Ah who cares. Not like he's coming here anyways.

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. 

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.

Because Draxler is a pure midfielder while Sanchez actually plays there already on international level. He played half a season up front for Barca too and was pretty stellar. There's a precedent when it comes to Alexis. There's zero indication that Draxler will make a good striker, apart from his size.

A striker is not the same thing as a centreforward, by the way. Who gives a crap about whether Alexis could emulate Giroud or not? The whole point of sticking him up front would be that we don't have to play that way.

Klaus wrote:

A striker is not the same thing as a centreforward, by the way. Who gives a crap about whether Alexis could emulate Giroud or not? The whole point of sticking him up front would be that we don't have to play that way.

This,
and hence why I'd even take the likes of Martinez for incremental individual improvements if it meant we moved away from this centric possession passing style.

Klaus wrote:

Because Draxler is a pure midfielder while Sanchez actually plays there already on international level. He played half a season up front for Barca too and was pretty stellar. There's a precedent when it comes to Alexis. There's zero indication that Draxler will make a good striker, apart from his size.

He plays as a withdrawn forward with Vargas and Chile's system is so flexible with their 3412. It's completely different from playing up top alone for us. Podolski is a brilliant striker too for Koln, he's shit for us.

And he didn't play HALF a season up front for Barca. A few match here and there, even Cesc played up front more and we all know Barca's system is not replicable by any others.

Alexis replaced Messi when he was out. It's not about Barca's system, it's about not being used as a target man.

A 5 ft 8 Vargas is a fairly small guy too; and certainly less physical than Alexis Sanchez. He's hardly the towering centreforward who creates space for Alexis that you make him out to be. Chile play without a target man. If Alexis can play in a two-man attack like that he can play on his own too.

Again, I'm not advocating for us to just swap Giroud with Alexis. We need a better gameplan. Our game falls apart without Giroud because we've built the team that way, but the way we've built the team is not something to be proud of. We were moving away from it towards the end of the season, a fact that influenced Giroud's poor form just as much as fatigue. He can't make runs in behind the defence because he has zero pace. People want to give Walcott a shot up front all the time, but Alexis is a more natural striker in most aspects.

Klaus wrote:

Alexis replaced Messi when he was out. It's not about Barca's system, it's about not being used as a target man.

Again, I'm not advocating for us to just swap Giroud with Alexis. We need a better gameplan. Our game falls apart without Giroud because we've built the team that way, but the way we've built the team is not something to be proud of. We were moving away from it towards the end of the season, a fact that influenced Giroud's poor form just as much as fatigue. He can't make runs in behind the defence because he has zero pace. People want to give Walcott a shot up front all the time, but Alexis is a more natural striker in most aspects.

I agree

One name: Benzema

He's been the "supportive-creative-CF" in Real for years and he's been really good at it. In addition, he can take a man on and dribble with a ball a bit and can make the runs behind, unlike Giroud. Plus he and Özil already know each others game.

Benzema would be almost perfect, but that's wish list material for now. It makes no sense for Real Madrid to sell us their starting striker.

Klaus wrote:

People want to give Walcott a shot up front all the time, but Alexis is a more natural striker in most aspects.

I'd rather Walcott up front and Alexis on the wings than other way around. Alexis likes to have the ball at his feet and get involved in the build up regardless of whether he plays on the wings for us or up front for Chile. He will drop deep most of the time and we will lose shape. Walcott makes better runs, likes to be on the end of attacks and when in form is arguably the better finisher. Sanchez can only be used in a 2 striker system IMO, playing as a lone forward would require complete transformation from his playing style.

Klaus wrote:

Benzema would be almost perfect, but that's wish list material for now. It makes no sense for Real Madrid to sell us their starting striker.

i know! Him and Özil running things ... :drool:

Klaus wrote:

Because Draxler is a pure midfielder while Sanchez actually plays there already on international level. He played half a season up front for Barca too and was pretty stellar. There's a precedent when it comes to Alexis. There's zero indication that Draxler will make a good striker, apart from his size.

Nah, my post wasn't about Draxler, since I've rarely seen him play. I was talking only about Sanchez. Got no clue whether Draxler will ever be a CF and whatnot, but I'm pretty sure Sanchez won't be playing centrally for us, and with good reason. Walcott will be our backup CF, assuming we don't sign another attacker.

You said: "You say Draxler doesn't move like a striker, Klaus, yet go on and say Sanchez has great potential as a striker. Weird."

I answered why I didn't think it was weird.

He already has played centrally for us quite a few times. Comparisons with Podolski are rubbish. That he doesn't move off the ball quite like Walcott isn't too damaging, but even then he has scored a few goals with good movement. He's a volume player, his success rate isn't high but because of his engine, he gets through on goal a number of times every game. He can play anywhere across the front line - exactly where he plays should be determined by the options and form of other players. But he absolutely can play as a CF and he is, and will, score a shedload.