Looking ahead: Future transfer business and squad planning: Page 2 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Looking ahead: Future transfer business and squad planning

Qwiss

samthegooner With the exception of Rice's free kicks against Madrid, we very rarely score from outside of the box or from tough angles. Get 2-3 more players who can really put their boot through the ball and I think we turn a lot of the draws we saw last year into wins more consistently.

I am of the opinion that has been due to instruction rather than a lack of players who can shoot.

samthegooner

Qwiss Ehhh I haven't really seen great ball striking from anyone outside of the aforementioned players. Maybe Trossard but he struggles to make space to shoot due to his athletic limitations. Martinelli is a good finisher but doesn't really strike through the ball. Havertz is clearly not a consistent ball striker. Odegaard can lace one every once in a while but most of the time his shots lack ferocity. Haven't seen enough of Merino shooting the ball to accurately judge him. Now compare that to some of the ball strikers that Liverpool has/had (Salah, Gakpo, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Jota (RIP), Trent, Diaz) and City has/had (Rodri, KDB, Marmoush, Gundogan, Gvardiol, Haaland, Alvarez, Mahrez). There may be some instructions from Arteta to avoid long cracks at goal but I would say that the squad lacks widespread ball striking even from inside the box. We need more guys that can really put their foot through the ball consistently whenever they get a look at net.

RocktheCasbah

Klaus The problem with systems that only allow one forward is that they become too frail, because no one wants to sit on the bench permanently.

Yes! I think this is my single biggest bugbear about our shift away from 2 up. I know, I've had a long time to get used to it and Dennis always used to say he was a midfielder - but there's no way Arsene has Thierry & Dennis, Kanu, Wiltord ANNND Jeremie Aliadiere - and then adds Jose Reyes (RIP) if we're only playing with one striker.

Klaus

Don Pacifico And I honestly don't want to get into again

Right, let's not. Just sit back and relax, Don. He's here now and he's going to make you happy.

Qwiss Alvarez is 25 and a 1 in 3 striker

He's a 1-in-2 striker in a pretty defensive side, but when I look at him I see someone with qualities similar to Dennis. He would have been a magnificent #10 twenty years ago. I don't think we should move heaven and earth for him either, but the benefit of having someone who's more of a striker than a midfielder in the hole is that you don't kneecap your entire team if the point man goes missing or picks up an injury. Think he'd be a massive upgrade on Havertz in a squad, for instance.

RocktheCasbah Or even van Persie, Adebayor and Eduardo. Football was just more fun back when we didn't starve these guys out of the sport. Now they're the unicorns everyone wants but no one wants to produce.

lorddulaarsenal

I think other than bringing in an upgrade for the left side of the attack this summer, our business is done.

In future windows we’ll look to replace guys who aren’t nailed on first teamers with like for like talent to keep the squad fresh and to balance the books.

We have improved the level of the squad massively so will only look to add elite quality where we can. I suspect we’ll upgrade the keeper - we would have gone for Garcia this summer were it not for other needs taking priority.

I can see Arteta wanting a maverick in midfield like Pedri and also a magic man for the attack like Vini Jr

samthegooner

There are a number of players out there that I would be very interested in exploring next summer. In no particular order, here are a few of them (interested if anyone has any opinions on them as well as I am pretty early on in looking at other talents across the continent after focusing a lot on our targets for this summer):

Jeremy Jacquet (CB, Rennes, 20 years old)- looks like a potentially huge talent at CB in the Saliba mold. Would love to just keep refreshing our CB pipeline with the latest and greatest to future proof the squad in case Saliba does end up eventually moving to Madrid.
Maghnes Akliouche (AM/Wing, Monaco, 23 years old) - exciting attacker that's been linked with all the big clubs. Has an absolute wand of a left foot from what I've seen and is a very versatile attacker who could play on either wing. Definitely one I want to see more of this year but he had 5g/10a last season and scored on a screamer from outside the box last week in preseason.
Kenan Yildiz (AM/Wing, Juventus, 20 years old) - the next big attacking mid/winger in my opinion and has looked great as soon as he made the move up to the Juve first team this year. He definitely has that special maverick quality that I think we need to invest in for future windows to unlock defenses and already looked like Juve's most exciting player as a 19 year old last year with 7g/4a to boot.
Julian Alvarez (ST/Wing, Atletico, 25 years old) - Absolutely elite ball striking, work rate off the ball and ability to slot into most of the attacking roles well. He wouldn't be cheap but he's the type of player I would look at if we decided to move Havertz on next summer to Germany, as has been rumored as a possibility.
Desire Doue (Wing/AM, PSG, 20 years old), Joao Neves (CM, PSG, 20 years old) or Bradley Barcola (Wing, PSG, 22 years old) - Clearly if there's any interest from any of these players in moving to the EPL, we need to be all over it. Purely hypothetical.
Morgan Rogers (Wing/AM, Aston Villa, 23 years old) - absolutely love his combination of physicality and technique and think he would fit in brilliantly on the wing or in Odegaard's spot. If he continues his growth this year, I could see him being a marquee signing next summer.
Arda Guler (AM, Real Madrid, 20 years old) - Perfect Odegaard replacement to me with all of the end product that has frustrated me with Martin over the last 18 months or so. If Madrid doesn't give him enough opportunities, he could be looking to leave.
Jamal Musiala (AM/Wing, Bayern Munich, 22 years old) - Big asterisk here with his recent horror injury. If he hadn't gotten hurt, he probably would've been at the top of my list with likely a big gap to the rest of the targets. The injuries worry me a lot and I also don't feel like he will want to leave Munich. But if he ever does and recovers from this injury well, he's such an incredible talent.

I feel like I don't have as many big wants coming out of this summer - either because talents I really liked previously have moved (Wirtz, probably Isak, Gittens, Reijnders) or ones I've loved just don't look like they're going to move anytime soon (the PSG boys). I'm sure there will be some big prospects that really push themselves into the limelight in the next few months though and I am looking forward to it!

GooneriC

Akliouche is the one we should go for if Eze doesn't work out. Even if we get Eze we should still try if we can offload Trossard Viera and Nelson

Bernard Woolley

Love this list. I'd add 3 names at somewhat different stages of development (in ascending order) - Ilenikhena, Semenyo and Xavi Simons (if he doesn't go to Chelsea now). If we think Tyler Dibling could do a job on the left (being right footed), that's another signing I could get behind.

lorddulaarsenal

More and more drawn to Semenyo - always gives big teams issues

Cannon

I think we need a additional MF, a FB and a attacker by next summer. More specifically a specialist FB someone who can defend and put crosses in consistently. Think we are a body light in the MF and should have a quality rotation for Rice/Zubi and an attacker who knows how to score.

lorddulaarsenal

We’re about to enter the true big boy approach to squad building. The Real Madrid blueprint

Would love to get Barca first!

HomeSteak

lorddulaarsenal not to be a dick, but you really believe any fucking source out there lol.

Burnwinter

De Jong will be 29 by then, better be a short contract or we'll only be paying £250k per week for a series of knee operations.

lorddulaarsenal

Doesn’t sound like win now thinking to me Burnsy grrrr

Burnwinter

HomeSteak Dules is just on a toxic positivity bent leading into match day one and I'm right there with him. Fucking get behind the team etc etc

lorddulaarsenal

Yeah that’s me - just got stung by the wallet inspector at the local park whilst I was walking to the supermarket

Could really do with an Old Trafford slap jobbie to lift me up

Burnwinter

[headbutts a lamppost] Fucking get behind the team

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