Eduardo da Silva is not like Henry

Eduardo da Silva has joined ArsenalArsenal confirm Eduardo da Silva signing 

It’s official – Eduardo da Silva is an Arsenal player. The Brazilian born Croatian has signed a four-year deal with the club after completing what is believed to be £7.5million transfer from Croatia Zagreb. Eduardo, who has been give the #9 shirt, gave his first interview as an Arsenal player and spoke of his joy at joining the club.

“Well for me it is a great honour. Not only for me but for any football player it is an honour to play for Arsenal. I was lucky it was me that they chose to sign. So I am ever so happy and I hope to fulfil their expectations.”

It is obvious he has great respect for the club and the fact that he believes he was fortunate to join Arsenal suggests he is a level-headed character. Additionally, Eduardo seems to be well aware of Arsenal’s style and believes that it will suit his game.

“Yes [their] style is my style. Arsenal play with the ball on the floor. It is all about passing the ball rather than playing long balls forward. That is why I should fit in well.”

Da Silva is a proven goalscorerNot just a goal poacher 

That should reassure the doubters who believe he might become the next Filippo Inzaghi or Roy Makaay – a goal-hungry poacher with little or no input to the team’s build-up play. In saying that, it is obvious when Eduardo mentions his footballing idol that the Brazilian’s game will mostly be about scoring goals.

“[My footballing hero is] Romario. He is the guy I look up to. To me he is an idol. There was no other like him.”

I doubt whether there has ever been a player to join the club whose football hero is such and out-and-out goalscorer. I admitted in yesterday’s post that I do not personally know a lot about Arsenal’s new signing but when you add his comments to the ones made by Croatian manager Slaven Bilic you start to get a firm idea about what Eduardo can bring to an Arsenal side that struggled last season to find the goals their dominant performances deserved.

Da Silva has already scored against England for CroatiaInventive and incisive

This is a suggestion that is backed up by Eastern European football expert Jonathan Wilson. Wilson provided some interesting opinions on the Croatian’s strengths and weaknesses and gave some indication of how Eduardo will fit into the Arsenal setup.

“He has that inventiveness and incisiveness to turn a game. A criticism levelled at Arsenal in recent seasons is that they don’t make the most of their possession, they don’t score as many goals as they should. Eduardo can provide that cutting edge.”

You really can’t argue with that. If Eduardo can provide the cutting edge that Arsenal so desperately require than he has every chance to be a success in England. And whilst a number of the Croatian readers of this blog have suggested that the step-up from the Croatian League to the English Premier League may be too much for da Silva, Wilson suggests this will not be the case.

“Slaven Bilic mentioned him to me three years ago now. He said he had someone in the Under-21s who could slot into the Manchester United side without any problems, and Bilic is a very honest bloke, he would not say something like that unless he really meant it.”

Wilson suggests da Silva and Adebayor would work well togetherDa Silva will work well with Adebayor

Perhaps the most interesting comment that Wilson made with regards to da Silva’s ability to integrate with the team is his suggestion that the Croatian is perfectly suited to Arsenal’s Togolese forward Emmanuel Adebayor.

“Eduardo is certainly not like Henry, who likes to drop deep and collect the ball. He sees his role as a scorer of goals. Some of the profiles I have read today have described Eduardo as a poacher and nothing more, but he has other qualities. He can hold the ball up, he is quite strong and compact, he can bring the ball down on his chest, he directs his headers well, he is intelligent and quick, not lightning fast but quick enough. I think he and Adebayor will work well together.”

It is obvious that Wilson really knows his stuff and in saying that – I’m getting more and more excited about the signing of Eduardo. If he can prove to be the natural goalscorer that Arsenal have been looking for then it will give the side every chance of achieving success next season.

Wenger has three unique strikers at his disposalFlexibility in attack

There are a number of Arsenal supporters who believe that Adebayor is not good enough to play for the club and that da Silva will slot into his position to partner Robin van Persie but it doesn’t seem this will be the case. When I spoke previously about the possibility of Carlos Tevez joining Arsenal I suggested that it would give Wenger the flexibility to select his front two on a game-by-game basis dependant on the opposition and which pairing he believes would produce results for the team. Whilst it was not Tevez but Eduardo who has joined Arsenal I still believe this will be the case.

On a final note I’d just like to say that I wish Eduardo all the best in his career at Arsenal. Although I was initially a little sceptical about his signing that the consistent positive feedback I have heard and read about Eduardo has made me genuinely excited to see him join the club. Hopefully there are one or two more signings still to come.

