Is Michy Batshuayi the Complete Striker Arsenal Lust For?
As if Arsenal’s striking conundrum needed another dramatic twist or intriguing turn, reports emerging from Mercato365 (h/t Metro) suggest manager Arsene Wenger has his eye on a young Belgian striker by the name of Michy Batshuayi.
On a weekly basis, Wenger furrows his brow and chooses between Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud up front. He has two players at his disposal who are opposites in nearly every way: Walcott runs the channels, stretches the pitch and gets in behind; Giroud plays with his back to goal, holds the ball, creates with his feet and heads well.
In an ideal world, if it were viable, Wenger would likely play 4-4-2 and have them both feed off each other—a sentiment B/R’s Arsenal correspondent James McNicholas put forth here—but that’s never really been an option for the Frenchman in the Premier League.
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Instead, Arsenal seem perpetually in search of a player who can combine the two’s duties and play the role of the complete forward to an elite standard. Despite Walcott’s obvious maturation as a player in 2015, it feels as though the Gunners would still nab Real Madrid's Karim Benzema if he were available. If a more cost-effective option is out there, they’d probably consider that too.
This season, the pendulum has swung in favour of Walcott. He appears to be have displaced Giroud and taken the title of Arsenal’s prime No. 9, starting five of eight Premier League games so far and putting in a stunning performance against Manchester United during the 3-0 win last time out.
But questions abound over whether Walcott, despite drastic improvement, is good enough to lead the Gunners to a Premier League title. Speaking in May, perhaps pre-empting 2015-16’s early success, Wenger said, per the Independent: “The quality of his runs is so fantastic with the pace he has, and he is a good finisher now. He can be transformed. He is naturally gifted and can play in this position."
But Wenger loves a pet project—especially one involving a change of position (see: Thierry Henry, Emmanuel Petit and Santi Cazorla)—and some fans feel he’s focused too heavily on moulding Walcott and missed opportunities to purchase world-class, readily available fixes.
Is Batshuayi one of them?
A shade under 6’, the Belgian is close to the ideal height for a striker of his ilk. He’s built lean with muscle, has an elastic quality about him and boasts remarkable core agility.
His somatotype fits his playing style; there’s very little wasted movement. He’s strong and fast, and he's quick and deceptive with his feet. Thanks to a rare combination of physical attributes, he’s the sort of player many would be quick to label “complete”—at least in a biological sense.
One of his finest traits is his tenacity, his willingness to get up and close with his marker, lure him in close and beat him. He has the short-area quickness and the speed over long distances to dupe any defender, and his balance is very good. Perhaps most impressive here is his ability to wall off tacklers with his frame and squeeze shots away despite being jostled.
His ability to turn on a sixpence and open up the pitch for himself is a game-changer; one second he’s heading left, then bang! He’s turned inside and unleashed a blistering shot on goal from a well-earned yard of space. He quickens play and ups the tempo of games naturally. There are times when he can look a little chaotic, when he’s trying to do too much, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.
In and around the penalty box, he’s quickly developed into a mature and instinctive finisher. His movement in the box is excellent: He’s able to draw defenders away, nip into space, hang on the shoulder and position himself well to receive cutbacks and crosses. He likes a close-range tap-in and, ideally, will ask for a firm low cross into the six-yard box that he can turn home.
Batshuayi isn’t quite two-footed—not by Cazorla’s standards—but he’s able with both pegs, and his heading skills are rapidly improving too. He’s able to split centre-backs and full-backs with good early runs in anticipation of early crosses, and he’s adept at brushing the ball home.
But at 22 years of age, he’s no finished product; there are areas of his game that need work, no doubt, and given the prices quoted—a bid of £22 million has already reportedly been rejected—it might be enough to put Arsenal off for the time being.
There are times when Batshuayi can appear very selfish, when he’s trying to do far too much on his own. He’s guilty of head-down dribbles at times, and if he’s in the box on the ball, he at times tries to engineer remarkable, weaving sequences in which he takes on three players and squeezes a shot off rather than opting for the simple ball or cross, then re-entering the mix as a potential finisher of the return ball.
Aerially, he’s very strong when given space but, understandably, has yet to develop any form of dominant streak against centre-backs who are taller, stronger and more positionally astute than him. He has plenty of time to hone his skills in this area, but it should be noted Batshuayi is heavily weighted toward the explosive, speedy side as it stands.
Arsenal fans want a complete, world-class striker who can tip them over the edge and finally allow them to compete with the likes of Manchester City for the Premier League title on a sustained basis. Walcott and Giroud are like chalk and cheese despite playing the same position, and ideally, a combination of the two would be perfect.
Those are exceptionally hard to find, and they generally cost upward of £30 million. The prudent Wenger is unlikely to drop that amount of money on someone unless they are already world-class (see: Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil), meaning Batshuayi—at a cost seemingly more than £25 million—would be something of a gamble.
He’s no complete striker, can be a tiny bit erratic and has an irritating selfish streak, but Batshuayi has all of the raw physical and technical ingredients to become a truly world-class striker. Predatory instincts run in his family—his brother, Aaron Leya Iseka of Anderlecht, is one of the finest young striking talents of his generation—and it seems very likely Batshuayi’s steep northward career trajectory will continue.
As the main man in Marseille’s attack post-Andre-Pierre Gignac, his talents are readily available for viewing across the planet on a weekly basis, and thanks to a goalscoring debut for the Belgium senior side back in March, he stands as one of the most open secrets in world football.
Wenger would need to move swiftly and pay big bucks to snare this young talent, but he’s no immediate fix, and he’s no upgrade on Walcott or Giroud. Yet.
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