Yeah, there has been nothing concrete about him unfortunately. Just a hint that he may want to move to PL.

To be honest I'd rather be never improve his finishing if he's at City. Can't be having a player with that kind of talent running around playing for our rivals.

I think you guys might be talking about two different players

Now that you mention it I think so.

Some more houseboat buzzing about Draxler in the past few days. Supposedly Schalke want too much money though.

Been thinking some more about this, and I really want us to sign this guy. Champagne footballer.

will Ozil and Draxler fit well in a starting line-up? will Ozil have to keep drifting wide to accommodate him? how do you see it?

Draxler to the left, Özil centrally. One of them likes to drift towards the flanks, the other likes to drift in centrally from the flanks. And then you've got Ramsey who likes to pass and move between the lines from central midfield. Movement is something you can't defend properly against in football and we'd have it in spades.

Can see Wenger turning Draxler into a top CF - similar to van Persie.

issue is he would be another project, we need fire power upfront now.

the kid has the tools to be great. it's just a matter of how long. as you say, can we afford to have all of him, Ox, Jack etc. figure out their strengths right now?

Doc wrote:

Can see Wenger turning Draxler into a top CF - similar to van Persie.

issue is he would be another project, we need fire power upfront now.

IMO this is one of those times when we should go for a 'project'. Draxler seems to have enough about him to slot into the start 11 as a midfielder/winger at his current level anyway and since there aren't any obvious striking alternatives I wouldn't mind giving him a chance to develop. It depends on how talented he is though

He does play with real swagger sometimes.

We can't afford/attract Agueros, Zlatans or Lewandowskis. The only way to get a forward like that is to buy them before they become world class, or more importantly, before it's clear for everyone to see that they'll become just that. If Wenger sees this in Draxler, he should get him.

I'm not sure how it got started, but I think people should drop the idea that Draxler is a striker. It's a bit like suggesting that Ramsey will end up a centreforward one day. It's not that it can't happen, but nothing has ever suggested it will. He doesn't play up front for Schalke. He has never played up front. People who have managed him don't talk about how good he'll be up front one day. Draxler himself thinks he's a central playmaker. He doesn't move like a striker, he doesn't think like a striker. If we sign him it will almost certainly be because Wenger thinks we need another midfielder with swagger. Which we do.

We have a guy in the squad with great potential as a striker already if we're looking to convert someone. He just scored 25 goals for us in his debut season.

My post wasn't necessarily striker-exclusive. It goes for every position. World class talents like Neymar, Götze, Verratti, Pogba, who obviously will have great careers, cost a fortune and the competition for their signatures is huge. Draxler has baggage, which is his injuries. Until we turn into Real Madrid, we need to accept that the talents we sign have some kind of baggage that leaves a doubt of whether they will ever actually fulfill their potential.

Klaus wrote:

I'm not sure how it got started, but I think people should drop the idea that Draxler is a striker. It's a bit like suggesting that Ramsey will end up a centreforward one day. It's not that it can't happen, but nothing has ever suggested it will. He doesn't play up front for Schalke. He has never played up front. People who have managed him don't talk about how good he'll be up front one day. Draxler himself thinks he's a central playmaker. He doesn't move like a striker, he doesn't think like a striker. If we sign him it will almost certainly be because Wenger thinks we need another midfielder with swagger. Which we do.

We have a guy in the squad with great potential as a striker already if we're looking to convert someone. He just scored 25 goals for us in his debut season.

Further to this he plays as either a lone CF or as part of a 2 man attack at International level.

Klaus wrote:

Draxler to the left, Özil centrally. One of them likes to drift towards the flanks, the other likes to drift in centrally from the flanks. And then you've got Ramsey who likes to pass and move between the lines from central midfield. Movement is something you can't defend properly against in football and we'd have it in spades.

Play Walcott up top and Sanchez from the right and Ozil will have space to drift to the right ahead of Sanchez coming from deep,
alternatively play Sanchez at CF & Walcott right as in an offset 4222 style & Ozil still has the space to drift right in behind Walcott.

Sanchez has been crap in the 3-4 games he's played up top for us. Talk of playing him there is like when people wanted Podolski up front. You say Draxler doesn't move like a striker, Klaus, yet go on and say Sanchez has great potential as a striker. Weird.

Yeah, I get massively bad juju from these professions that Sanchez would be great at centre forward.

dreamlord wrote:

Sanchez has been crap in the 3-4 games he's played up top for us. Talk of playing him there is like when people wanted Podolski up front. You say Draxler doesn't move like a striker, Klaus, yet go on and say Sanchez has great potential as a striker. Weird.

He's done quite well up top in the Copa thus far.
As I posted in the main thread IMO his issue as CF for us was that it was in the 4141 with no close support & no Ozil to control the attack, as well as it being early in his season & we'd not adjusted to his play.
Play him up top in the right shape & tell him to keep it simple in the build up.