What do you think?

Have your say on Eduardo da Silva by leaving a comment.

Loading...

Comments

  1. Pingback: Anonymous
  2. Great analysis. Hehe, Spanish Fry, you’ve really sold him to me. Lets hope he shows his promise on the pitch.

  3. nice read spanish

    anyways there is talk of arsene talking to newcastle about martins… if we do get him then… oh boy we will be up there next season

    florent malouda still available spanish… apparently chelsea have not closed the deal yet.

    but i do think its either carlos tevez or martins coming to the club. we may play the 433 formation

  4. There are still rumours linking us to another striker. It could mean the “one known, one unknown” to be true, hopefully its Tevez and not Martins, but I don’t know if we can afford him now, remembering we still need width and Sagna seems likely. If another striker arrives though I assume it means another season on the wing for Walcott, with Bend+Ade for carling cup?

  5. ok we got bendtner, eduardo, rvp, adeboyor and walcott is going to be a winger for couple of seasons wenger said that too…

    i just a feeling he is going to play the 4-3-3 system, hence we aint linked with wingers… unless again he pull something out of nowhere

    reason why he getting bakari sagna as well, the fullbacks going to be important. moving eboue forward if possible

  6. Da Silva is good in all points of view.. young enough to be easily moulded (try changing Eto’o’s or Anelka’s style and you’ll be surprised how hard that might be), he has a relatively good pace, is hungry for goals and as he says, loves arsenal’s game.. though i have seen him score only once, am positive that he is the right person and we don’t need another one.

    Isn’t it a high time we stop treating soccer as hollywood movies? Someone was complaining somewhere that we should have brought in Eto’o or Anelka who are proven and not Da silva but i say Bull SHIT! these players are good, yes, but more goes to their celebrity status than the soccer they can play. it’s with the same line of thinking that the same people prophesy the doom of arsenal because of henry (read celebrity there, coz he ceased to perform since the CL final).. my point is this: Da Silva is a great signing and we should appreciate that.just remember that wenger sends scouts out there, he’s got soccer analysts and he understands his game more than any of us so why don’t we trust his judgement here?

  7. knightman: to be honest, eto’o would be perfect and rumours/media speculation does get people talking about it.
    also, if we do get another striker, do you think adebayor could be better used as an attacking midfielder? his scoring record and way of playing seems more appropriate (back tracking, setting up chances, big and strong which we don’t have much of) and we wouldn’t need another cm like the occasional rumour links us with.

  8. Celebrities are cool. Contemporary Soccer is all about showiness, lets face it! Bring in the big guns, draw in the fans, spend all the money!! Woo!

  9. I can’t see us signing another striker, and I don’t want us to for the simple reason that it sends the wrong message to the five we had, all aged 18-24, who can take this club forward for years.

    Like you, I also like his attitude, and I think this is one of the key things Arsene looks for – hunger. It’s one of the reasons he doesn’t often buy established stars – with a few exceptions they don’t have that same drive to prove themselves.

  10. Well, I think he looks like a very good player. A typical Wenger signing. I just hope he turns out better than the last few #9’s. I also don’t think he’ll get homesick. No offense to Croatia, but I don’t think we’ll get the “I miss the sun and the beaches and the beautiful women and the Spanish food” this time. We now have 3 (maybe 4) strikers who are all capable of getting at least 15 goals next season, and that has to be a positive thing.

    A 4-3-3 is an interesting idea, and I think we have the players to do it. That said, I’d still like to see a wide midfielder (not a converted one) who is comfortable out there if we go with a 4-4-2. Malouda seems to be out of the picture, but Wenger will probably pick up someone we don’t know about.

    I don’t think we need a “winger” per se. The two best players out wide Arsenal ever had were Pires and Ljungberg, who are hardly wingers. But we just need a player who is comfortable being out wide. I think the answer might even be Hleb, since what I saw from him at Stuttgart was a lot of dribbling winger-type play. He looked horrible at times last season, but if he got a good run of form going I think he could be the solution.

  11. Theo will play at the RW for a while to develop his one to one skills with defenders before moving to the centre, AW said so sometime back. In effect, Theo will be sharing the wing with Freddie and Hleb, I think such competition will help Hleb to push up. He performed below par last season. Arsenal.com says Rodgers and Simpson and three others have signed professional contracts. I’m told Rodgers plays CB and RB and fans who have watched Rodgers say he is the next big English thing. I’m told he played more games than any other player in the reserves. Let’s pray for the young lads to succeed.

