Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has seen Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang score in the Gunners last three games, but he was paired with Alexandre Lacazette for the last half-hour and he generously let the Frenchman take our second penalty rather than go for his own hat-trick. Despite PEA being a confirmed super-striker, Wenger has now suggested that the Gabon hitman could be pushed out on the wing to accommodate Alexandre Lacazette in a central role.
The Boss was asked if Lacazette and Aubameyang could both be in a starting XI, and he replied: “Yes, I think they can play together.”
“Yeah, I think Aubameyang played a long part of his career on the left, at St Etienne, and in the first year at Dortmund [with Lewandowski], he played on the left. After, when Lewandowski moved to Bayern Munich, he played centrally.”
We all know Wenger likes to play with just one lone striker, but why can’t he consider playing with a 4-4-2 formation like he did in the old days? Why would you want a player that can score goals for fun playing out on the wing when surely they would both complement each other by taking defenders away and setting each other up in the box.
Wenger used to be known as a revolutionist with new ideas when he first moved to England, would a return to 4-4-2 maybe give Arsenal an extra advantage next season? We could be trialling the formation in easy games this season after we are in a winning position and see how it goes in practise as well as in theory. It certainly makes no sense to me to have two prolific strikers without using them both to their full potential.
What do you think?
Admin
Lol this would be a typical Wenger move playing PEA out wide. Ruining another players career, let’s wait and see
Thumbs up to that.
Wenger loves putting players that are not wingers out on the wing. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if he did that with any player in the squad.
always the same. playing players out of position. thats why our players will not shine and always likes to leave. thats the mentatily of mr stubborn. – gooner = for ever
Wenger fits players into a system, not the other way round. Remember when Santi. was playing rather than play Walcott on the right he would fit Rambo into that system. He played Rambo on the left wing against Utd last year away,and had him marking Valencia the fastest wingback in the West.
Of course it’s the most obvious solution to play two class strikers together but there again you could never say our manager was “obvious”
Hmmm… If we do go with 4-4-2, I’m assuming diamond midfield?
Ozil
Miki-Ramsey
Elneny
We don’t have any decent wingers in the squad to do a wide formation. I would definitely like to see these two start and I feel like having more than one forward running at the defense will give Ozil and Miki more options and stop our excessive need to pass the ball sideways 1million times. More likely Wenger just throws Aubameyang out wide, or keeps playing Welbeck somehow.
Why Elneny? Xhaka is a beast! Mr Wenger is gradually killing that guy’s career. He’s a good passer of the ball, a good shooter, strong on air, can score from any rang and can defend well. What more do you want from a DM? Arsenal should give us a player like Santi’s type to combo with Xhaka in Midfield with Mhkitanya and Ozil/Rambo in front of them in a 4-4-2 formation. Would beat any EPL team with that. Don’t forget we’ll have Auba and Lacazette9 up front
There are players out there who are masters on the wings and could make the diff in the team. Players like Dembele, Grizman and co while we try to imagine and think about ways to make our players play in uncomfortable positions which can influence their their form and also make the club lose points due of us not playing to our strengths.
How to accommodate both Laccazette and Aubameyang is a challenge. Even more so, when our biggest problem for years is leaking goals because of a disorganized team, when opponents have the ball.
Against any team with just a little bit of attacking capability, we will get hammered, if we paly Laccazette, Aubameyang, Özil and possibly Mkhitarian and maybe even Ramsey at the same time.
We will once again be a roll over for the likes of Spurs, Liverpool etc.
Spot on AndersS. Of the top teams in Europe the only side to successfully deploy 4-2-4 system is Athletico Madrid.Basically Simeone uses 4 hard working midfielders who are all well coached in the art of recovering the ball and exerting pressure on their opposite numbers..Arsenal simply do not have midfielders who have the work rate and athleticism to free up two strikers.Ozil is a classic example of someone who would not be effective in such a system. In any event the top 4 teams in Europe namely Barca,Man City, Bayern and Real Madrid all play a 4-3-3 system so why should Arsenal turn the clock back.
Real Madrid play a 4.4.2 with a diamond midfield quite successfully
I’ll leave that decision to the manager. I mean next manager Allegri.
Hope we sign him; if we miss out 2 years in a row and Allegri lands in Stamford Bridge chaos ensures with fans.
Please Ivan force Allegri to sign da ting. Whatever it takes, any means necessary; offer £8 million per year, bribe his family, fly a banner, create a song for him, anything he wants.
Hahahaha
Desperate gunner
I’ve a sneaky feeling Manu are gonna sign him.
We will leak goals like sieve if we play 442 formation, we have no decent DMF and all our defenders are not good enough.
When I first watched Aubumeyang at St Etiene, he reminded me of Thiery Henry in his playing style. He has pace to burn and loves cutting in from wide so moving him wide to accommodate Lacazette isn’t that bad. That means we would see more through passes played towards either of them and a more potent Arsenal strike force which would be a nightmare to most defenders.
Abel, I agree. The issue is that to make the team successful around a forward line of Lacazette and Aubameyang, Arsenal need a DM to sit in front of the back 3 or 4 and at least one hardworking, hard tackling, ball winning midfielder.
I think attacking wise he will look like a left sided CF, far left, rather than a winger. Like how Walcott was a right sided CF. Depending on who we’re playing it could be very threatening looking or it could be a weakness. Walcott was a weakness more often than not, because of his work rate and his lack of abilities in midfield. I would say Auba could be very similar but a better goal threat. So Arsene will have to choose wisely in when to do this. I don’t have faith he can pick wisely, as I believe he’s just gonna focus on keeping players happy the best way he can. That’s why I don’t like this move. I prefer Lacazette dropping back a bit because he has some abilities that can be useful closer to midfield. I wouldn’t want either of them out wide though, either together as LCF RCF, or one playing behind the other.