Paul Doswell manager of Sutton United and ex-Arsenal player and pundit Paul Merson in discussion during a Sutton United FA Cup media day. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)
Kai Havertz’s injury at Arsenal’s Dubai training camp couldn’t have come at a worse time, but former player, Paul Merson, has slammed the club for what they’re planning to do next.
There are at least five potential free agents that could replace the German, and transfer expert, Fabrizio Romano, has commented that Mikel Arteta is determined to find solutions to the current striker crisis.
Kai Havertz fall out of Arsenal’s own making
A crisis of their own making it has to be said.
The Gunners had ample opportunity to enter the transfer market in January, knowing that a more natural centre-forward would arguably help them in their efforts in hunting down Premier League leaders, Liverpool.
That they decided against so doing has quickly come back to haunt them, and left the first-team management clutching at straws as to how they best progress from this point.
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One suggestion was for the club to use Mikel Merino as an auxiliary front man, but that’s been met with short shrift by Merson.
“Not in my book it won’t, not in my book. I don’t like that,” he said on Sky Sports News when asked if it was a solution that could work.
Solutions for Kai Havertz replacement needed quickly
“I’d probably play Sterling up there. I’d give Sterling a couple of games up there and I say that because of his movement.
“He can move, Sterling, and he can spread the team, take them that way. As soon as the game starts becoming compact and tight, it plays into other people’s hands.”
With 14 games left of the current season and the Gunners now seven points behind Liverpool after the Reds drew at Goodison Park in the final Merseyside derby, clearly whatever is decided upon has to be put into practice quickly to ensure that it works sufficiently well.