Armor wrote:
Agree with Rex and co. I think the need for a Gundogan or whoever is pretty much gone now and wouldn't pay any attention to links to him or Bender etc as i'm sure Wenger is happy with his midfield options.
There's less need for Gundogan since the arrival of Ozil, but Rex's stance on him was way before the acquisition of Ozil. He'd like us to buy an average(decent) player like Cabaye but he's opposed to a special player like Gundogan, weird. He seems to think of Gundogan as a weak CM with good passing skills but little defensive nous - he couldn't be much further away from the truth. Gundogan is about 6 foot tall with good upper body strengths, he isn't the fastest, therefore his game in CM is based on intelligent positioning and fierce tackling - similar to Arteta. Unlike say Wilshere, he's very comfortable as an AM, I saw him put in a MOTM performance against Bayern from an AM position few weeks ago. I can see him playing the holding role too as he gets older. He's an all-rounder who's got it all; great passing skills(probably the best 2 footed passer from CM in Europe), can dribble in tight spaces, good tactical understanding of the game, good vision etc I think he's talented enough to be a success in any of the 3 midfield positions. Having good players shouldn't stop you from buying a truly special player. Bayern broke the Bundesliga record on Martinez despite having a very good midfielder in Luis Gustavo, do you think they regret it? hell no. Arteta is getting old, we'll have to replace him sooner or later. A CM option of Gundogan, Wilshere, Ramsey, Flamini is way better than the one we currently have. And the good thing is, Gundogan is a versatile footballer.
Armor wrote:However Reus could be an option for that striker role. Gervinho played there and it acually would have worked quite well if Gervinho could shoot and had brains. Our general play was good and we even seemed more fluid and dangerous at times but obviously the problem was that Gervinho just wasn't very good. I could see Reus doing a similar job and being a real success there. And the beauty of it is we could bring Giroud in for certain games and move Reus to any of the 3 spots behind the striker.
Agreed. A versatile forward is the way to go. An out and out striker means Giroud will hardly get games, and winning titles is a squad game. You'd like your back up striker to be sharp and motivated. The only way Giroud could get enough playing time is by regularly taking off your main striker around the 70-75 minute mark, would you really take off your star striker if you are leading by 1 goal? Of course not. A forward like Suarez for example could easily move to one of the four forward positions to make way for the back up striker.
