Cesc Fabregas wants Arsenal to sign striker with a more direct approach

Posted Tuesday, December 08, 2009 by theguardian.com

• Midfielder believes club need player like Didier Drogba
• Wenger promises to scour January transfer market

Cesc Fabregas wants Arsenal to sign striker with a more direct approach
The Arsenal midfielder, Cesc Fabregas, insists the club would benefit by signing striker with a more direct style.

Cesc Fabregas has told Arsène Wenger that Arsenal require "a different kind of option" up front as the squad lacks variation in attack. Wenger has promised to scour the January transfer market for a striker to compensate for the loss of Robin van Persie, who is out for five months with torn ankle ligaments, and Fabregas, the captain, has suggested that the club would benefit if any new signing had a more direct style. Most of Wenger's attacking threats prefer to drop deep or wide to play.

"Throughout the game [at Manchester City in the 3-0 Carling Cup defeat last Wednesday], we had a lot of possession but didn't really have anyone to go in behind the defenders, apart from Carlos Vela," Fabregas said. "We had a lot of similar players who like the ball into their feet. Sometimes it's true that you need a different kind of option."

Fabregas need only look across London to see the striker who he rates as the finest in the world. Didier Drogba was at his muscular, destructive best in orchestrating Chelsea's 3-0 Premier League win at the Emirates on the Sunday before last. What Fabregas would give for a similar player at Arsenal.

"Overall, I saw a Chelsea team that was normal but a team that has probably the best striker in the world, and that makes such a difference‚" Fabregas said. "An average team that has the best striker in the world can always do something and Didier Drogba makes all the difference to them. Without him, their team would not be the same. Perhaps we had the same kind of problem against Chelsea as the boys had at Manchester City, not really having someone whose game is to go beyond defenders, and we were a little small to fight against them on crosses, too."

Fabregas, who also warned his teammates that they "cannot afford any more slip-ups", will be one of a host of big names who will not travel to Athens today for the final Champions League Group H fixture against Olympiakos tomorrow night. Arsenal are assured of advancing to the knockout phase as group winners and so Wenger will take the opportunity to blood some of his younger players.

It is expected that more than half of his 18-man travelling party will be teenagers, with the majority plucked from the reserve-team squad. It is a measure of the makeshift nature of the selection that Mikaël Silvestre is likely to be named as the captain. Manuel Almunia, William Gallas, Thomas Vermaelen, Andrey Arshavin, Samir Nasri and Denilson are among the available regulars who will stay behind. Theo Walcott, though, has recovered from a hamstring injury and should play.