Attacking play on the decline big time

comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 28 seconds ago
You need the option of a physical player in the box when teams drop deeper.
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Giroud...

I don't think we have anyone else remotely close to what he was strength wise. Welbeck a bit stronger than Aubameyang & Lacazette but not a big physical presence and out for a long time now anyway, who knows whether he'll even play for us again.

comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 28 seconds ago
desperately need a world class dribbler to commit players in the final third and win us free kicks
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Damn right. Sat watching the match yesterday and Ozil's failures i couldn't help but wish we had prime Rosicky back. For someone with such great feet and attacking mobility he was also deceptively strong on the ball and good in the tackle. Here's hoping we can find another player anything like him.

Giroud...

I don't think we have anyone else remotely close to what he was strength wise. Welbeck a bit stronger than Aubameyang & Lacazette but not a big physical presence and out for a long time now anyway, who knows whether he'll even play for us again.
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No! Giroud was never that good with his back to play. He had one spell where he paired with Ramsey but it later became very easy to defend. Sarri has pretty much admitted that. He was a very average much hyped player because half our fanbase spotted his issue with lack of pace and the other half went the other way to defend him.

What you need is movement in the box. Lacazette is better out side the box. Aubameyang is superb in the box but because he has been played outside of it he has lost that touch. His miss yesterday was worse than his misses against Chelsea. We need to get him going again.

I think one solution would be to play Lacazette behind Aubameyang like Yorke behind Cole. Someone should send a video of Man Utd around 1998-2001. Aubemeyang reminds me a lot of Van Nistelrooy.

I was never a huge Giroud fan like some but i did appreciate his strength and what he brought to the team at times, a different option. Maybe Wenger didn't always get the best out of him but his link-up play with Griezmann and co contributed to France winning the WC.

He seems to be both overrated by some and underrated by others. Of course, he never had the pace but if you add pace to that sort of strength you end up with someone tripping over their feet and firing wide from 3 yards (Lukaku). His finishing and aerial ability was certainly not average, remember the scorpion goal? Not saying i want him back either because as you rightly-say his hold-up play should have been better considering his strength but had he stayed i still think he would have provided a different route for us. Right now we can only drill low crosses in to our forwards from Bellerin and that's often far too predictable.

In terms of poaching ability definitely some similarities but RvN was never anywhere near as quick as Aubameyang is, RvN more of a pure instinctive predator in the box. Aubameyang has the pace to make runs behind as well which is why i think Emery has been playing him as an inside forward but it's nearly impossible to utilise that when teams defend so deep like Wolves did yesterday.

*in behind

What I mean by pace is not Lukaku per se. Its not a sprint over a 100m. Its acceleration over 3 yards that allows forward to receive the ball in the box without losing it. Or turning and shooting either way before a centre back sets and tackles. Robin Van Persie can't be described as a speed burner but boy did he tap in a lot of Walcott crosses.

And in my opinion Aubemyang has that. He is almost the same height as Van Nistelrooy and his game play is very similar. I agree that Aubameyang is faster. And that is being wasted on the wing. Lacazette on the other hand makes very good striker type runs outside the box. He is a very good runner with the ball at his feet. But he doesn't have the physicality of winning balls that are not precise into his feet. And thats a huge problem. His passing is not all that great either.

Lacazette reminds me of Wiltord. And thats the issue in my opinion. How would you pair Wiltord and Van Nistelrooy? Maybe if you add a Sheringham or Bergkamp? A stronger skilful striker with vision to add as an axis to combine the two?

Fair. I remember when i first saw Pace & Acceleration attributes as a child playing Championship Manager and learned/realised the difference. Lukaku has pace not acceleration, Giroud has neither. I remember many times when a little more acceleration would have meant Giroud scored but instead being half a second late meant the ball ended up in the side-netting.

What was interesting about RvP was that despite never being rapid he could dribble with pace because he had such outstanding ball control for a player of his height, certainly before he got a bit older at least anyway and largely due to the fact that he grew up playing as a Winger for Excelsior before becoming a striker. His acceleration in his younger years was undoubtedly far better than Giroud's as well, allowing him to wrap his body around those crosses you mentioned, even from seemingly impossible angles. Again, like Rosicky, we're left dreaming of ever having another player quite like him.

Physically, i recall RvN being a little stronger than Aubameyang is but you are right, he was not that tall (especially by Dutch standards).

Whatever we do tactically, it all comes down to a simple need to get our two best finishers: Aubameyang & Lacazette into positions where they can actually stick the ball in the net. That all looks nice and easy against teams like Fulham who get their tactics wrong and with liabilities in defence which we can easily exploit but it's been a real struggle for us at times against any half-decent defences.

I suppose the idea currently has been that Ozil should provide that axis forming a trio and essentially 3 forwards when we are attacking but he simply is not doing that consistently. He has the footballing-brain and technical ability to provide something like Bergkamp did but not the physical strength or attitude.

* or the dribbling ability of Bergkamp. Remember that goal against Newcastle? And Ozil doesn't have that aerial or physical presence! Just look at Bergkamp's hat trick against Leicester City for an example of that.

I was reading that we were interested in Patrik Schick and Nicolas Pepe. Maybe Sven, Raul and Emery are thinking this way too?

comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 3 minutes ago
* or the dribbling ability of Bergkamp. Remember that goal against Newcastle? And Ozil doesn't have that aerial or physical presence! Just look at Bergkamp's hat trick against Leicester City for an example of that.

I was reading that we were interested in Patrik Schick and Nicolas Pepe. Maybe Sven, Raul and Emery are thinking this way too?
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True, don't get me started on Ozil's presence - not even mentioning aerial/physical... His overall presence in games is so often found lacking he's virtually invisible. Who could forget that gem against Newcastle, just oozed class! It still gets shown randomly on Sky or BT at least once a season as well.

I am not familiar with Patrik Schick and have only heard about Pepe, don't think I've ever seen him live so can't really comment on whether they would be the answer. Mainly down to the fact that i haven't played FM in a few years and kept up with the new players after i brought RvP back from Fenerbahce, made him captain to offset his injury proneness and somehow managed to win the PL & CL in my first season with RvP taking both Golden Boots and with my own 4-4-2 tactics trying to emulate the Invincible's First time i stopped myself from cheating and re-playing any bad results as well so not sure i'll ever manager anything like that again, went out on a high with RvP finally reaching legend status at Arsenal.

*manage

I am not familiar with Patrik Schick and have only heard about Pepe, don't think I've ever seen him live so can't really comment on whether they would be the answer.
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I have no idea either.

I just look at the type of players linked and the excuses floated for them. If its only one newspaper its probably fake but if its a lot of them tells you that the source, usually a scout has been given instructions to find the 'type' of player Arsenal want.