The quality Arsenal’s new striker doesn’t desperately need

Arsenal are hunting for targets as the season builds towards its climax, with a striker well known to be front and centre of their plans.

Between now and the window opening in June, and likely many weeks and possibly even months after that, there will endless debate over who is best suited to Arsenal, as well as who they might be interested in.

The list (appears) to include Victor Osimhen, Alexander Isak, Marcus Rashford, Darwin Nunez, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Cody Gakpo, Armando Broja, Joao Felix, Jonathan David, and Lautaro Martinez. Although you can add or subtract as you wish.

It’s effectively every striker going.

Arsenal’s new striker doesn’t desperately need to be a brilliant header of the ball – even if it’s a welcome quality to have

Heavily mentioned among the qualities the new centre-forward will need is someone with excellent ability in the air. But why? When you go out searching for a striker who has excellent capabilities with his head, you often find yourself stumbling across someone who specialises in heading the ball, with the rest secondary.

The thing is, that isn’t how Arsenal play. This team likes to get the ball on the ground, overload in wide areas, build triangles, play high up the pitch, and zip the ball across the park. If the question was asked last season when Mikel Arteta went down the bemusing 20+ crosses per match ploy, then perhaps this quality would be more important.

Arsenal have their way of playing and need someone who can complement that as well as take it to another level, not prompt a change. The primary qualities desired in the summer’s striker acquisition are link-up play, speed, clever first and secondary movements, and solid technical craft.

Of course someone who can head the ball would be welcome, especially with Kieran Tierney’s excellent delivery always an option, yet it’s far from the most necessary characteristic. Besides, if you are a striker playing at the highest level of club football then you should be at least adept with your head anyway. Unless you are a 5’9″ Frenchman, that is.

Yet even Lacazette is ‘good’ with his head, you just never see it because he can’t reach above towering Premier League centre-backs.

If Arsenal can source the striker they sorely need and he happens to be strong at getting the ball in the back of the net with his forehead then it’s a huge bonus. What it shouldn’t be is where the search stems around. Osimhen is one such striker who has many of the desirable tools, with the added benefit of strong aerial ability.

But as a quality, for a team that whose style is built around the ball being on the floor, it’s not the be-all and end-all.