Asterix I think he's more than ready to play for us.

    It’s not going to happen this summer but what I would do to bring Kvaratskhelia to the carpet….

    Kvara - Havertz - Saka
    Merino - Rice - Odegaard
    Calafiori - Gabriel - Saliba - White
    Raya

    Martinelli, Jesus, Trossard, Nwaneri for attacking depth. Jorginho, Vieira, Nwaneri, Partey, MLS for midfield depth. Timber, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Zinchenko for defensive depth. Realistically, we’d probably have to settle for Neto, Eze or Raphinha and I’d probably opt for Eze. Looking at our midfield depth, I’d also be a little concerned especially with depth at the 8/10 so would love to bring in another Trossard type signing in the midfield (Gibbs-White) to make it a great summer.

      QuincyAbeyie They also had Aguero before Haaland who was a top centre forward too. Pep tried a season without a top striker and decided he needed to get one in.

      mdgoonah41 he also ties up defences. There is a huge tactical benefit to having him in there. If we had a CF like that you'd see our left wingers get a lot more space to run through. Unfortunately he's currently a bit of a one off. We should still be looking for a player in that position though, its an area where you can still upgrade.

            TambourineMan its also a completely different way of playing to our wingers. Salah and Mane never had to do as much defensive and build up work as our wingers. You can't recreate that sort of attacking threat and ask your wingers to do much more general work in the team.

              It's compensated (at least in a volume sense, not directly) by Odegaard, who has much more creative room than any midfielder in that Liverpool team. The offset to letting Saka and Martinelli play up high without much defensive responsibility is lower full-back involvement and no Odegaard. Our attacking patterns will then change from high movement, quick plays to individual 1-1 battles where it is all about how good Saka / Martinelli are against their opponents. No comparison with Salah there who has every move in his locker.

              Qwiss I'd argue that Havertz at the 9 ties up defenses, albeit in a somewhat more unpredictable manner with his movement between the lines and then dropping deep. He's not going to physically pin back the CB's as consistently as Haaland does, so I do see your point there about creating that space but he does create a ton of space both for himself and for others around him. We do need our midfielders to start getting better at taking advantage of that space to pop up for goal opportunities this year.

              I think if we can just get some more reliable production from the left side (Martinelli/Merino/Calafiori) this year, the need for an out and out finisher at the 9 becomes far lower. As has been stated on this thread, we only finished 5 goals behind City for the season despite getting only a combined 10 goals from Jesus/Martinelli. That's a 16 goal drop from the previous season so even just getting them closer to 20 combined goals would be a huge improvement without asking for any additional improvement from other players. I don't think that's too much to ask. However, if we could also add another forward with the potential ability to contribute 10 goals, we are looking at 100+ league goals without even asking for players like Saka, Havertz, Odegaard and Rice to increase their output (which I also think they can do). Add in Eze and Merino to this team and I think we will be scoring for fun this year while also positioning ourselves for a marquee 9 next summer (Isak/Sesko).

                DiabyKungFu

                I'm not going to disagree that Odegaard's form played a large part in our dominance from February onwards but it doesn't change the fact that Rice played as a 6 during a period where we played 16 games and won 14 of them. The Jorginho, Rice and Odegaard trio was established for the home game against Liverpool and Arteta kept the template for the remainder of the season except for that disaster against Villa.

                I love Rice but he can't move the ball quickly enough when he's in a holding role. When he receives the ball deep, he often takes 3 or 4 touches when 1 or 2 would do. He's been fantastic when he's in the opposition half pressing and bulldozing through their midfield.

                  Rice has a ton of other strengths that work nicely at 6 though. It all depends on combinations. A lot of the time Rice played 6 last year was with an unconfident Havertz at LCM (not to mention a weak left side and ineffective Jesus/Nketiah up front).

                  Rice-Merino-Ødegaard could be a great midfield, with Merino taking more responsibility for some of the simple buildup passing. Rice will also become a more complete player this season.

                  Sane is too old for us I think at 28 (and turning 29 in Jan), he would be that classic big fee / big wages / big ego player that Edu/Arteta have steered away from.

                    He's also shit, so that would be a bit of a downside.

                    lorddulaarsenal idk why but i believe this.

                    Decent talent, versatile, Brazilian and great age profile.

                      Yeah, he definitely fits the mold. Interesting link. Brighton bought him for around £30m though, don't see him coming cheap.

                      I like him