There’s one game that sticks in the mind when discussing Mauro Icardi.
It’s October 2017 and Inter and AC Milan are going head-to-head in Serie A. Icardi touches the ball just 24 times – the lowest amount of any Nerazzurri starter – but scores three goals, including a dramatic stoppage-time winner.
That was Icardi in a nutshell. He could disappear into thin air for 89 minutes before popping up and rifling a tap-in into the roof of the net.
In an era where centre-forwards are expected to do far more than bundle the ball across the line before soaking up the adulation, Icardi feels like something of a nostalgia-inducing throwback.
A salt-water crocodile of a footballer. A relic from a by-gone age, utterly unchanged yet still an apex predator capable of striking fear into anyone who crosses his path.
Give Icardi a chance and watch him slam it into the net. Just don’t expect him to do anything else. Run the channels? You can forget all about that. Bring team-mates into play? You must be joking.
As pointed out by Squawka, Icardi touched the ball just 13 times during PSG’s Champions League clash with Manchester City last year. Less than both goalkeepers managed.
“In Italy, I was criticised a lot,” Icardi himself admitted to DAZN. “Because I only touched the ball a few times
“But, to be honest, my game has always been like this. Staying in the shadows and then appearing at the right moment.”
Are Arsenal right to snub Mauro Icardi?
Claims made by David Ornstein in The Athletic that Arsenal turned down the chance to swap Icardi for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the January transfer window may send the nut-infested fruitcakes at ‘AFTV’ into a feather-spitting rampage.
Especially when you consider that Arsenal have scored just twice in their last six games. A lack of cutting edge in the final third cost them an FA Cup run, a place in the EFL Cup final and, potentially, a Champions League place to boot.
But, when you consider the way Aubameyang’s Arsenal career ended, it’s no surprise the Gunners turned their noses up at Icardi too. Sometimes, the beggar can be choosy and rightfully so.
Arteta would frequently deploy Alexandre Lacazette as a number nine, often shunting Aubameyang out wide.
Yes, Lacazette is nowhere near as lethal in the final third as his former captain. Those dreadful misses against Wolves on Thursday are proof of that. But what he lacks in ruthlessness, he makes up for in work-rate, hold-up play and stellar off-the-ball work.
Lacazette will leave Arsenal as a free-agent in July. But the players reportedly lined up to replace him – Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Alvaro Morata and Alexander Isak – are more Lacazette than Aubameyang. They offer so much more than a predatory instinct from ten yards out.
La Liga’s second highest goalscorer behind Karim Benzema, De Tomas has been praised by Spain boss Luis Enrique for his work-rate, pressing ability and defensive awareness (La Liga Lowdown).
Three attributes that Arteta loves in Lacazette.
Who will be Arsenal’s new striker?
Arsenal’s next number nine must be a goalscorer, yes, but someone as adapt outside the box as he is inside it. In that sense, Icardi would have felt like a square peg in a round hole. Like casting Vince Vaughn in a 1990s Psycho remake.
And, just in case you were wondering, no, that did not go particularly well.
Icardi and Aubameyang are similar in style. Too similar, as far as Arsenal are concerned. And that’s without mentioning their penchant for off-the-field distractions.
One suspects Mikel Arteta has little interest in ‘Keeping up with the Icardashians’.
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