Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Attacking Options
The spotlight has certainly been on Arsenal’s potency or otherwise in front of goal over the last few days so maybe it’s worth looking at what we have and what we can reasonably expect from them.
Forget Henry, he’s a shoe in. I just wish he wasn’t captain. But what about his partners? It seems Arsene’s first choice is Emmanuel Adabayor. Like many other Gooners I’m not completely sold on him yet. Ungainly on the ground, unimpressive in the air for a big man it’s difficult to see just what he brings to the team other than ‘someone who can hold the ball up.’ The bottom line is he’s a forward and till now I’m not convinced he’s going to deliver 20 + goals a season. Of course he did only arrive in January and has had injury issues but Wenger rated him enough to pretty much put him straight in the first team.
Robin van Persie is undoubtedly an exciting talent but for me likes to drop deep too much which puts him in Henry territory. He has a refreshing directness about him which has fans on the edge of their seats and is unafraid to have a pop from 30 yards. Can he play with Henry?
Theo Walcott is still in nappies and I think he will be given little more than cameos for a few more months as he gets used to being at Arsenal and being able to drive by himself.
Jeremie Aliadiere is a French midget with more hospital appearances than first team appearances. He looks like he could be more of a poacher than the other names we have mentioned and could possibly dovetail better with any of them but will he ever be given a lengthy run out?
Lupoli and Bendtner are out on loan and get good reviews in the old First Division while Anthony Stokes up at Falkirk is the top scorer in the Scottish Premier League with 9 goals including 2 hat tricks in 2 games but lacking a foreign name is probably his biggest hindrance.
Ok, we’re still rebuilding but this is what we have lost in the last couple of years. Wiltord, Kanu, Pires, Bergkamp and Reyes (!). That’s a good 40 goals a season we’ve lost and if you throw in the off colour Ljungberg then we need to find 50 goals a season from someplace and to be honest I don’t see them coming from Adebayor & Co.
Forget Henry, he’s a shoe in. I just wish he wasn’t captain. But what about his partners? It seems Arsene’s first choice is Emmanuel Adabayor. Like many other Gooners I’m not completely sold on him yet. Ungainly on the ground, unimpressive in the air for a big man it’s difficult to see just what he brings to the team other than ‘someone who can hold the ball up.’ The bottom line is he’s a forward and till now I’m not convinced he’s going to deliver 20 + goals a season. Of course he did only arrive in January and has had injury issues but Wenger rated him enough to pretty much put him straight in the first team.
Robin van Persie is undoubtedly an exciting talent but for me likes to drop deep too much which puts him in Henry territory. He has a refreshing directness about him which has fans on the edge of their seats and is unafraid to have a pop from 30 yards. Can he play with Henry?
Theo Walcott is still in nappies and I think he will be given little more than cameos for a few more months as he gets used to being at Arsenal and being able to drive by himself.
Jeremie Aliadiere is a French midget with more hospital appearances than first team appearances. He looks like he could be more of a poacher than the other names we have mentioned and could possibly dovetail better with any of them but will he ever be given a lengthy run out?
Lupoli and Bendtner are out on loan and get good reviews in the old First Division while Anthony Stokes up at Falkirk is the top scorer in the Scottish Premier League with 9 goals including 2 hat tricks in 2 games but lacking a foreign name is probably his biggest hindrance.
Ok, we’re still rebuilding but this is what we have lost in the last couple of years. Wiltord, Kanu, Pires, Bergkamp and Reyes (!). That’s a good 40 goals a season we’ve lost and if you throw in the off colour Ljungberg then we need to find 50 goals a season from someplace and to be honest I don’t see them coming from Adebayor & Co.
# posted by Me @ 4:49 PM 
