Strikers. Is Poldi all we need?

Ozil, Cazorla, Walcott, in-form Ramsey, Wilshere, Arteta, Flamini, Rosicky and Ox make an incredibly strong midfield with more than enough depth.

So with our lack of quality depth in strikers.. and given Walcotts potency in his current role making him almost indispensable on the right (especially with Ozil and him seeming to having an instant understanding). Is there really any other option that to deploy Poldi as a striker unless we change our system entirely?

Does anyone feel like Poldi is capable of playing the lone striker role? I have only ever really seen him play as a striker as one of two up front - What was the system at Koln?
So I guess my question is.. do we really need a W.C striker come January if Giroud continues his current form with Poldi there for cover? It's early days to offer a completely informed answer as we have a long way to go until January but with the return of Poldi drawing nearer I am wondering where he will slot in.

Discuss..

the team currently is made of complete midfielders who can defend and attack at the same time.. and all are technically suited to play Wenger ball.. a variety of options to choose the centre 3 midfielders and the midfielder who plays as the false LW in our 4-2-3-1 system..
2 among Arteta, Flamini, Ramsey, Diaby and Wilshere can play the double pivot.. Ozil, Rosicky, Cazorla, Wilshere can play as CAM.. Cazorla, Ozil, Ramsey, Ox, Gnabry can all play in one of the wings.. all are in great form too.. and all of them are interlinking well, interchanging roles and positions.. so the opposition many a time is not sure whom to mark and clueless as who will come from where.. hope what we saw against Napoli was just the starting of an era..

RW.. is Walcotts place for years to come.. he is the player who offers something which our other midfielders cant offer.. we are a real threat whenever Walcott is playing.. i hope he will play more like a winger which he is playing now and get back that deadly sharpness and finishing he showed last season.. and Ryo is the player i look forward as backup to what Walcott can offer..

Poldi.. i am never impressed by Poldi playing as LF.. he doesnt have the strength or control under pressure.. and neither offers aerial advantage.. he is more suited to play in a 2 striker formation along with Giroud or as the 2nd choice LW/CF.. may not be good for him, but we are lucky to have him in the bench.. i dont think he can be a starter at Arsenal.. hope we can keep him happy giving 30 min appearances and occasional starts in the LW..

CF.. Giroud.. the influence he has on our game play is second to none.. he is vital for our light weight side to hold the ball and win aerial duels in opposition half.. and not to mention his good movement, awesome flicks and one touch passing which creates space and chances for our midfielders.. we see more of our midfielders making runs into the box these days and reaping benefit due to Giroud..  and an Arsenal striker should be someone who can influence the build up play and create chances for others, than someone who has a 100% conversion rate.. so Giroud should be the long term CF for us unless we sign someone special who has all these skills plus shooting/someone who can individually create goals.. we already sold one.. and the backups we have Podolski, Walcott, Bendtner, Sanogo.. Bendtner is someone who is in the same mould of Giroud.. just by seeing some of the goals he scored, wondering why he can be better than Giroud offering the same set of skills.. Sanogo is nowhere near first team atm.. and Poldi and Walcott are not suited to play CF according to me..

so there is no need that we should pay 40+ for Suarez.. but if we sign someone in that category, this team is going to be very very strong full of depth and quality.. we may be fine signing a backup for Giroud who is better at CF than Podolski and Walcott.. someone who offers a different set of skills, than the options we have and someone who is more mobile and technical...

A striker is necessity, If Giroud or one of our cb’s went down we would struggle significantly. We tried Podolski last year and did not work out well.

we need to get Ba. or someone else in January

maybe Pizzaro

Raptorgunner wrote:A striker is necessity, If Giroud or one of our cb’s went down we would struggle significantly. We tried Podolski last year and did not work out well.

If your view is that we need a new striker though.. do we need a W.C striker or just more suitable cover up front than Podolski - and even some competition for Giroud? Someone akin to Ba maybe..

As stated by Wilson - It seems to me that Podolski will struggle to get game time in league matches and CL in our current system as he doesn't really suit it. Bringing in any striker - World Class or psuedo Ba - would make him surplus to requirements. Does this then mark the end of Poldi for us?

Till January ? Yes..

After that no. Poldi really isn't a striker. He can play tha for you short term but he isn't a long term solution by any means. Even if he was we'd still need to bring in someone else

Poldi can play that role. He would just need a bit of time to adapt to that role and he has not been given that much time to. He is more creative and quicker than Giroud and would just need to improve on his movement and hold up play.

If not given a chance for that role, there would be very little need to keep him in the squad unless he is brought in whenever we need to play 2 upfront and that is rarely done

Podolski never in his career played as a lone striker at any club bar a few games (where he's been poor most of the time). In Köln they played a two strikers formation, him and Novakovič, same for Germany and Bayern. He just doesn't have the movement, holding up and strength to play alone upfront and I don't believe he should be an option when we have the chance to sign a natural striker. Neither should Theo btw.

His best position in our formation is behind the striker, left, right or center and that's where he should play.

I know there's a lack of quality forwards in the market but we have to find one in the summer, I wouldn't mind even if it's a similar player to Giroud... just having another option on the bench would makes us all feel more comfortable.

We missed a trick with Higuain, it has to be said. Wenger shouldn't have let him go to Napoli if he wasn't sure if Luis Bitey actually had a release clause in his contract. Oh well...

Peccadillo wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:A striker is necessity, If Giroud or one of our cb’s went down we would struggle significantly. We tried Podolski last year and did not work out well.

If your view is that we need a new striker though.. do we need a W.C striker or just more suitable cover up front than Podolski - and even some competition for Giroud? Someone akin to Ba maybe..

As stated by Wilson - It seems to me that Podolski will struggle to get game time in league matches and CL in our current system as he doesn't really suit it. Bringing in any striker - World Class or psuedo Ba - would make him surplus to requirements. Does this then mark the end of Poldi for us?

Giroud has been unreal but having another great striker will help him and Arsenal in the long run. Giroud’s all round play in terms of linking up play and helping the team in defence is irreplacable at the moment but having another quality striker will make him even better. To win trophies you need quality players on the bench who can challenge the first team.

We dont need a wc striker, but if there is one available we should not hesitate to take him. Look at Ozil situation. We did not really need him but we went out there and bought a top player, and look how it turned out for us.

Podolski isn't really capable of replacing giroud, all I hope is we don't have the 09/10 season all over again, where we were ripping the league up at the start, and then an injury to rvp in November resulted in us playing arshavin up front and everything fell apart. Overreliance (in this case complete reliance) on one player puts us in a massively vulnerable situation when that position is so important.

--------Ramsey/Flamini---Arteta/Wilshere
Walcott/ox------Ozil/ros/jack/caz------Cazorla/Ox/Pod
------------------------Giroud

That is definitely title winning potential imo, we have the strongest midfield options and creative "between the lines" options to select from in the PL imho, + pace. Just sad our chances could be ruined by one injury.

When does Poldi come back from injury anyways? I cant wait to see him and Ozil link up.