Wenger on our strikers

“We are not as short of strikers as people thought,” said Wenger. “In all areas, we are still maybe one player short, but up front we don’t need anybody.”

If this statement was made two or three weeks earlier, most fans would not have agrees with the boss. It just goes to show that football fans are besotted with the idea of big name players joining their clubs. Completely ignoring the fact that big names do not guarantee big performances. Ask any Barca fan how good their big players were last season.

Calls for players like, Villa, Huntelaar, Eto etc has gone unheeded by Wenger, prefering to stick with, as some papers put it, the youth brigade. Let’s look at how our striking options stack up.

Adebayor
When Henry was sold no one expected Ade to step up, the player himself was a little hurt when fans put him down to be the 7th top scorer for the club last season. We all know what happened then.

It will be difficult for him to repeat his feats of last season, not that he will be a worse player than last season, but because we have more options he won’t be playing the lone striker role for so long.

For him to match last season he needs to learn to stay onside, and convert more of those easy chances.

Bendtner
Sometimes Nicklas can seem a bit lazy, especially when compared to Ade, but this could mean that he is just more efficient. There is no doubting his talent though, strong in the air, great touch, good vision and finishing. At 20 Bendtner has the makings of a great striker and already means as much to Denmark (16 apps 7 goals) as Rooney did to England four years ago.

He can disappear during games, sometimes even appear in the wrong places, but at his age he is certain to improve and this season could be a milestone in his career.

Van Persie

Last season RVP was expected to be our main striker, but injuries put paid to that notion. Everyone knows what RVP can do, the question is can he stay fit. I think he will no one cane be that unlucky.

Walcott

If he starts this season as he ended last, then we will be even more potent in attack. Whether as a striker or on the wing, Theo has the ability to terrorize any defence he comes up against. Still there is room for improvement in every facet of his game, and that’s not a bad thing.

If he is scary now then imagine how it will be with improvement.

Carlos Vela
Arrived home without much fanfare, at a time when everyone was calling for a striker. Yet no one seem to consider that we’d already added another striker to our ranks.
Some people seem to think that he is a Reyes type and they would be right if they mean in terms of skill and style, and let’s face it Reyes was a very good player. In term of tenacity and a willingness to get stuck in he is nothing like Reyes.

And if one thing is for sure he won’t get homesick

I’ve left out Eduardo as he is still in recovery and I don’t want to jinx him.

All in all Wenger is right up front we don’t need anybody. In fact I would go as far as saying that we have the most striking options in the league, no one is as potent as us up front.

So what do you expect from our strikers? Am I too optimistic? Are the really good enough? Or is Arsene wrong?

Tags: Adebayor, Arsenal FC, Carlos Vela, Eduardo, Henry, Nicklas, Reyes, RVP, Theo, van persie

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 10:40 and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.