CynicalGooner wrote:Inchpractice wrote:I didn't say I didn't want to change formation, I just said that's what we do. You have to buy a squad that takes into account the way you play and if you play one striker up front then you can't have four top class strikers unless you're City.
You said you'd be happy with 3 plus Afobe, I'm saying 2 plus two younger types so we don't really differ than much at the end of the day.
The reality is that when the window closes if we don't get another striker our starting order of strikers will be:
Giroud
Podolski
Theo
Gervinho
Which isn't all that bad, although it could be better.
That's based on us getting rid of dead wood and not replacing them.
If the window closes and we've bought someone then it'll look better.
We've sold Vela, Bendtner is about to be sold any minute, we sold RVP and we may yet get rid of Park and/or Chamakh so we'll free up some wages for a new player.
So it could end up as:
Giroud
Podolski
New player
Theo
Which for a club that only plays one striker isn't too bad imo.
Bear in mind as well that even though we don't play 4-4-2 Podolski can play on one wing, Gerv/Theo on the other and Giroud up front so technically we're putting at least two strikers on the pitch.
But if you include Theo and Gervinho who are really our wingers then you have to count all three forward positions as strikers, not just the one.
Podolski is good as he can play left and CF, no problem there. Giroud is clearly a specialised number 9, again no problems there. But I see a large hole in the squad that needs filling, another versatile striker who's main and best position is in the middle but is decent out wide too. Whereas Gervinho is 100% a winger who can maybe do a job in the middle, maybe....
Yes I was including them as 'players who can play there if necessary'.
Theo is a striker who is being forced to play on the wing so he can play up front. Gervinho is fourth choice on my first list because he's really a winger but I'd still prefer him to Chamakh.
If you take out the seasons when we relied heavily on RVP or Henry we tend to spread the goals around so in an emergency situation Gerv wouldn't need to actually become a number 9 overnight he'd just need to attack defenders and drag them out of position allowing space for other players to score.
Bear in mind that even Henry never really played centrally when he was our main source of goals, he was always drifting in from the left wing.
I do agree with you though, one more striker would complete the set nicely.
Still want us to buy a GK though...
