The frustrating search for a striker has extended for longer than what Arsenal would have wanted. In the past 12 months, Arsenal have been linked with nearly every top striker on the continent, but have yet been able to capture a specified target.
Top players such as Gonzalo Higuain and Luis Suarez were heavily linked with moves to the Emirates, but both moves failed to materialise.
Oliver Giroud, who has showed promise, has improved on his first season at the club and has done a good job at leading the line for Arsenal, not only with his 19 goals, but also with his assists and hold up play which Arsenal’s midfield in particular, have benefited from.
The 27-year-old has had his critics, but it’s unfair for the burden to lay solely with the French international. Not only is the former Montpellier man drained from playing almost every game for Arsenal. The lack of competition for his place probably hasn’t helped his desire as the season has progressed and as we’ve seen with the top sides in Europe, healthy competition for starting berths is a hall-mark of title-winning sides.
At times, Arsenal have not only lacked depth, they also lacked variety upfront and offer little threat on the counter attack with the lack of pace they have in the team.
With injuries hampering Arsenal’s season, the plans for next year’s rebuild will surely be underway.
With that in my mind, Arsenal should look to Serie A, a breeding ground for world class strikers when you consider that recently, Edinson Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic both learnt their trades in Serie A.
Despite the league’s decline, it’s a hard league to adapt to and one player who hasn’t had trouble doing so, is Luis Muriel, a 22-year-old Colombian who has been dazzling defences for the last three seasons in Serie A.
Here’s the lowdown on the Colombian.
Background
Born in the Santo Tomás region in Atlántico, Colombia in 1991, it’s inevitable for young Colombian boys to instantly fall in love with football as soon as they can walk. That’s the case for this particular player and his football journey began at Atletico Junior, a club located in the Barranquilla region.
He didn’t spend long there as his talents were quickly noticed by a bigger club called Deportivo Cali. Yet again, the forward was fast-tracked to the first team and it wasn’t long before Udinese’s famed South-American scouting system (which has previously noticed Barcelona’s Chilean, Alexis Sanchez among others) had once again paid off. Luis Muriel’s 9 goals in 10 games as an 18-year-old was enough to convince the Italians to pay €1.5M for his services.
He arrived in Italy too raw and inexperienced for the first-team, so Udinese sent him on his first of two loan spells, the former in Spain with Granada.
The loan spell was designed to give Muriel a taste of European football and the fact that Granada and Udinese are both owned by Italian businessmen Gianpaolo Pozzo, meant the Italians could easily keep track of their young striker in Spain.
The Colombian was used as a reinforcement rather than a starter, but his talents were obvious when he was given the chance and he did manage to display a glimpse of his skill with an audacious “panenka” penalty, in a shoot-out for the southerners.
A 19-year-old Muriel arrived back in Italy only to go out on loan again, only this time closer to his parent club, at Lecce.
The Serie A strugglers look doomed from day one in Serie A with their only attacking threats coming from the exciting duo of Luis Muriel and fellow Colombian Juan Cuadrado (now of Fiorentina).
Luis Muriel had a license to try and penetrate opposition defenses alone and he didn’t too bad considering. He managed to score against the likes of Napoli, Inter Milan and scored a brace against Roma during his spell, where he showed pace and skill and didn’t shirk the responsibility of being the leading man at Lecce despite his tender age.
Inevitably, Lecce were relegated from Serie A but Udinese were eager to introduce Muriel to the Udinese set-up partnering him with veteran Antonio Di Natale up front – a partnership which on paper, looked one of the most dangerous striker partnerships in the league.
Udinese were traditionally over-achievers, but things didn’t go to plan for Francesco Guidolin’s team in the first half of the season. Muriel had suffered a hamstring injury which kept him on the sidelines until late 2012, but once the Colombian returned to action, the results were devastating.
Nobody could live with Muriel and Udinese were almost unstoppable and ended the season with an eight-game winning streak where Luis Muriel tore apart the defenses of Inter Milan and Parma, playing slightly deeper, behind Antonio Di Natale. The form of Muriel and Udinese’s stunning end to the season meant the club finished in an impressive 5th place.
Everybody expected Muriel to tear apart the league in 2013/14, but yet again, the striker has had a recurring injury problem which has meant we have only been treated to glimpses of the Colombian.
Playing Style
The Colombian isn’t a traditional centre-forward, he much prefers the ball at his feet rather than loiter around the penalty area. He cites his idol as former Real Madrid forward Ronaldo.
He has his own style and he plays a little deeper than the Brazilian, but he does share similarities with his idol. For one, the pair both share the same stocky and compact physique.
But more importantly, it’s his incredible dribbling and the ability to wangle his way out of tight situations that really resemble Ronaldo. When Muriel travels with the ball it can look like he is running into a Calder-sack until he somehow finds ways to dart in between opposition defenders.
Luis Muriel is a rare breed of footballer than can look dangerous despite having the ball 40 yards from goal. His pace is unrivalled and can create something out of nothing when dribbling. The Colombian devours the grass with or without the ball while the defenders chasing him, are made to look like they’re running up hill as Muriel glistens across the turf, causing havoc for defenders.
