Do we really need a goal scorer?

Two of the best teams in the world are playing in Premier League under generational managers in Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. Both City and and Liverpool have dominated the domestic league and have done exceptionally well abroad. For last few years, Chelsea has been trying to catch up with them but if you ask me, Chavs have a lot to do to reach their level!

There is no single 4th best team. It’s been a fight between Arsenal, United, West Ham and Tottenham to grab the Champions League spot and we will soon find out who gets to play at the grand stage.

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Coming back to City, Pep relies more on the midfield control, ball retention and possession play. He is such a brilliant manager that he has not missed one of the best strikers of premier league in recent times in Aguero and has been mostly playing without one. This is possible only because of the class he has in midfield.

Klopp on the other hand loves gegenpressing. Having a high line of pressing, working in a fast paced countering football. He has his 3 machines up top in Salah, Mane and Jota/Firmino who can be a nightmare to defenders.

Mikel Arteta, having worked at City under Pep – is thought to have a similar play from the back, possession football and we were for a good part (except last 2 games) played without a striker. Yes, though Laca is a CF, he was doing the link up play and had scored next to nothing! We let go Aubameyang and has only started playing Eddie because of Laca’s illness.

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Lets compare the top 2 teams in the league. While most of the goals for Liverpool have come from the front 3 of Salah, Mane and Jota; City has a bunch of players who have contributed in their tally of goals.

Liverpool :

Mo Salah – 22, Diogo Jota – 15, Sadio Mane – 14, Roberto Firmino -5, Fabino – 5

Manchester City :

Kevin De Bruyne – 11, Mahrez – 11, Sterling – 10, Phil Foden – 8, B Silva – 8, Jesus – 7, Gundogan – 6

I have only mentioned players with 5+ goals to keep it simple. Only Pep can play a season without a striker and still wins the League. Liverpool on other hand has probably the best front 3 on the planet currently. Where are we?

If you check for Arsenal, we have 4 players with 5+ goals this season : Saka – 11, Emile Smith Rowe – 10, Odegaard – 6, Martinelli – 5.

We don’t have a Salah-esque level player dropping 20+ goals a season. We don’t have two other players scoring around 15 goals each. Our goal scorers are wingers and midfielders, similar to City but the difference is City has almost double the no. of scorers and of course they are better quality wise (for now).

Arteta’s expectation for scoring has been from the midfield. Partey’s flying rockets are the proofs.

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Coming back to the question of whether we need a striker – yes, we do in my opinion. We don’t have a midfield of City in terms of class and number. We don’t have a billion dollar lying around in fridge to always buy some more. In last 2 games, we saw how important it is to have a genuine CF. Eddie’s presence not only threatens defenders, it also allows the midfield to only work for delivering the ball to someone who can do the job.

Auba thrived in an environment of feeders and we need a similar player, only better in work rate. We have a midfield who can score, adding a striker will solve most of the problems.

What do you think you would like to see? Can you imagine playing without a CF which requires players like Saka, ESR and Martinelli to step up and score more?

Let us talk in comments!