Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger recently stated that he would only be looking to bring in strikers who are better than the current crop of players he has. Speaking to Sky Sports, the Frenchman stated: “The players we buy have to be better.”
The biggest thing to come out from the conference was the fact that Wenger believed that Alexis Sanchez could do a job which was similar to what Luis Suarez did at Liverpool and what the Uruguayan striker is doing at the moment in Barcelona.
Wenger had stated that Sanchez can play as the striker, especially during Olivier Giroud’s absence from the team. “He has similar qualities [to Suarez],” said Wenger, who did try to sign Suarez from Liverpool but was pegged back for not spending enough on the first bid.
“And he has a good timing to run behind the defenders.”
There might be a number of people who would scoff at this suggestion but Alexis Sanchez and Luis Suarez aren’t all that different to be honest. When Sanchez first came to the club, and even now when he does play for the Gunners, there is a fire in him which isn’t in most of the players in the Premier League.
Alexis Sanchez has the tenacity and willingness to run for almost everything, even if it is a lost cause. This seems to be a South American trait and something that Luis Suarez has consistently shown right from his days at Ajax till now at Barcelona.
The other thing that really does make them quite similar is the fact that they both are willing to take the ball up to create something for the team. In that incredible Liverpool team which almost won the league title, it was Suarez who was in the heart of everything good and was running back and starting attacks for the team, something that the Chilean at Arsenal has done a lot of times.
The pair don’t even want to miss games for the club and are willing to play even when not fit. That might be a bit of an issue in the long run but this is the kind of passion needed in this day and age of football.
Sanchez does have a bit of an issue though and that is with his consistency, while Suarez has gone on from strength to strength and even when playing for a club like Barcelona, where he is not the biggest star in the team, he is still performing, Sanchez has often gone missing when the club have needed him the most.
His inconsistency in front of goal is another problem for the Gunners but this is something which he can work on. Sanchez needs to be paired with someone who can do some of the goal scoring as well, which is something that has worked incredibly well for Luis Suarez over years and maybe with another star striker in the side, who can take off some of the pressure from the Chilean, Sanchez can thrive in the club and become one of the best strikers ever to have put on the Red of Arsenal.