How should Arsenal move on without RVP?
Arsene Wenger’s November curse was going nowhere so here comes the long absence of Arsenal’s most prolific striker over the past 12 months.
More irritating should be where and how Van Persie sustained this frustrating blow but like every year, Arsenal will have to show how best they can fare without one of the squad’s major assets.
Last year, it was Fabregas and Walcott, the year before, Eduardo and Rosicky ended the campaign too soon.
The latter duo have been relatively fit options this campaign and will be a key part of any reshuffling Wenger does to his line-up to compensate the loss of Van Persie.
So that leaves a significant talking point here. How should Van Persie be replaced?
The obvious answer will be to fill the void with an equally capable Eduardo or perhaps Carlos Vela, but we are well aware of how this left-footed, cool-finishing pair have hardly found much action due to niggling injuries here and there.
Eduardo – still healing off the horrific incident of February 2008 – has proved as fragile as Van Persie was prior to last season, while Vela has made less than five appearances in an Arsenal shirt this term.
With Walcott and Bendtner ruled out for a while, it appears Arsenal now lacks a single out-and-out striker who is fully fit and unlikely to be stricken. That is if you exclude Arshavin who is of a mere midfielder’s height and thus, omitted from the club’s list of true strikers in the ‘first team profile’ on the official site.
Diaby – also nursing a wound – may come to mind as the man with enough power to play upfront centrally (but perhaps only as an ’emergency striker’) while the likes of Fabregas, Nasri and Ramsey do have the finishing prowess of a striker but are much suited to a supporting role.
As it stands, granted they are fit, Eduardo and Vela are the main choices of strikers going into next Saturday’s visit to Sunderland, but before January comes, how else can Arsenal deal with this shortened amount of out-and-out strikers?
The problem is that most of our strikers are left footed players except Walcott and bendtner. And we need players that are not prone to injuries like fabregas and arshavin. My greatest fear now is that gallas is injury prone
I hope the other strikers like Eduardo and Vela can step up their game. Also in my opinion, playing Arshavin in the center forward role in place of Robin Van Persie may not be a bad idea because Gus Hiddink did that during the qualification match between Russia and Slovania.
arshavin definatley, though the three up front will have to be altered slightly with arshavin more withdrawn centrally and the wide players pushed up and squeezed in a bit
Arshavin? Not up top. Then who’s the target man then to get the ball out of defense quickly and take the pressure off? Even Arsenal need that option once in a while and especially against Chelsea. If you can’t force Essien back to help collect second balls then he’ll squeeze the space in front of him and make life even more difficult for Fabregas. Two weeks ago we had two 6 footers in B52 and RVP. And then there was none. It’s got to be Eduardo as at least he’s more used to playing with his back to goal. He’s better than AA at it, and AA is better on the left.
The question should..Can Arsenal Replace RVP?
Playing Arshavin up top may not work for us, imo, he’s not big enough,and for that to work most of the passes to him would have to be played to feet or come from build up play. I think Arshavin’s game is more suited to playing in front of the defense, or running at them. Having a front man does space out the opposition, which in turn creates the space for us to play our game.
Whats most annoying is his last big injury came when playing for Holland and has now got another playing in a bloody friendly. If Bendtner was fit I wouldn’t be so worried but I’m not sure Eduardo can lead the line in the same way that RVP has been, I think he may beed to play alongside someone. I hoep I’m wrong and I’m lookign forward to seeing Eduardo get a decent run in the team.
This shows the real weakness in our squad. We have lots of midfield talent but very few striking talent. Bendtner is not good enough and Eduardo is to light and too slow for the English PL. This may sould crazy but I would bring back Jay Simpson, who is a striker with pace and power (and who has hit from for QPR). I would also consider giving Sanchez Watt a run, then there is Merida!! This is the time to let the young blood come it. We never know, we may find a gem!. Sir Alex did it!!!!
As usual, tons of people talking as if they are managers and know whats best without even seeing how Edu or Vela would play in RVP’s role.
Vela is very strong for someone of his size, have you not noticed? or do you just think “aw, Vela, he’s young and thin and cant do anything on his own”?
Others say Eduardo is too slow… perhaps, but he has good acceleration and is capable of bringing others into play, he might be seen as a pure finisher but he is much more than that, his all round game is very good and he showed this for 2 months before getting injured at Birmingham… problem is people forget quickly and he hasnt been able to get a decent run to show his true colours again.
I think Edu and Vela are capable of doing a job for us up front, but we might need a few tactical tweaks for it to work, e.g Fabregas to be more adventurous and get close to them… or our wingers to play further up to link with them quicker… honestly, thats not my job, its Wengers and I am sure he will spend all this week thinking how to adjust his tactics.
In Wenger we trust.
I agree with Erik,Dudu and Carlos are both capable replacements for Van Persie with minimal tweaking to the tactics.It would also be interesting to see Walcott, coming back from his injury,given a shot up front as he has been promised by the boss.We will be just fine until Robin returns.
Im with Dan Cee – we’ve got serious young kids available – and if you want a “classic” front target man Jay E Thomas is coming back from loan – he’s fantastic. Built like Emile Heskey – but glides like Berbatov – captain and top scorere in last years Youth FA cup winning team. Did grteat on loan. Add him to the list