Perhaps his ability and willingness to try the spectacular is best epitomized with his stunning piece of skill vs. Napoli while on loan at Lecce. The striker was ushered away by a Lazio defender towards the byline, with his back to goal. Nothing worthwhile looked like it would come of the situation, perhaps a corner at best, but Muriel had other ideas. The Colombian halted and flicked the ball around the Napoli defender with his heel and retrieved it the other side leaving the defender perplexed. The Colombian had the vision to pull the ball back to a teammate in the penalty box, but unfortunately, nothing came of it – it deserved a goal at the end of it.
The striker has had injury problems (which makes him even more perfect for Arsenal), but once the Colombian is firing on all cylinders, the results are devastating, which the majority of Serie A defenders can testify to.
His mentor at Udinese, Francesco Guidolin has done a good job polishing Muriel’s game, ridding him of some unwanted south-American traits, such as his negligence of his defensive duties and tendencies to hang on to the ball for too long. The striker is getting a good education in Italy and has become a better all-round footballer.
Muriel doesn’t let his age affect him and is willing to take responsibility and be the focal point of his team and has an end product to finish what he initiates. He is aware of how good he is.
He has the ability to create chances out of nothing, which is something Arsenal desperately lack when things aren’t going for them. Rather than just pass the ball around the final third with no urgency, they would have a striker capable of penetrating deep defences.
It’s fashionable for teams to play with just one striker, but that provides another advantage of signing Muriel. He has the ability to play centrally, or alternatively, he can play with a partner or even out wide in a front three.
It’s probably wise to leave Muriel with fewer defensive duties, but his pace and directness make him tactically versatile and also makes him compatible with a number of different combinations at Arsenal.
Arsenal are blessed with so many players that can thread the ball through the eye of a needle, but they lack the runners to aim for. Muriel and Özil in the same team is a dream combination that could unlock the tightest of defences.
It is early days in his career, but the Colombian could go on to be Arsenal’s answer to Luis Suarez.
Criticism
There is no standout criticism with Muriel in terms of his ability. He is still raw and there’s no doubt he needs to improve and become more consistent, but that will come with age. After all, he is still just 22-years-old.
He isn’t the best in the air, but Arsenal aren’t a team that utilize players with heading ability and Arsenal already have the strapping duo of Olivier Giroud and Yaya Sanogo who tick that box for the Gunners.
Perhaps the one concern you would have with Muriel, is that the Colombian has had issues with his weight (Another similarity he shares with his idol, Ronald). Francesco Guidolin is aware of this and criticized him publicly for reporting back to pre-season duty carrying a few extra-pounds.
After a preseason friendly with Arta Cedarchis, Guidolin wasn’t at all happy with Muriel’s condition despite the fact the striker had just score 4 goals in the game. He said, “If he wants to talk to me, he has to lose at least five kilos, as long as he doesn’t have an athlete’s physique he won’t be talking with me. He has to work a lot.”
In fairness to Muriel, he obliged and got himself back into shape for the season, but it’s a concern for the future that Muriel is already struggling to maintain his weight when he should be at his physical peak. He will need extra conditioning and people at the club would have to monitor what the Colombian is eating when he is at home.
Transfer Situation
Over the past year, the striker would have appeared on a number of radars of the top clubs around Europe, but in all honesty, Udinese is probably the best place for him as he still needs to develop. The striker hasn’t completed a full year of top-flight football since Lecce, albeit mainly because of injuries.
But that may not be the case, the World Cup is in the summer, and with star-striker Falcao almost certainly going to miss it, Colombia may put their faith into Muriel, especially with Porto’s Jackson Martinez out of form.
The World Cup is a good opportunity for a number of clubs to get a good look at some younger players, and the competition has a tradition of acting as a platform for a relatively unknown breakout players to show they are ready for top clubs, such as Mesut Ozil in 2010. Muriel has the talent to be that player for dark horses Colombia, who boast their strongest team since the “golden generation” that got to the 1994 world cup.
Many players have built their careers in Udine, including Mehdi Benatia, Fabio Quagliarella, Gokhan Inler, Alexis Sanchez and others and while the club will want to keep hold of their star man, they are looking to move into a new stadium and need the money, so they will sell at the right price as they normally do with their best players.
Muriel has no set release clause, but will warrant a hefty price tag believed to be in excess of €20M, which will ward off the interest of a number of clubs around the continent.
Verdict
As it stands, paying that sort of money for a player with such little experience would be a gamble, but Muriel has a ridiculous amount of potential and another club will take advantage if Arsenal don’t.
We can’t use the “there are no top strikers available” excuse forever, so Wenger may have to do what he does best and plan ahead, molding Luis Muriel into his own as he has done numerous times during his tenure.
Judging by his pursuit of a number of strikers, Arsène Wenger is aware that Olivier Giroud and Yaya Sanogo aren’t enough by themselves to compete for major honors and while only he knows who his targets are, I sincerely hope that Muriel is one of them. Under the right tutelage, the Colombian could go onto become one of the world’s best, now and in the long term.
Would you like to see Muriel in Arsenal colours?
