: Arsene Wenger, manager of Arsenal looks on during the Barclays Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Arsenal at Selhurst Park.
So we beat the team closest to us in the table on Saturday and finish the weekend 5 points clear after 10 games. I had a great time on Saturday – drinking with old friends, meeting new ones, loving the performance, savouring the special atmosphere and wallowing in the glory, perhaps temporary, but wallowing none the less. What in a football sense could possibly deflate this mood on Sunday?
Having to read all day how much fellow Gunners wanted to invest £50 million plus on the Uruguayan half of a special strike force who Mertesacker and Koscielny has kept predominantly quite the previous evening.
I am as desperate to see my team succeed as the next fan, but I also want to enjoy the togetherness in the squad we have not witnessed since 2007. We have invested over £40 million in one of the world’s finest play makers and there are signs of what he can bring to the team already. But although Ozil comes with the price tag he is without the fanfare, publicity and grief. Surely the form of Ramsey, Szczeney and Gibbs this season must teach us something. Yes we needed top class experience but it has to be blended carefully with the talent we have already nurtured. In short, it will be a team that will win us our first silverware in 9 years not any one star individual.
Ask yourself this question? How much would you have valued Aaron Ramsey at if a club had made an offer in January 2013? - £10/-2 million? Now ask yourself how much we would value him at in January 2014 – £25 milion? More? Hypothetical of course but here’s another one. Would any of you swap Flamini for Capoue? I know I would not.
My point is, why yearn for Suarez before we have seen what Wenger has in mind for the team/squad, when all are fit and well. For this observer there are several aspects and combinations within the squad we have yet to see. In the same way that we had to wait for an Arsenal team featuring Ozil and Cazorla I would like to see what Wenger has in mind for Walcott and Podolski before I throw my hat into the ring and call for a super striker signing in 2 months.
Here are a few of the aspects that excite me or set me thinking now ahead of January and they may resonate with you or they may not:
Olivier Giroud and the formation
The best back to goal striker in the EPL
Wenger has played 4-2-3-1 pretty much nonstop for 5 years now. Most of you know I am an advocate of using two strikers but I have no evidence to suggest it is likely. Olivier Giroud is without a doubt the best back to goal striker in the Premiership bar none. Our whole team set up works with his style of striker, his hold up lay and his bringing the three midfield creators into play.
Now with the talent we now have at our disposal we can vary of game style but will we? Could Suarez play the Giroud role? Are there still fans unconvinced by the Frenchman? Maybe there are but I would not swap him now, not that I ever would have done. For me the logic suggests a similar player to Giroud but better then Bentdner or Sanogo to share the load. Llorente on loan ticks that box perhaps.
What now for Lukas?
Ignore our most clinical finisher?
In about 81 minutes of league football for Arsenal this season Podolski has 2 goals. Last year he was into double figure for assists and goals whilst carrying an ankle injury for months. When asked to play centrally on a about 4 or 5 occasions he looked labored for sure but we don’t know how fit he was and he did score 2 crucial goals v Wigan that took us to the brink of Champions League football. What we do know is that he is the most lethal finisher at the football club and to discard his experience and eye for goal would be crazy. You simple cannot ignore the simple facts that 61% of Podolski’s EPL shots on goals were on target and in case you are wondering Suarez managed 72 on target from 187 – about 32%.
Whatever criticisms we may have of Podolski I am fairly certain that if we are in a game and need a goal we would all want the charismatic German to call upon. Someone else who may be quite keen to call on Lukas is his international team mate Mesut Ozil? Until recently our 2 Germans have played alongside each other fairly consistently since Ozil made his debut in September 2009. Mostly with Ozil as CAM and Podolski on the left where he played the majority of his Arsenal games last term. Since the start of 2009/10 Podolski has appeared 55 times for Germany and Ozil 51, virtually all whilst playing together. In that time Lukas had 17 goals, 12 of them in competitive fixtures and Mesut, 17 goals, 15 in competitive fixtures.
Do we all really think that Wenger will simply ignore this history, this bond and this success of Podolski and Ozil playing together without first seeing how it might work for the Arsenal?