Last season, many of us agreed one of our major weaknesses was - putting the ball into the net. Regardless of our defending mistakes, had we able to converted 10% more of the scoring chances we created, things could have been quite different.
Now with Henry left, so where the goals will come from next season? Let’s stick our necks out and make some bold predictions.
1. IF van Persie stays healthy for a full season (he rarely did though), I can see him breaking the 20 mark.
2. And I am expecting a BREAKOUT season from Adebayor. If there is a MOST IMPROVED player award, I would give it to Adebayor last season. Apart from his scoring, he has improved in many departments of his game. But to cut it short - he has now become a PRESENCE on the pitch. You FEEL his existence. I am counting on at least 15 goals from him next season. He’s going to be 23, as a striker, it’s time to stamp your authority on the pitch if he wants to be a real star striker, or risk to be relegated as a permanent “squad rotation” player. Now Henry is gone, the door is opened for him to step up. Let’s hope he grabs it with two hands.
3. da Silva - It’s difficult to predict how much an impact he will make in his debut season. Few players at the past managed to settle in right away. Being a striker has its advantage and disadvantage. As everybody judges a striker with only one thing - GOALS. If he gets a bit of luck and manages to score in the first few games, there is every chance he would be off to a flyer. 20 goals will not be an unrealistic task. On the other hand, if he fails to find the net early, the pressure would mount. Anyway, I think if we could get 15 goals from him, it wouldn’t be too bad for a striker’s first season at the club.
4. The Midfield - Like Adebayor, I have a feeling Rosicky is ready to take off. Towards the later stage of last season, he started to show he had finally got a grip on how Wenger expected him to play - by dribbling down the flank, and cut the ball back into middle. And by running from the wing position towards the blind side of opposing back 4 into the box to get to the end of a scoring chance created by teammates on the opposite flank. In short - everything Pires used to do at the past.
With Cesc started to show a glimpse of his scoring touch, I believe those two will be our major scoring threat from midfield.
Also a special mention to Diaby. He appears to have a good positional sense when running into the box getting on the end of a cross from teammates. So he will be a player to watch as well.
42 Responses to “Where will the goals come from?”
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July 9th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Sorry Andez, Da Silva is not going to get fifteen goals. If he does, we’ll be very blessed.
Adeabayor might get 15 goals.
Diaby is not going to be much better than last year unless he releases the ball earlier. His finishing is not cold.
Clichy is by a country mile the most improved player in our team last year. Compare him in October to April.
Rosicky and van Persie are going to get goals. Last year was a bit strange for the both of them with injuries. RvP is a dangerous player.
I’m expecting Gallas and Toure to get ten goals between the two of them.
The up coming season is going to be very different for us. It’s hard to determine at this point where the goals are going to come from. As far as the team getting on without TH14, I believe RvP, Fab, Ade, and Rosicky will be up for it and are eager to show everyone we’re still a great team. Also, even though Henry’s gone, we’ve still got some big strikers with descent pace and bags of tricks. I’m going to have to wait and see.
July 9th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Clichy is the MOST IMPROVED player of the season. RvP is second.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Gallas and Toure with 10 goals … thats overly optimistic dont you think?
July 9th, 2007 at 9:21 am
RvP is the most improved player of the season, I like his ability of scoring goals when we are behind. I expect him to be our leading goal scorer this season.
I’m more interested on which youngster is going to break into the 1st team and be a regular. It’s going to be hard for Denilson since he’s competing with Cesc. For some strange reason I believe Walcott is the one likely to break into the team this season! The way he took the carling cup goal reminded me of Henry in his early days. Given his season ended early expect him to be fresh and start to deliver. The only question I have is whether Wenger will play him as a striker or winger? I would prefer him in a striking role because I don’t trust his dribbling skills, just doesn’t seem composed enough when dribbling.
Has Clichy won a senior french national squad cap ?? As for Diaby, I’m not sure of his best position …
July 9th, 2007 at 9:33 am
My predictions (as long as the mentioned players stay fit for three quarters of the season at least):
- Van Persie: 20
- Eduardo: 15
- Adebayor: 12
- Bendtner: 5
- Rosicky: 7
- Fabregas: 5
- Gilberto: 5
- Hleb: 3
- Diaby/Denilson/Ljunberg/Walcott/Eboue/Clichy/Hoyte/Flamini: 10
- Toure/Gallas/Senderos/Djorou: 5
That is a total of 87 goals. Which is 24 more than we scored last season.
If our defense is afflicted with less injuries and manages to concede 29 goals rather than 35 like last season, then we will have a better goal difference of +30.
Depending on how these goals are spread out it could range from an additional 12 to 20 points. An additional 12 to 20 points will put us in the title race.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:35 am
A 1-nil win is good enough for me. A win is a win. Winning 3-0 several times last season didn’t help when we also lost 1-0 and i’ve lost count how many 1-1 draws we’ve had….
Rather than worry about the goal distribution amongst the squad, i’m more worried about distribution of our goals amongst our games. If we can score at least 1 goal in every game we play, we might have had another 10 points.
I am HOPING for a change in tactics in our final third of the pitch - instead of passing for that perfect goal, we should be shooting more often from distance and just put the ball on target. We shouldn’t have to rely on the goals to come from only a couple players, because if that player is injured (like RVP, and TiTi last season), then we’re screwed.
I don’t care if none of the Arsenal players are in the 10 top leading scorers, as long as we get results on the pitch on a consistent basis.
I will easily trade a couple 3-0 wins into 1-0’s so that the extra goals can be spread evenly to all those 1-1 draws and 1-0 losses. That to me is the improvement I’m looking for this season.
I’d like to see goals come from all over the pitch so as to 1) not place too much pressure on any single player 2) give our opponents’s a defensive nightmare predicting where the attacks will come from 3) mentally build our squad to understanding AND believing that EVERYONE should be contributing to the goals.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:59 am
I believe that the goals will be very spread out this season. Unless RVP really steps up we won’t have a 20 goal player this year. Ade, Rosicky, Cesc, Da Silva heck even gilberto, all have a chance at 12 goals or so. Without Henry we can’t automaticly count on 18-20 from anyone. This is a transition year for us. I don’t mean to say rebuilding year. The peices are in place to score a boat load of goals but the squad could go the other way as well.
Personally i’m inclined to believe that our accuracy will be better with another year under the young players belts, If we create as many chances as last year that bodes very well.
My (likely wrong) predictions are:
RVP 19
Ade 12
Bendtner 5
Walcott 7
Da Silva 10
Rosicky 11
Cesc 9
Gilberto 10
rest of team 12
That is 96 goals in aprox. 55-60 games. I haven’t checked the stats as my aunt who is visiting changed my font size and im to lazy to fix it every time so i dont know if that sounds good or poor.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:05 am
96 goals is massive actually!! but just like my predictions its rather optimistic.
i doubt gilberto can get up to 10 goals again though.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Neova is correct. I don’t see how you can predict who will score how many goals - it’s a crapshoot. You can say overall there is a good chance the team will score more goals simply because so many attacking players were injured for large parts of last season and also young talented players will naturally improve - but that’s as far as you can take it.
This obsession everyone has with goals counts for nothing - Arsenal scored 72 goals in the unbeaten season, yet the following year they scored 87 but finished 12pts behind Chelsea.
The season after that Arsenal scored 68 goals, only 4 less than the unbeaten season yet were 21 pts behind Chelsea.
So goal talk, statistics etc., are all pointless. The team needs to improve everywhere and be more a lot consistent. If the defence is water tight Arsenal can win the league scoring less goals than last year. If the defence is a shambles again Arsenal can score another 25 Premiership goals and still finish 2nd or 3rd.
For me defence is the priority, as it always should be - stop looking at the attack. No team ever won a thing without a solid, reliable defence. And if it stays at it is then it’s neither solid or reliable.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:13 am
DannyT can the defence of Eboue,Gallas,Kolo and Clichy be trusted to be consistent throught the season ? I doubt it, I suppose Wemger does need to buy an experienced central defender someone like Lucio, never mind he’s out of Wenger’s price range but a defender like that would be a welcomed addition.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:35 am
dannyt, if us as “website fans” dont talk to about stats and make predictions about players, then what else would we do? moan all day ala stag?
its just a fun thing to do at work really.
personally i think our defense will just have to depend on the individual improvements of each of our defenders. Except big-mouth Gallas “demands” to leave (which i definitely wont mind) then we can replace him hopefully with somebody useful. But I really find it hard to pin-point a really good CB out there.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Danny, basically everything we said here are “pointless”. ‘Cos nobody will ever know who’s going to score how many goals, or who’s going to win the league for that matter.
As I said, it’s a BOLD prediction. For the sake of pure discussion.
As for my post, maybe I should change the title to “expectation” rather than “prediction”.
Personally, I believe this is a great chance for Adebayor to step up and prove his worth. So I EXPECT 15 goals from him in return. As a striker who has been the club for two years now, I’d like to think it’s not too unrealistic an expectation.
And I rate van Persie very highly, and believe he’s not only going to be the main man of Arsenal, but Holland as well. If he stays healthy all season, and he can’t get 20 goals (he got 13 last season despite injury), it should consider to be a poor season from him. He just has too much talent for not achieving that, particular now he’s no longer in a rotation role, he will be the main striker up front. Probably our No.1 Choice.
As for da Silva, if he gets more chances to play, I don’t think 15 goals is asking too much, consider Baptista was close to that mark last season despite playing pretty poorly for us.
BTW, the goals target I mentioned is their TOTAL goals contribution in all competitions, not just the league.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:48 am
RvP should go for 15 depending on fitness. Eduardo will score 10+. I see him taking penalties and that will help. If everything goes according to Wenger’s plans, Eduardo + RvP will be the main strikers. So (unlike Andez) I see Ade as a bench player who will score the odd winner (like OT). Doubt he will reach 10.
I think Cesc will bloom and will get around 8. Rosicky could go either way, His record for Dortmund is pathetic but for Czech Republic is good. I, personally, doubt he will outscore Cesc. That’s why I think we desperately need a goal scoring winger who will get another 6-8.
NB: All my numbers are in the league only.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Nipuna, i think the PK-taker will be like the captaincy, it goes with the rank - veterans who have been with Arsenal for years would get the priority.
So i think Gilberto will remain as the number 1 taker, he did it suprisingly well last season. van Persie as No.2. Eduardo probably will be No.3. Until the No.1 guy starts to miss a few, then the order may change.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:59 am
You can talk about whatever you like, I just got the feeling that everyone was making an assumption that more goals will automatically equal success, but that’s not necessarily the case.
The attacking side of the game is probably more fun to discuss but something needs to change at the back. Whether the same players can be more focused is questionable, I feel it’s imperative we make a buy there. For me Eboue doesn’t have the brains to make that big step up and neither does Senderos. Toure is great on everything but crosses, where he is often left reeling. Gallas I’m not sure about at all, I don’t even know if his head’s in the right place to start this season - looks like he could try and back out and ruin another Arsenal pre-season.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Andez, Baptista was nowhere close to 15. He got 10 in total, 6 in the Carling Cup.
We should talk league only. Carling and FA Cup don’t mean much because the level of opposition is not the same. We scored 15 in 6 CC games but only 63 in 38 league games.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Andez, I remember Henry taking penalties forever. Do you remember who it was before him? Nothing to do with rank or captaincy. Typically, the strikers take it - RvN, Henry, Shearer, Owen, etc. Gilberto came to the fore because Henry got injured and others weren’t up to the task. Eduardo is capable of doing it. I don’t see why he can’t take them.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Frankly, I am getting tired of Gallas. I hope Wenger deals with it. Sometimes I just wish we get rid of all uncommitted players at one shot instead of doing it one at a time - Vieira in 05, Campbell + Cole in 06, Henry in 07, Gallas in 08?
July 9th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Who took PK before Titi?….. interesting haha! can’t remember it exactly… Bergkamp used to be our taker until his miss agains United in 99. I remember Suker, Kanu and Petit also were the takers before, but can’t recall who took it before Henry.
As for the striker who should be the one to take PK, I agree with u. But that “penalty taker goes with rank at Arsenal” was not a “theory” i come up. Just a little observation from watching Arsenal over years. I didn’t know why Wenger would opt for Gilberto to be the no.2 taker as well last season, but that’s they way AW did things. And it worked!
And Henry didn’t become our taker during his early years neither. As he played for us longer, then he became our taker. It’s not an issue i want to argue, it’s just something I think AW tends to do. Like putting Henry as corner taker, i never understood the logic neither.
Anyway, we will see who’s the taker next season.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:24 am
I’m not big on stats either. What I do know is that it will be a totally different system than it has been for the past ten years. We simply don’t have that Henry/Anelka presence up front that has loads of pace and a clinical finish. Like I said in my earlier post, I’m going to have to wait and see.
Fred, no I do not believe that ten goals between Gallas and Toure is overly optimistic. Last year they had probably close to ten goals and Gallas was injured for about a third of the season. Gallas can score goals and he and Kolo are fit all season then ten goals is very realistic. In fact, I’d expect them to score at least ten even with Kolo at the AFCON.
Da Silva will be worked into the rotation just like Reyes was when he arrived. I know that Reyes scored atleast three goals just against Chelsea in his first half season with the team. That was before the Aragones thing when he just focused on playing. Hopefully Da Silva will settle in quickly and get enough time to score 15 but how many strikers do that in their first season in England? I don’t think Baptista got as close to 15 as you think he did. We’ll see.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Danny you are correct about the defence. If we cant tighten up, especially on set peices it wont matter how many goals we score. unless we score the 96 in all comps I “predicted” ( come to look at it, wish for ) !
It seems that the team spent too much time last season in the opponents end of the pitch. When the opposition struck back our defence seemed suprised and asleep.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:35 am
btw nipuna, not necessary the strikers will always be the PK takers. During a long period of time, when we had strikers like Alan Smith, Ian Wright, our PK taker was right back Lee Dixon.
Stuart Pearce was also another famous PK-taker as a left back when he played with Forest. there are plenty many more examples. In some South American countries they used to have goalkeeper taking spot kick as well. I love to see stuffs like that!
i guess at the end of the day it’s all down to who holds the nerve well.
The best PK-taker IMO is Alan Shearer. He didn’t just place it, he actually struck it hard. So even the goalkeeper guess the right way they had no chance stopping it.
I also quite like the way van Persie takes his PK, he also goes with power. And looked very cool n clam. btw, Freddie and cashley are pretty good takers as well.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I believe the penalty taker will be the best penalty taker on the field at the time and will probably be decided by the captain. I know if I’m the captain and there’s someone on the pitch that’s better than me at taking penalties then guess who’s taking them? I don’t care if he’s been there for ten years or just got there the day before yesterday. We need goals to win games.
The reality is anybody can knock a ball eleven meters but it’s about who’s cold enough to finish a penalty with that pressure. Henry was and so was Lauren, Cole, Pires, and Vieira but they’re all gone now. And you’ve got to want to take the penalty.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Dutch strikers in general seem to be good at penalties. Hasselbaink, RvN, RvP, Makaay, van Hooidonk, Kluivert, everyone except Bergkamp since he lost his mind after that miss in ‘99. And the Dutch don’t do the cheeky ones either; they try and put a hole in the net.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:44 am
The Germans are the BEST. Their nerve seem to make up by steel, especially in a major tournament. Had they ever missed one?!
July 9th, 2007 at 11:52 am
As I said before, predicting who is going to score how many is a fruitless exercise. I’d be happy if Fabianski scored 60 goals on corners in the 93rd minute and we didn’t concede any………..
More importantly how are we going to deal with our defensive frailties and this Gallas character who is now mouthing off about how we need to spend money….I wonder if he is doing all this to piss AW off so he’ll unload him. Honestly if we get a world class CB in the mold of Adams/Rio/Campbell instead of Gallas, I wouldn’t lose any sleep……
How dare he come up with these comments???? Who the F*** does he think he is?
July 9th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
gallas was always going to be a disaster from the start. he always had so much baggage. i mean even a c-nt like mourinho was exasperated!!!
my only question to gallas is why did he leave big spending champions chelsea to join us? why didnt he just wait for the last year of his contract to expire then go wherever he wanted????
the guy is a bit of a trojan horse really. why didnt he say all this and demand a transfer at the beginning of the summer…so that we could deal with it (ie. replace him) earlier. but no, he had to wait for preseason to start first before kicking up dust. the big c-nt !!!
July 9th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
There is likely no way Gallas had not already had a similar conversation with AW. If he did, he’s trying to force the club’s hand. I this was the first time he has mentioned being this discontented, then he is certainly not helping his transfer value. This is the sort of unprofessional act that would put many clubs off him because it would only be a matter of time before he did it to them. Either way, he has hurt the club and himself.
July 9th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Andrés Guardado. Looks an extremely impressive left-winger. Wenger should be looking at him and pouncing.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Mazza, Guardado is shifty & lightning quick, very Arsenal-like but I don’t watch enough Mexican League soccer/football to know if he’s consistent enough. He’s young though, maybe 22 at the most if I remember correctly? I could be wrong. But both he & Nery Castillo have been in fine form for Mexico recently.
Guardado gave the US absolute fits in the Gold Cup final on the left until he got injured in an aerial collision.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Oh & as far as the goals. I like goals, who doesn’t. Don’t care where they come from but I’d be just as happy if we won every game 4-nil or if we won the title like Milan won Serie A in 95 I believe it was with 36 goals for in 34 games. Their leading scorer that year was Massaro (possibly Simone?) I believe with only 8 goals. Might’ve been 9. Point is- win is a win. But I have a feeling either Rosicky will chip in a lot more goals from the midfield this year or Ade & Van Persie will both have breakout years.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Gallas…. Interesting thing is : some players today seem to be more interested in telling their managers or the club what to do than concentrate on doing what they are PAID for - playing well on the pitch.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
No doubt Andez…
July 9th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
If I was Gallas I’m not sure I’d be all that happy. You have to put yourself in his position - he is a world class player and extremely ambitious, he is also coming to the last 3 or 4 years of his career. When Gallas joined Arsenal he probably didn’t expect to see the big players leaving and hardly anyone of note coming through the door.
