Is Mikel Arteta Taking A Big Risk With Alexandre Lacazette? by Ghost mode
What has been most noticeable during the season is the continued absence of French striker Alexandre Lacazette from Mikel Arteta’s starting line-up, and most times he is not even called on from the bench.
Alexandre Lacazette appears to have made it clear that he would not be extending his contract with the Gunners, and it also looks like the Arsenal board is reluctant to give a huge contract to someone who is thirty years old.
But is this enough reason for Mikel Arteta to leave the Frenchman out of his plans? Is that why Alexandre Lacazette was only given 18 minutes to play against Brighton and Hove Albion despite the game crying out for a player with Lacazette’s qualities? Despite the short time he was given, Alexandre Lacazette made a bigger impact than Pierre Emerick Aubameyang did for a whole 72 minutes.
Arsenal needs Alexandre Lacazette as Pierre Emerick Aubameyang has shown times without number that he can not spearhead the attack with Mikel Arteta’s tactics, because he doesn’t have the required technical abilities nor the aerial presence to do it.
As Mikel Arteta persists with Pierre Emerick Aubameyang whilst ignoring Alexandre Lacazette due to his contractual situation, he is inviting huge pressure from some of the fanbase especially if Aubameyang continues to drops a below-average performance.
Is Mikel Arteta taking a risk?
Do the Spanish tactician needs to handle this situation better or is he correct in keeping Lacazette in the cold?
Ghost Mode
If it was this season in isolation, I could understand, Auba has been fantastic for us in the past, and a few bad games wouldn’t convince me of too much, but it’s been over a year now and the only decent performance against anyone of note was the spurs game. At some point you have to stop persisting with trying to bring out the old Auba and go with the best you have right now – it will hold back anything positive Arteta does because Auba is really limiting to our attacking potential imo. He’s gone from a deadly striker capable of scoring from many situations to an average poacher.
Laca is inconsistent in front of goal but can get us playing good football by bringing in others and that helps to keep a positive mindset for the players and fans.
Aubameyang has lost his pace. He doesn’t link up play like Lacazette. Aubameyang is very poor at defending and cannot dribble past anybody. As a poacher, most times he receives the ball , he is offside, because he doesn’t time his run,as well as before, due to the lack of speed. Since his increased wages, Aubameyang, lacks desire and don’t give his all anymore. Lacazette should be given a run upfront for at least the next three matches. Martinelli too needs some time upfront, especially in the last twenty minutes per game.
I think Lacazette’s playing style is more suited to Arteta’s tactics. Unfortunately, he’s leaving, so we have to give the game time to the ones with longer contracts
Aubameyang showed he could win aerial duels consistently, when he played against Davinson Sanchez. But he was rarely able to win it against Brighton’s towering CBs, so we need to direct those long goal kicks elsewhere
Comment disappeared.. not sure why – always try to be respectful, especially with GAI
One part of the response was:
“What makes less sense is that auba’s contact is only one extra season, so it’s not like he has a long future with the club either.. if he does start scoring for fun again, are we going to leave him or next year because he didn’t have a future? (Can’t see us giving him another contract, surely,?)”
Aubameyang’s contract will expire in the end of next season, but he’s still our second best CF after Lacazette
Gai
Auba second best after Lacazette? That’s debatable. I don’t concur.
A lot of typos in this post; what I was saying is that the policy doesn’t make sense because: were Auba to start scoring and playing well this year, we’d have to leave him out next year because his contract will be close to expiring, and I can’t see us giving him another one.
The likelihood is that we’re going to keep on picking Auba and not seeing any results, and will end up finishing lower in the league than we would have if we’d used Laca.
It’s great to have an eye on tomorrow, but if we don’t focus enough on the present, tomorrow will never come.
Yes arteta will keep picking him because he is ine the top PL earners. And on top of that, he is captain even if he does not captain anything. If he is benched, arteta will have to answer questions after questions about that. Plus he will be unhappy and there is no way he will leave but just stay with his huge contract (no way he would get even half elsewhere) so pretty much a ozil 2 situation… easier to just let him on the pitch.
Previous comment not appeared coz of wrong spelling of email address….
Thanks for clarifying, Pat – I’ll be more careful in future
In a word, yes.
No, why waste minutes on someone who won’t be at the club much longer?
Martinelli needs the minutes and experience on the pitch with teammates.
Wasted sub opportunities last year playing Willian; don’t repeat the mistake with Laca.
It’s Arteta’s job in part to develop young talent, this is a great example with Martinelli.
Inexcusable Martinelli hasn’t had sub minutes at least. 10 or 15 minutes at end of game take off Saka, ESR, Auba.
I just know that if we had a goal scorer scoring goals for us then we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in and would be nearer the top of the table. At some stage you have to say he’s done and ain’t coming back and move on. Like others said he’s taking minutes away from our younger players and not creating or scoring the goals that could be the difference between a narrow victory 3pts to can’t get a goal 1pts or lose 0pts. It all adds up at the end of the year
As long as he’s being paid by us, we should be getting our moneys worth from him, end of.
MA needs to get out of his feelings and do the right thing by playing Laca until he’s either moved on or whatever.
Yeah I find it weird to say “don’t play him because he won’t be here much longer”- surely we need to get all the points we can and finish as high as possible? It will be easier to get a quality replacement if we finish 6th as opposed to, say, 10th – we’d be more likely to lose out to villa or wolves or someone
NY-Gunner I totally agree with you 100%
Is there any loss if we play him and take us to 4th position and leave after the end of the season?
No !!!
NO!!! there was no problem whatsoever when the manager grew a pair, tactically-speaking, against the Spurs, at least in the first 45…stop blaming the proven world-class player for the tactical deficiencies of our novice, learn on the fly, manager
Practically when we look at Sub, it shows that whenever he is given an opportunity he doesn’t fully commitee himself than when you look at Laca he is good at one at one situation compared to Aub and Laca brings pressure to defense than Aub who just doesn’t show any commitment.
We’ve had 4 managers with Auba in the team now and in each of those tenures, managers have experimented with playing Auba through the middle but always end up putting him on the wing. It’s not like these are Auba’s first chances to play through the middle.
Playing Auba through the middle usually did not work because he doesn’t have the physicality to dominate the middle against big defenders, Laca does. Auba’s link-up play also stinks, he rarely is capable of the inch-perfect pass that puts his fellow players through on goal. If you look back, our record is much worse with Auba playing through the middle than playing him on the wing. Auba needs Laca to succeed, Laca is the one that holds the ball up and feeds that final ball through, and Laca is the one with the physicality to make space for himself in the opposing 18-yard box and make goals out of nothing.
We can see Auba’s form has declined over the last 18 months, with the final 6 being the worst of the lot. We need to be cultivating options and giving others a chance to show what they can do. Play Auba less. He needs to feel the competition and raise his game. Play Laca more, he makes us far more threatening in the opponent’s half of the field.
To say that laca’s contract is about to expire should not mean that he should be denied a chance to start because we a forcusing on winning not something else and laca has that ability to make us smile forexample, last season he was our topscorer.
Have we improved up front since Laccas demotion?
He is our real play maker if you asked me, he knows how to dictate the tempo. He is our best striker with Arteta’s tactics.
With that said, if Jan window came and no contract extension, club should not be soft with players who are leaving. Whenever possible, give game time to longer term players.