Zirkzee, Eze, Olise and more

This article was originally published on the Daily Briefing, a subscription service. If you would like to receive Charles Watts’ exclusive articles via email ahead of publication on caughtoffside.com, please sign-up for the service at thedailybriefing.io

There’s a long list of strikers who have been linked to Arsenal ahead of the summer window. Some are real big hitters, such as Alexander Isak at Newcastle and Victor Osimhen at Napoli, but there are some who are slightly less well known, with Joshua Zirkzee at Bologna one of those.

He’s a forward Arsenal have been keeping tabs on according to some well sourced reports. Arsenal’s interest in Zirkzee was first broken back in January by Sam Dean at the Daily Telegraph and it’s a link that continues to bubble away as we head towards the summer. He’s an interesting player, one who looks destined for a big move soon.

I can’t pretend to be an expert on him, he’s not someone I’ve seen a lot of, but he’s clearly got a lot of potential and would add something to Arsenal’s squad that they don’t really have in attack. Whether he would move the needle enough for Arsenal though at this point I’m not sure.

I feel Arsenal are at a point now where any big money signings really need to come in and improve the squad immediately and I’m not sure Zirkzee does that. It would be a case of buying potential and while there is always room for that, Arsenal really need a forward who will come in and hit the ground running. That’s why I still feel they should throw everything at getting Isak out of Newcastle.

I think either Eberechi Eze or Michael Olise would be a perfect fit for Arsenal this summer. I know the club is looking for a new attacking player who could add a bit of X-Factor to the team, someone who can come in and make something out of nothing.

We’ve seen Arsenal struggle at times against the low block this season. I think back to the second leg against Bayern in the Champions League and they were protecting their lead by dropping deep in those final 25 minutes. Arsenal just didn’t have anyone on the pitch that night who looked like pulling something unexpected out of the bag and opening them up. Someone like Eze or Olise could do that, especially the latter, as we saw in particular with his dazzling performance as Palace surprisingly thrashed Manchester United 4-0 last night.

I do look at Olise and wonder if he is an Arteta type player. He’s perhaps a bit too individualistic for the…