Luciano Vietto Should be Arsenal Priority, Not Paulo Dybala

With the spotlight on Paulo Dybala and how every team with or without a need at striker is in on the guy, Charlie Nicholas has made a brilliant suggestion in a display of positive punditry (what is that?). The former Arsenal man has urged Arsene Wenger to go after young Argentine striker Luciano Vietto.

He told SkySports via the Mirror:

"“I don’t think Wenger particularly wants or needs a new striker – we can win the league with Olivier Giroud. But if we are to get one in, rather than go for a big name, I’d like to see us target Luciano Vietto, the young Argentinian lad at Villarreal. He’s an Arsenal type of player – he’s all about good movement, but his touch is good too and I think we could get him at a good price. He might need a bit of time to adapt, but he’s got so much potential.”"

Paulo Dybala is the talk of the town and he’s said to fetch a 30 million pound transfer fee. Luciano Vietto is receiving next to no attention at all and with a value (according to Transfermarkt) of 15 million pounds, he could conceivably be bought at half the price of Dybala. But which one is better? Take a look at this table (provided by Squawka on a per 90 minute basis):

[table id=48 /]

So there you have it, when it comes to scoring goals and being more of a threat in the box, Luciano is the superior Argentine when compared to his highly-sought-after countryman.

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Charlie Nicholas has it right in another regard as well. Luciano Vietto is more Arsenal. Vietto’s game is centered on movement and moving the flow of play forward. With an excellent first touch, he’d find great usage in the box when a first touch is absolutely crucial.

Luciano Vietto joined Villareal just last summer for 5.5 million pounds. He’s scored 20 goals in his first season in La Liga after spending his youth in Argentina. Some have said that he needs more time in La Liga to prove that he’s the real deal, but the time to snatch him up is now. There are two major drawbacks to leaving him at Villareal for another season.

First of all, it would allow more teams to get a beat on him. Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid are already reportedly after the young striker and giving him another season in such a big league would allow vultures like Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea to key in on him and offer him exorbitant amounts of money. We need to approach him now before the price starts going all Dybala-like

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Secondly, it would allow him to settle in and acclimate to La Liga. That may seem like a good thing, but not when you consider that it takes a player awhile to switch between different European leagues. Why let him settle into a league that plays completely different than the Premier League when we could get him started in England early?

Luciano Vietto is only 21 years old. His pace make him a change-up from Olivier Giroud and if Arsenal are really going to go for a new striker, then Charlie Nicholas has it right, this is the guy to go for.

Next: Lack of Confidence plaguing Giroud again?