British media are pondering how London’s Arsenal will solve a serious personnel problem that has arisen in the team’s attack line: the main striker of the Gunners, Kai Havertz, has suffered a hamstring tear and will miss the remainder of the current season.
The main candidate to replace Havertz is Leandro Trossard, but he alone is clearly not enough to fully fill the gap that has emerged.
In this regard, the publication “Arsenal Insider” made a bold prediction that Arsenal’s head coach Mikel Arteta may decide to use Ukrainian legionnaire Alexander Zinchenko in the attack, who has always been used as a nominal left-back for the Gunners, but this season lost competition at his position to Riccardo Calafiori, Jurriën Timber, and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Here’s how the publication justifies this assumption.
“Trossard is the most likely replacement for Havertz, although the Belgian will not be able to play constantly and always. Therefore, it will be necessary to look for an alternative option.
An unexpected candidate for the role of Trossard's backup may be Alexander Zinchenko. He started his career as a central striker, which he himself mentioned in an interview.
Zinchenko does not have the real data to play as a ‘nine.’ But considering the desperate nature of the situation Arsenal finds itself in, it is not so absurd to think that the Ukrainian national team player may play in the attack for some time. Zinchenko, with his high technical quality and exceptional passing ability, could be the ideal choice to fill this position in the closing stages of the game.
He will not act like a traditional ‘nine’, but he will provide technical security and the ability to keep the ball high on the field when the situation in the game requires it.
This is certainly not an ideal solution in the long run, but Zinchenko as a forward is far from the worst option left for Arteta,” the media wrote.