Pros and Cons of the Arsenal linked Strikers

Why must they all have some sort of major question mark attached to them

Arsenal have big decision to make with regards to which striker that they are going to pick this transfer market.

I don’t envy the decision makers here because looking through the links and the different options, there doesn’t seem to be a choice that doesn’t come with some trade off or downside that would be enough to question if that is the right decision or not.

In this post I want to go through the different options and sort of think through each and put them into a bit of a category here.

I don’t think I am ready to push out the boat right now with a decision that I think is best because I think I can probably talk myself into a number of different ways here and it depends on the day of the week and maybe even the hour of that day which way I lean.

Let’s get into it.

Versatile but just serviceable option

The first player in this category is Brighton’s João Pedro. He is a player that I have long had an admiration for but I think that he’s a player that has some growth required to really make the impact at Arsenal.

This season he’s often played off of Danny Welbeck rather than as the out and out striker and really the numbers are just okay and actually are a bit of a disappointment from my mental rating of the player.

When I look at Arsenal’s problems in attack one of the items that I keep kind of coming back to is that they just don’t have enough guys that just let it go with shots, Pedro this season doesn’t look like an option that changes that.

Looking at a bit longer term, including time where he’s been more of a true center forward, he ends up looking better but it’s still off of what you would expect for a team that has aspirations of winning a Premier League or Champions League.

The big plus for Pedro is that he’s more than just a striker and has a bit of the Gabriel Jesus in him that he can play well at multiple positions.

He’s more of a player that likes to play off of the left channel and while he has featured more cental, I think he could adapt as a wing forward type out on the left wing if called upon.

The big stumbling block here is that Brighton don’t sell cheap and I think that there are just enough questions here that would have me questioning going above £50-60M for the player.

Again, maybe I can talk myself into it but not without some reservations and doubts.

The next player I am sticking in here is Matheus Cunha.

Arsenal were linked in the winter to Cunha but Wolves flirtation with relegation made that an untenable option for them. Now that they have guaranteed another year in the Premier League they might be open to selling him in a window where they can more easily replace him.

Cunha isn’t really an out and out forward but like this category suggests his versatility would mean maybe he could be someone

Over the last three seasons, he’s primarily played off of a striker but has spent time up top and on both wings.

He’s put up very good numbers in some not great Wolves teams and that would make you interested in what he might do with more talent around him.

I don’t know if he’s the striker but could be an interesting option to replace a player like Leandro Trossard if he doesn’t want to stick around.

Here is my analysis on the player from January:

Win now but doesn’t solve the striker problem

Another player that has come back after a January chase is the only player in this category and that is of course Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.. Here is what I wrote about him in the winter: