Arsenal: Olivier Giroud needs Jesus Navas to complement his game

It was the dying moments of Spain vs France. France were down 1-0 at this time. Suddenly Frank Ribery makes a super run to the box and crosses it to the head of a person who has been criticised for his poor club form. And he set himself up nicely for it to head past Iker Casillas relatively easily. The fixture ended 1-1.

Arsenal pride themselves for having a plethora of wide men but there is a characteristic of all these wingers and full-backs that is, they are poor crossers of the ball. Agreed, Arsenal strikers right from Thierry Henry to Robin Van Persie haven’t been the best headers of the ball and Arsenal’s passing game means they don’t rely on crosses for the goals. But crossing is still an important facet of any good winger.

With Olivier Giroud upfront, Arsenal have options. Like a Plan A and Plan B. Plan A is to pass the ball around the ball forever and letting the striker play link-up with Santi Cazorla and the wingers, which works most of the time and fetches wins. But there should be a Plan B which was lacking badly for Arsene Wenger’s men last season and for this year’s Liverpool team. Well, what’s the catch?

Brendan Rodger’s men have been relying on the passing game like Arsene does since forever. But name the number of strikers at Liverpool. As of now, wait, only Luis Suarez exists at the moment! Now, I know Suarez is a top striker but what if he’s useless against certain teams or he gets injured, where do Liverpool go? Where’s the point in loaning Andy Carroll?

Andy Carroll is a good striker but his game wasn’t matching with Liverpool’s. At Newcastle, the players in the midfield were playing to Carroll’s speciality, playing long balls to him and causing the center-backs a hell of a problems. You could argue the poor form of Stewart Downing was a factor, but even now, Liverpool don’t have a proper winger. Jose Enrique is the closest person to cross properly to him, but his primary duty is in defense. So he had to be loaned out. What that has done is, Rodgers doesn’t have a plan B and that is letting his team down.

Back to Arsenal, they should avoid this situation with Olivier Giroud. He has a good positional sense, so that isn’t a problem. I advise Wenger to get Walcott out ASAP and sign Jesus Navas. Yes, it is all in the rumor mill, but Navas can add that extra dimension that Giroud needs to establish at Arsenal. Navas is arguably the best winger who can assist (no offense, Ribery, and Ronaldo is basically a goal-scorer) and Arsenal need him to succeed in their trophy hopes. Hope you guys enjoyed this, and cheers to Arsenal thrashing Norwich this Saturday!