Jann-Fiete Arp: The next great German striker?

Over the last decade, Germany´s main issue was the lack of world-class strikers. With Miroslav Klose, Germany had one player who performed at every World Cup. However, only a few people considered him a world-class player because he rarely performed on the club level. Since Klose retired, Mario Gomez was the only real striker left. With Timo Werner, Germany has a new promising talent. The young striker from Stuttgart performs constantly for RB Leipzig but he struggles when he faces deeper defensive blocks like at the World Cup. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. With Jann-Fiete Arp Germany and the Hamburger SV have a new promising striker who combines the abilities of a real striker and one who connects with the midfield.

Last season Arp gave his debut for Hamburg under Markus Gisdol. In his first four appearances, he scored two goals and everyone in Hamburg believed that Arp could develop in the next Uwe Seeler. The rest of the season went not that well. But, it was hard for a player like Arp to be effective regarding the bad structured system of Hamburger SV. With the appointment of Christian Titz, a lot changed. Not only does Titz know Arp from the different youth levels he also installed a possession-oriented playing style at Hamburger SV which could help Arp in the future. In the end, HSV got relegated but the last games looked promising.

First offers

Clearly, if Arp can prove that he is the player everyone sees in him than he won´t stay at Hamburger SV for long. During that transfer window, there were multiple reports that Bayern Munich wants to sign Arp and loan him immediately back to Hamburg. In the end, Arp signed a new contract until 2020. Clearly, it is possible that he will leave next summer. But the relationship with Christian Titz and the possibility to play a big role in the favourite for getting promoted to Bundesliga held him at Hamburger SV.

Why is Jann-Fiete Arp so special? And which aspects should he improve?

The intelligent striker

Compared to other strikers who play in the centre Arp has a high football IQ. He moves quite intelligently and likes to connect with the midfield in order to be involved in the combination game.

In his first appearances for Hamburg Arp struggled to be effective in the combination play. Mainly because of the bad structure, the direct playing style of the first team and his colleagues who didn´t have the strengths in quick combinations. Of course, you can still observe silly decisions of Arp which come from his inexperience. That will change with more experience. But all in all, he moves very intelligently considering his age.

In those games, he often acted with the back to the goal. So, he moved in the last line on the bridge to offside. Then he would quickly drop a few meters in order to receive a vertical pass and lay it off to a teammate. His feeling for dynamic and movement of his opponents makes him so good at that young age.

He often moves deeper just to quickly change direction. Then he has space and can receive the ball between the lines and is able to turn with the ball.