Brian Brobbey: The Missing Piece in Arsenal's Attack?

This week, reports have linked Arsenal with Ajax's Brian Brodley as a potential incoming striker to ease the burden on our current attackers and get us that much closer to having a more competitive squad and fighting Manchester City for this Premier League title. Reports also state Mikel Arteta is keen to do his business early once again this summer so that our players can have a full pre-season and obviously get to grips with what he demands from a tactical point of view. Brian Brodley himself has not exactly talked down a move to Arsenal or any other club for that matter. He's been linked with Arsenal and Manchester United primarily. With 22 goals and 12 assists in 43 appearances at the age of only 22, in a day and age where the market for forwards, let's face it, isn't that great, he's bound to get some attention and some sort of spotlight. He's also scored 12 goals in his first season at Ajax and it feels like the 22-year-old has been around for a while people, which in this day and age you could argue he's a veteran. He burst on the scene as an 18-year-old. Life has come full circle because as we know he did depart Ajax and he has returned since making his debut as an 18-year-old under Eric Ten Haag, who once again has been linked with also leaving Manchester United but has been linked with a move for the Ajax individual. As I said, he did leave Ajax initially to join Leipzig on a free transfer but headed back to Ajax after it didn't quite frankly work out. Since then his stocks have gone up personally or from a personal point of view, while for his team Ajax they languish in fifth and it's been a disappointing season for that football club and the giant that they are. For a Dutch player though, I must say I don't think his technical level is that great. Yes, there are some fundamentals that probably will not change in his game but I still think he's young enough to polish up on a few things. It sounds crazy of someone that's scored a lot of goals but I think his decision-making, his finishing, his first touch, these are quite raw and it kind of goes against the grain of what you would expect from a player that has been honed in the Dutch sort of way of footballing education and also through the Ajax system. He does appear to be very service-reliant as a forward in my opinion. That's not to say he can't make his own goals and he's not a good player. I can only comment on what I see and by no stretch of the imagination do I know this individual religiously. I've seen a fair bit of him however. Once again people, he's only 22 but he has 119 Ajax appearances across his two spells and in total he has 49 goals people. 22 came this season so I beg the question, is he ready? Also of the 19 assists he's got at Ajax, 12 also came this season. To be fair to him though, he did score 14 goals the season before in all comps and got four assists people. And to be fair the season before that, 2021-22, he played 28 times as a youngster and got eight goals and four assists. So there is some sort of foundation. To be honest the move to Leipzig didn't work out. Maybe he was not built for the higher leagues or that next step in his development at that particular time. Who knows people? Once again I do beg the question, is he too much of a service reliant striker? As we know goals are what a striker should do but in the modern day they need to contribute so much more. And a key part of being a forward under Mikel Arteta is all the other actions and aspects that go into being a modern day forward rather than necessarily scoring goals. We live in a day and age where our first attacker is David Riera, our goalkeeper, while our first defender arguably is between Kai Havertz at this moment who's playing as the number one and other guard behind him. Is he able to do all of the other facets? I do admit there is a good foundation but I don't personally believe he is the answer. I would not be against it but again let me know your thoughts but allow me to progress people. What I think we should do is compare him ironically to a degree to Isaac who I don't think Arsenal are going to sign but he's been linked with us and also Gabriel Jesus. Now of course people when you're looking at data and statistics some of it is going to be screwed by potential dynamics such as players being fit, minutes available and indirectly the narrative around those clubs at the time. So you can't just take data in isolation for Gospel. Would you argue firstly his XG is extremely high at this moment in time and again you earn that by being a good footballer. When you look at his shooting actions don't get me confused. There is a great sort of foundation but once again it's not exactly eye-catching. His shots stand at 84 compared to Isaac's 72. When you look at the shots on target percentage it's very high for Isaac at 50% versus Brian Brodley's 47% which shows probably that Isaac is a more polished forward. In that regard Gabriel Jesus does lag behind. As we know he's not exactly a shot-hungry kind of forward. When you look at the passes on the face of it, it does look like his passing matches Gabriel Jesus' and Isaac's loosely based on the fact he has a 78% pass completion rate. But I'd implore you to look deeper people. When you look at passing distance which is a fancy term for literally the range of his passing, it ranks at 5,032 versus 5,315 from Jesus. Despite playing several games less, Isaac stands at 5,446. His progressive passing distance is 554 versus Isaac's 1,186 versus Gabriel Jesus' 971. So again he lags behind in probably what we want in terms of Arsenal in that we want a striker who's a cool, calm, collected and a killer in goal in front of goal but is also someone that's able to be involved in a couple other facets. Now to be fair to him as I said data without context doesn't mean much. Isaac is older than him, Isaac is more experienced and he's obviously a better technical player. Gabriel Jesus is significantly more experienced and as I said the man's 22. He does have a wealth of experience but again they're at different stages relative to their