Team Focus: Luis Suárez And Why Arsenal Are Ready To Spend Big On The Striker
Swath aside the on-field petulance, the allegations of racial abuse aimed towards Patrice Evra and the cannibalistic traits Branislav Ivanovic was on the receiving end of and you have Luis Suárez stripped down to his purest form - a stupendous footballer. However, there are some who believe him to be more trouble than he's worth, with a number of Arsenal fans adament they don't the club to sign him.
The Gunners have been linked with a club record-breaking move for the striker this summer, amidst speculation that the player has a £40m release clause inserted into his contract. Arsenal have supposedly gone £1 better than that this week, with it reported that Suárez is keen to discuss his future with manager Brendan Rodgers on the backend of their 2-0 pre-season victory over Hyundai A-League outfit Melbourne Victory at the MCG.
Having attained an average WhoScored.com rating of 7.89, any team can understand as to why Liverpool are eager to hold onto their prized asset, especially with the player having netted 23 Premier League goals last season; only Robin van Persie (26) scored more. However, following his decision to nibble at the arm of Ivanovic, Suárez was on the receiving end of a 10-match ban, four of which he missed at the end of the last season.
Should a Premier League suitor land the striker, said team will be without Suárez for the initial six league games of the new campaign. While it’ll likely be a blow to Arsenal, especially for the amount of money they’d be splashing out on the player, it can certainly be argued that he would be worth it. After an indifferent full debut campaign in England, netting just the 11 goals over the 2011/12 season, doubling that tally has seen his list of admirers grow.
The player netted 32.4% of Liverpool’s goals over the 2012/13 campaign - only Christian Benteke (40.4%) and Michu (38.3%) had a higher individual input in their respective teams than the Uruguayan over the season. But, it wasn’t just this facet of his game that saw Suárez impress last year and on top of the five assists he picked up last year, he also executed the most key passes from open play (80) in Europe’s top five leagues over the duration of the Premier League season.
Compared to the current Arsenal squad, only Santi Cazorla (67) came closest to matching the exploits of Suárez in that respect, while Aaron Ramsey (43) was the nearest to duplicating his Spanish teammate. It’s an indication that not only would the Liverpool ace add a more innovative threat to the north London side, but also a more penetrative, attacking approach, with the directness of the striker a reason for his success for the Reds in the Premier League.
This is further evidenced in that Suárez completed the most successful Premier League dribbles (95), averaging 2.9 per game, more than every Arsenal player last season. However, his success when factoring in his attempted dribbles (255) is a lowly 37.2%; only three current Arsenal players - Gervinho (34.8%), Kieran Gibbs (30.6%) and Olivier Giroud (25%) - had a lower dribble completion percentage than Suárez. Regardless, as a collective Arsenal averaged 10.7 successful dribbles per game last year and it would be expectant that this figure would only rise should the striker secure a big money switch to the Emirates Stadium.
For a team that played the most sideways passes in the Premier League (11086) last season, it indicates that manager Arsene Wenger could utilise the direct attacking quality of Suárez for the benefit of Arsenal as they aim to end their baron trophy drought. This, it can be argued, is exactly how Liverpool looked to harness the ability of the 26-year-old, with the Merseysiders the only team to have played more forward passes (7221) than their north London counterparts (6945).
It’s hardly a surprise that Liverpool played more forward passes, thus capitalising on the striking exploits of Suárez. In netting 16 clear-cut goalscoring opportunities - only Van Persie (17) netted more - ensuring he was the focal point of the attack was pivotal to their domestic and continental campaign. That role for Arsenal last year was bestowed upon Frenchman Giroud, the player of whom scored all 11 of his Premier League goals in London.
However, while it wasn’t necessarily a poor return from a striker in his debut season in England, the fact that only Van Persie (19) missed more clear-cut chances that Giroud (18) is particularly disappointing, with the former Montpellier striker only netting four of the 22 he was presented with, a poor conversion rate of just 18.2%. Comparatively, in missing just the 14 clear-cut chances, Suárez’s converted 46.7% of his 30 clear-cut chances, a considerable improvement on Giroud.
Yet, it’s unlikely that Suárez would be brought in to take the place of the burly frontman for the new season. With Wenger favouring a 4-2-3-1 formation - a system he started with in all 38 Premier League games last year - the likelihood is that he would play in the role behind the striker, a position he may’ve filled only five times, but all of which were following the acquisition of striker Daniel Sturridge in January.
His creative and goalscoring ability will improve Arsenal as a whole and while Liverpool will be loathe to losing their star striker, it’s seemingly inevitable that he’ll be leaving Anfield before the close of the transfer window. A six-match suspension is indeed looming, but securing the signature of Suárez will certainly show a real sign of intent to their title rivals, while significantly strengthening the Gunners' already potent attack line.
