Given the fair sentiments above and the fact that the top clubs are greedy, having all the best goal scorers sewn up. Maybe we should forget about buying another and put all our money into helping Gallagher get to Qatar by playing at Palace next season.

I think they are both PL standard given the right service. Mateta running off the ball is very good. If you have an odd £100m flying around perhaps we can improve.
This season has been a transition and we finished 12th and got to semi final, what more to people want? I am more than happy although frustrated about the late points we lost. Give them time it’s down to experience

Edited by Spiderman (27 May 2022 5.10pm)

Edited by Spiderman (27 May 2022 5.11pm)

I think a lot depends on Benteke and Eddie Nketiah, If we go into the market to buy a striker we need Benteke off the books. He will want to play at world Cup so may be inclined to take a wage drop and go. The Eddie Nketiah saga goes on and on, there are rumours he may stay at the Gunners but he seems PV's first choice so who knows.

We have had a number of big men as our CF over last few years and none have made the position there own. They can't all have been rubbish, the fact is our supply to them is poor and they are not playing to there strengths.

Wilf is not a striker, his conversion rate is very low, he is a winger who scores goals. I am not saying we don't need that but he rarely passes to a colleague in a better position but has a go himself. Players like Benteke do not make chances they convert them so we need an Andy Johnson type striker who can make and convert chances and play as a team member

My opinion is that we don’t need another striker at the minute. Edouard has a lot more to offer and is worth sticking with for another season. Mateta has got so much better over the season that if he got a few goals on the bounce he could score plenty more.

Totally agree I thought that when he played there , I still would like to see them both play together but we wont play 4 up front sadly , getting a prem striker ask the other 15 clubs that we match with , thats there dream to so we get lucky every now and then with a 20+ striker , I would love Wilf with 11 Matata 15 Edouard 15 Olise 10 thats 51 with them 4 so 20+ striker not a must but it does help

Quite agree - think a "holistic" approach is most informative.

Looking at last season I'd have said that the hole in our side was the comparative paucity of goals from the right - where we had Ayew stationed for much of the time - and not centrally. It also shouldn't be forgotten that Gallagher got 8 goals playing in an advanced central position - frequently in areas where you'd expect the CF to be.

I haven't done it but I imagine the "wagon wheel" of our goals would show a significant imbalance to the left and centre. If we can improve our output from the right then theoretically we should be more productive. But then of course we'll need to replace - presumably - the goals from a late arriving mid in the box.

An additional thought here is that improving the range of areas we threaten from also improves our likely goal output. It was still the case - in my head anyway - that we became too easy to defend against when it was Zaha on the left and Ayew on the right just because the the likely threat was too easy to predict. Add an Olise on the left and then it becomes a much trickier defence to organise as you cannot immediately double mark down one side.