Arsenal: Is it crazy to want Denis Suarez to start against Manchester City?
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal will be aiming to match Manchester City punch-for-punch in the attack, so is it crazy to think that Denis Suarez is our best chance of that?
Short answer: Yes, it probably is. But the situation with Arsenal‘s creative midfield is such that there really can’t be any short answers, because there is a slew of ongoing questions and so few answers that the questions are just hanging out, having a drink, waiting to be properly addressed.
When we started this season, we had the combined “prowesses” of Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to lead the attack, neither of whom has actually led the attack. Aaron Ramsey has been stellar, but he won’t be here much longer, so I understand Emery’s desire to find better solutions.
Alex Iwobi has been good, but do you really trust him to be “the guy” against Manchester City when we need to attack to be as good as theirs? Honestly, you probably don’t. Maybe one of the guys, if we go with more than one creator, but not the.
No matter who you put out there, you are rolling the dice. Ramsey is the most sure bet, but even he has a history of being a bit unreliable, so counting on him to lead the charge and create the chances is still a roll of the dice.
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Denis Suarez would be a roll of the dice too. And a big one. he just trained with the club for the first time on Thursday, and here I am, barking about how I’m probably (not?) crazy to want him to start against his former club, Manchester City (who are a much different club now than they were back then, if that needed to be said).
Suarez has not played much first team football over the years, as his minutes have dwindled since his inaugural year at the Catalans, but what better way to welcome a guy to Arsenal than to throw him out there behind a dynamic striking partnership in a match that will be truly end to end?
I am a huge proponents of baptisms by fire, and while I support the idea of limiting his minutes, even if that means taking him off at half time, I would rather throw him out there then trust our fate to one of our other unreliable midfield attackers, because at least we know Suarez has something to prove.
Yeah, it’s crazy. But you signed the guy for this express purpose, so let’s go ahead and see what happens. Of course, I guess I’d settle for substitute duties too.