Just because (some) fans are patient and prepared to wait for success doesn’t mean he should be as well - he has more to lose than the fans. Perhaps he feels he was brought under false pretences, maybe assurance were made about having a competitive squad that he feels have been broken. Maybe it is impossible to speak to Wenger about it so he feels as though the press is his only channel of communication. If he asked for a transfer request instead of blabbing to the press, he’d probably get ripped apart. I have smidgen of sympathy.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
yeah that Andrés Guardado lad is quite promising….he will be 21 this september and he has got all the ingredients to playing ingredients to succeed at arsenal.
his downside is that he will need about a year to get used to the weather, culture shock, physical play and all. all latin players always do.
all in all he looks very promising and i dont mind waiting for a year for him, especially as he will come in relatively cheap. though i think he will choose to go to warmer climes first.
ps: what is it about left footed players that makes one always think that they might be geniuses??? especially those ones who are very leftfooted.
anytime i see one dribble a bit…i always think damn, this guy`s got talent. even downing fooled me once !!! lol.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Not sure, Fred. I have almost no dribbling skills whatsoever & I am very left footed but I still give more seasoned players trouble sometimes just b/c I’m left-footed. I’m sure a researcher could have a field day on the subject but my own guess is that it’s a mental thing & left-handed/-left-footed people tend to be more naturally “artistic” & we’re more natural “risk” takers b/c we technically live our whole lives against the grain- until left-handed notebooks came out in my area in the mid 80s, it was actually painful at the end of a school day from writing on the metal binder all day, as an example.
Also, I think it has something to do with since most players are right footed, they’re used to opening from their defensive stances to their left if they’re facing the dribbler which means it makes it very difficult to go to your right say if you’re slightly off balanced to the left which is why you would have to turn a bit sideways to play D & then if alefty makes a moveto the defender’s left, again b/c now the D-man is facing to the lefty’s left foot he has to swivel completely around or turn his back to the lefty dribbler in hopes of blocking his space… or I could be completely speculating/guessing & have no idea what I’m talking about!
It’s an interesting subject though b/c not just dribbling but I can give a goalie problems with reading my shooting with the left the foot as well & my shooting is only a decent bit better than my dribbling…. so I can imagine if you have tremendous skills it would give anybody even World Class defenders/keepers nightmares.
July 9th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Yes Danny, I understand Gallas has every right to speak his mind, just that - HAD him playing like a ROCK last season, that would put him in a better situation to open his mouth. We fans may still not hearing the things he said, at least we would have more sympathy to him.
He had play fairly well the early months he joined, after he returned from injury, it seemed that he had opt for letting his mouth do the talking rather than his feet. And when we first heard we were signing Gallas, I don’t think that’s the kind of performance we had expected from a player everybody rated pretty highly.
July 9th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Gallas simply needs to understand that at Arsenal we don’t put our business in the streets. I’m sure Wenger is very approachable. What goes on in house should stay in house.
Gallas also needs to respect the fact that Wenger has won numerous titles with his current transfer policy and will not change it to cater to one big mouth.
Henry is the perfect example. He wanted to leave but he didn’t go on the internet running his mouth to facilitate his move. He went to the bosses and handled it like a gentleman and that’s where Willie (the same age as Henry) has failed.
July 9th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Someone should give Gallas FM07 so he can spend as much as he wants. He could bring Titi back, Paddy too, all the stars he is crying for.
Just shut the fuck up and play. If you play to your best we certainly have a chance to win some trophy.
July 9th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
As for the goals, I believe RvP will hit around 20 and I expect Cesc and Eboue to score more than last season. Eboue is very good at running in the box and is very unpredictable, you never know if he will cross or shoot. He had a very good chances last year and I expect him to convert more this season.
July 9th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Guardado looks very promising and I would like to see him in an Arsenal shirt, I think he would fit in perfectly and with Vela also here we could have the future best Mexicans at one place.
And about the penalties, I think the best PK taker in this squad is RvP, then Rosicky, then Dudu. But with the penalties you never know, Baptista missed three or four PK last year and he is a very good PK taker.
July 10th, 2007 at 6:02 am
i think eduardo should take all the PKs. poachers are usually the best at it….and notching goals always gives them confidence. once they score one they could as well score a hattrick.