Striker is not necessary
Midfield and wing is a bigger priority.
We are lucky Saka has not been injured. Else Nelson would have played more games than necessary
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I am confident that Arteta and Edu will buy right players once again in the summer…
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Just a reminder that it was only 3 months ago that we were clamouring for a striker when we had that barren spell in December.
That time will come again where we’re struggling to break teams down/start making mistakes at the back. Whether its this season or next.
I believe we still need a killer upfront to take us to the next level.
Which is a strength, but can also become a weakness like we have seen from the start of the season until the Dubai-trip.
I don’t think signing a striker equals more goals. But it equals goals more consistently. If we do sign one I wouldn’t be surprised if we score less goals next season at all.
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Why do you think we will drop off from the team we have become for the past two seasons now? That’s complete rubbish. So you believe that all of this is a fluke because we certainly didn’t sign a striker in January did we?
We integrated Rice into the fold, dealt with the GK situation, dealt with Jesus and his injury troubles and also integrated Havertz for a role that’s just as important as Ødegaard’s in this team.
Similar answer to my response above. Again I’m not adverse to signing a striker, I just wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t (despite the ‘links’ to Gyokeres) and we went with a left field approach to the role.
No, you misunderstand. I’m not talking about 2 seasons… I’m talking about the period in December just gone where we flat lined and struggled to break teams down, missing lots of chances. A good striker would’ve solved those challenges in those clutch moments.
Every team goes through periods of excellent form and poor form. It’d be great to have a killer in the box who puts away his dinner when given the opportunity. As great as Kai, Martinelli, Odegaard, Saka & Jesus have been - I think we need a super clinical finisher to complete the mix.
That said, I’m not sure who that person would be. I thought Toney or Osimhen would be the right folk, but having watched a few of their games this year… I’m not entirely convinced of either of them.
No one knows that and again it’s not as simple as adding a striker and we magically scored 30 goals, problem solved.
This is entirely team focused, the way we play and how we create attacks as opposed to being a player short to score everything. Arteta and the coaches tweaked that during the holidays and looks at where we are. We didn’t need a striker for that. Adding one certainly wouldn’t hurt but we already have Jesus and he’s not banging them in every week like Saka/Havertz/Ødegaard.
I’m a little worried about Jesus though, I think since his injury he’s never truly been quite the same.
But maybe Havertz is enough to make up for that shortfall. IIRC, he has the most G/As combinations in the Premier League since November till now. How long will it last, I can’t say for sure.
No. It might be the next step in the evolution of the team. Rather than we need a striker because of a potential drop-off.
Jesus last season and Havertz after the Dubai break are filling in that role very good. But the last step for either of them is bagging those 20 League goals (from that position). But i don’t see anyone of them doing that. Hence a striker who can offer that those two have been with the addition of those goals only improves us.
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Fair enough chaps, we’ll agree to disagree for now 
Only 1 injury out of the whole squad and Timber is even almost back to full training. Remember the dark days of Wenger and having at least 7 big players out at all times during the season.
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We were clamouring for less predictable attacking flow and better chance creation, which has since been fixed and proves that the team is capable of tweaking & to get going again.
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Definitely not against the idea to sign a top striker, if we could, and if there is one available.
However, the math is not like that.
Adding a 20/25/30-goal striker does not mean we will add that amount of goals to the team.
Even if we do, who knows if those number of goals are on actually on City/Pool, or we just score a couple of goals more against bad teams, against teams that the games already decided?
No one knows.
Getting a goal scorer like that does not guarantee our team will have a scoring slump. Probably not on that top scorer but other players could have…
City and Pool score about the same amount of goals to us, and they have a lot of 1-0, 2-1 games, and no one questioning their ability to score. Then why us? We score the most (as of now) and concede the least, why would you think our scoring is a problem?
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I agree! I appreciate that our team’s goals are so spread out which is working well to our favour.
Guess it’s more a case of when we have a drought, our front-men don’t appear to have it in them to kill the opposition when required. By front men, I mean Jesus in particular.
His goal return is really poor for what he’s supposed to be. It probably isn’t a priority for us, but if we could improve in that department I think we should try to.
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That is the whole point…
Let’s say Saka, Marti, Ode, Kai all on a scoring slump…
Would that top scorer alone, like Osimhen, or whoever, will be able to carry the burden by himself and compensate all?
If the “team” is having a slump, it is not one player’s issue, it reflects the whole team’s performance more likely.
I want to see whether Havertz can maintain this level the rest of the season.
If he can, I’m happy to roll with him as the main CF going into next year and to spend this summer on a fast winger who can rotate on both wings.
If you look at all around contribution, I don’t think many CF in the world can give us more than Havertz has the last two months.
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https://twitter.com/afcstuff/status/1777333248667918841
A full squad during crunch time. Superb.
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We know Partey has his own plans!
Is that the first time we’ve had a fully fit squad since 2004?
And by deduction, that means Timber is ready to play, might be worth watching the U21s at Stoke tonight, he may well be starting.