  12. FABIO COENTRAO

    remember this guy, next season watched him play in the under 20s world cup

    left footed cristano ronaldo type of player, in the mould of ricardo quaresma too…

    this guy is amazing, am suprised wenger didnt pick him up… he gone to benfica for peanuts

  13. all this talk about a player that really hasnt risen to a level you need him to. dont forget how hard it is to adapt to the premiership, (look at guys like drogba and shev)…..you honestly should not be happy with wenger and wont be happy untill he can sign someone with a bit of pedegry.

    sorry spanish but you are in trouble if you dont….look at how good united, chelsea and liverpool look and not far behind tottenham!

  14. I agree that our rivals have strengthened. If you have a look at Liverpool’s recent signing of Torres – I think that is the best piece of transfer business anyone has done so far this summer (excluding the price they paid). But I don’t think we are in trouble. I don’t think Wenger has signed with pedigree except for maybe Rosicky. I think what people forget is that you can only put eleven players on the park and if you look at our current eleven we are good enough to beat either of the top sides. We just need a little bit more depth to cope with injuries etc. I think Pete is right, bringing in another striker would push the likes of Adebayor and Bendtner further down the ladder and we might lose their services before they have the chance to become really good players. I think Adebayor especially deserves a chance – I expect big things from him next season.

  15. SF-the problemm is Ade will be off to ACN and in case we suffer injuries then our title challenge will wear out so we need another striker who can also play as a winger or using AW’s word ‘adaptable’

  16. That’s true. At this point in time Adebayor is still banned from playing for Togo so there’s no guarantee he will be away. Even if the ban gets lifted because of the death threats he received there is still a possibility he won’t choose to return. The truth is it is only a three week period and we will have players like Ljungberg and Walcott who can provide emergency support. It is important not to sacrifice the morale of three-four players over the course of a season just to cover for a short period of time. It’s a delicate balance.

  17. Pete, i agree with you 100%..i couldn’t put it better.

    Karen O, i disagree wit u. i don’t dispute that ‘celebrity’ footballers sell the club more but they do so to ‘shallow’ soccer fans who’ll move with their ‘celebrities’ wherever they head to (and if you ask them how a match was they’ll probably say “henry looked soo cute!” or “ronaldo’s hairstyle was cool” ). otherwise why would clubs like sheffield and wigan (no offense to the fans) have tens of thousands of fans? and do you think real madrid’s signing of ‘celebrities’ (from carlos,zidane,ronaldo, beckham etc) made it better than the other clubs?

    SF – i agree with you on the fact that Liverpool will be a tougher next season coz of Torres and all the seriousness the are dedicating towards the league. i also think adebayor should be given a chance coz according to me he tried his best and is willing to learn.in fact all that is still hindering him is small ‘errors’ in his accuracy but his game is always brilliant..(remember the cross he landed on baptista’s head for a goal towards end of season? it was talented and perfect) – keep them coming

  18. Nice one. Yeah Karen O’s comments were a little odd to say the least. Adebayor does have some flaws to iron out but I really think he’s going to be great next season. I can’t wait. And the news from John Wilson that Eduardo is likely to work well with him is most encouraging.

  19. BREAKING NEWS!
    Arsenal to announce the signing of Bakary Sagna and Martins tomorrow.

  20. I still trust Arsene Wenger!
    There is no chance of Chelsea,Spurs or anyone else like that doing better than Arsenal just because they’re spending more money.
    ”Arsenal is Arsenal”.

  21. Ryan Babel has the potential to be the next Thierry Henry,Why not signing him this summer?
    Ryan Babel will make us very successful for the years to come,I think it will be Arsenal’s dream come true.

  22. Eduardo is a very good signing, but i think the other and only singings that arsenal needs to take the prem is Roman Riquelme a midfeilder who can score like any good striker and excellent in free kicks,the other is Ricardo Quaresma who i think will be the best winger in the prem along with Christian Ronaldo of Manu.

  23. no in the summer we will deffainately sign a new striker (i hope sum 1 like eto’o) because eduardo is out for six months and rvp is still not match fit and bendter is criminal when he is compared to any one else on the team get him out and get noble aswell as a new left wing e.g van der vaart

  24. Van Persie , Eduardo da silva is good talent player , little disappoint fight with MU and Chelsea , I hope next competition , Arsenal will be one of champion . it’s good news if Tevez can join in our love team —> ARSENAL and keep solid team . Adebayor is not good striker

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.