careers and there could be a lot of upside with him. Now with all of that being said now ask yourself is that is this someone that can replicate what we need loosely from a striker in a Mikel Arteta system? Now again you might have noticed I was saying some of them weren't them letters a bit booky letters and numbers. You know I'm not the data man allow me it's a football thing. I'm trying to edit this thing for you look so make sure you smash the like button and let me know your thoughts. As I said ask yourself is this someone that could potentially replicate what Mikel Arteta demands? You know because one consistency with Trossart, with Havertz, with Gabriel Jesus is that you know you can ask the question can they score more goals, will they score enough goals etc but they can all have a good game without necessarily scoring. Now of course you could apply that to Brian it wouldn't be fair to suggest anything else but again with what our eyes show us and are showing you in this video and painting a picture with the data to go with I'm not too sure people and in many ways people you know again this could also be a beneficial sort of thing for probably because you know where you lose the kind of aspects that Mikel Arteta demands you might gain in terms of someone just putting the ball in the back of the net a lot more. His medium passing scores don't look much promising for that matter either. When you look at defensive options and actions better yet people to be fair to him he can to a degree while I think he can improve he is holding his own when you consider tackles in the middle and attacking third of the pitch people in comparison to others. I do one thing I like about him is he stands at 5.11 he does offer you know a kind of physical outlet someone that we could play off and knock the ball long to him similar to what you've seen potentially with Kai Havertz deployed at times and he is quite he's okay in the air even though I think it can improve physically he's a handful so he can act as a focal point he does rarely get injured people but can he retain possession you know I'm not asking him to be expansive but can he retain possession to the standard we need it by versus just the basic kind of traditional forward I don't know. When you look at goal and shot creation people he does like to get shots off we do say we want a player who is trigger happy to a degree in that regard so I guess it's a case of a trade-off possession for me you know his touches in the middle third and final third are positive so there are some intangibles here and he takes a lot more touches in the final third than the rest but again could this imply that he is a service-reliant forward versus someone that you know is a bit more technically gifted and can kind of make their own luck which as we know every striker is it is a service-reliant people I think he is a good player with a good future but I think he is very raw and needs a lot of work but at 22 this could be a player that you look at two years from now and think why didn't you take the chance and I think there's a lot of technical concerns people and it's weird because as I said at the start of this video for someone who is a Dutch player and has come through the Ajax system he is a bit unconventional in that regards to be fair we have been linked with youngster Hatto we did sign Timber we did make an attempt to sign Lissandro Martinez from Ajax so maybe that's a sort of thing that we're looking to do and you would imagine through scouting other players and just looking for strikers in general we ran the rule over over Brian in this regards people you know so you'd imagine we know exactly what we like about him and don't like about him I don't think his link-up play is of the standard we require I think he's effective as a goal scorer I do think you know he needs to develop that ability to kind of make better decisions in the final third when to go down blind alleys when to shoot etc etc that would make him more of a complete board and I guess ultimately it's mad though someone that has scored the goals he has scored this season but consistency like many young players you know maintaining that higher level of consistency is going to be challenging so is this his first standout and breakout season where he's here to stay and go up the levels or is this a purple patch who knows nobody knows unless you can look into the future people when you look at it as well one thing that could be beneficial to him is I don't know how swayed Arsenal have been with Kai Havertz's form particular up front in 2024 will Arsenal be looking at some striker that immediately upgrades and is a curtain raiser for our you know our striking position or will it be someone that could grow to do that in time and you could argue we need a curtain raiser you could argue that a rotation option you know a stronger body that can carry a significant amount of goals according to the minutes neither would be a bad sort of direction to go down people at 22 he has a decent education a decent foundation Mikel Arteta has shown he is a player who a manager apologies who can develop talents people so who knows I wouldn't be against it I'd give everybody a chance I just personally feel there's probably some better options to explore on the market but as I said you never know the striker market is scarce people and this is without talking about what his potential price tag would be people once again he hasn't played quite on potentially leaving Ajax at the end of the season but whether people are putting bids down who knows and you'd imagine with his form he'll be in the Dutch squad for the euro so he's another player that's been linked with a move that will be playing at the euro so we'll get to run the rule over him with that being said people let me know your thoughts on the video let me know your thoughts on the player don't forget to like comment and subscribe we're on a journey to 60 000 as I'm making this video I'm off to edit another one for you lot so make sure your notification bells are on your liking your commenting and subscribing most importantly stay safe stay blessed peace