I’m not so sure, unless Alexis is injured (which Abou did say). Wenger likes to have two “forwards” in the squad, a CF and a wide forward, with a wide playmaker on the other wing. I think the plan with everybody fit will be to have Alexis and Perez as the two forwards, with some interchanging of roles, Theo as a backup for both if the same setup is to be maintained, and Giroud more as the Plan B on the bench or a starting CF option against weak clubs we expect to just play a deep line and defend all game.
But if Alexis gets injured, I could definitely see Wenger deciding that Theo/Perez doesn’t offer enough firepower and going with Giroud at CF and either Perez or Walcott as RW, which was essentially the situation last winter.
In other words, we’re fecked if Alexis gets injured. But we all knew that.
No, until injuries start hitting he won’t play on the wing. But when they do–and they always do–there’s a very strong possibility it will end up that way. It’s possible it ends up that way even without the injury factor, if Lucas doesn’t take to the position right away and Wenger isn’t patient. Wenger bought Podolski to play CF too, don’t forget.
Yeah, exactly my take. Thing is Iwobi-Peréz-Walcott wouldn’t be so bad for example, but let’s not pretend like there’s not going to be a time in the season where both Iwobi and Alexis are injured or unavailable, or Walcott and/or Iwobi are out of form/not effective. In that situation, we’re talking about a massive drop in efficacy to, say, Ox-Giroud-Pérez/Ramsey/Walcott, one that’s unnecessary if we had managed the Wilshere/Gnabry situations better.
Im not dreading the season any more but I’m not excited as we have no hope of winning the league. For me real excitement comes about when you can legit win the title.
