Arsenal: Lucas Perez Sets The Table For Donyell Malen
Arsene Wenger may or may not plan things out in excruciating detail. Landing Lucas to set the table for Doneyll Malen may be the future of Arsenal.
Ever since Arsenal has had Olivier Giroud, their business has been possession maintenance and feeding the ball into the box. No team controls more possession than our very own Gunners. But it has lead to predictability and a lack of creativity in recent campaigns.
While Giroud can create all the space he wants in the box, this attack often takes too long to organize and by the time they are in position to strike, the opposition has nine players in behind the ball.
Hard to break that down.
Landing Lucas Perez changes the game. He is an over-the-top striker with pace for days and he can get in behind defenses and (unlike Mr. Walcott) not trip over himself en route to scoring.
But that is a very counter-attacking-style tactic. Arsenal showed glimpses of a brilliant counter-attacking ability at various points in the past two campaigns, but it still looks to be the second order of business, no matter how beautiful it looks.
Olivier Giroud is almost 30 and with the physical, aerial striker largely giving way to the small quick one, Arsenal looks to be switching to match the times (shocking, really). Lucas Perez and Danny Welbeck both have that blazing pace that can convert Arsenal, but they have enough size to still keep a presence if need be.
Still, the order of business will no longer be able to be focused on dinking the ball around the box and letting Giroud eat up space. Not if Giroud isn’t there and there are no similar strikers, which there really aren’t.
But with Lucas Perez nearly 28 himself, Arsenal long term striker situation doesn’t seem to be completely solved.
Then again – it does.
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Waiting in the ranks is young Donyell Malen, the top prospect to come out of the Netherlands in quite some time.
Last year, his first year with the club, he made an impact with the Arsenal U23 side, scoring six goals and assisting on two. Most of that came when he was 16. He was then offered a contract as soon as he turned 17 in January.
For a 17 year old to be holding down the fort in Arsenal’s U23 side, he has to be something special and any footage you can watch of young Malen will only reinforce that. He has superb speed, creativity and finishing ability, as well as the confidence of a proven striker.
Lucas is almost 28, Welbeck is almost 26. With Welbeck’s ability to shift out wide, Lucas looks to be a table-setter for Donyell Malen who may very well be ready to take the throne by the time he is 19 or 20.
We have seen extraordinary talents make dents in the first team as teenagers before, especially at thinly-staffed positions. We even saw Marcus Rashford do it for Manchester United. Don’t be surprised if Malen is the next to make a dent and turn it into something special. Once Lucas breaks the curse of the No. 9, Malen will be the one to turn the curse into magic.
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