Players have their own way of letting their manager know what they want, they can tell them directly, they can do it through a representative, in an interview, or even as a joke, and speaking to SkySports Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has dropped the biggest hint yet that he believes that he and Alexandre Lacazette should be starting games together.
“Everybody knows that I like to play with Laca because we have a great partnership,” The Gabon international said. “Sometimes one plays, the other is on the bench. It’s like that. You have to fight for the team.
“I think you know that I like to play with two strikers but I don’t want to say it because the coach will be maybe a bit angry.”
Aubameyang was clearly in a jovial mood and the last part can be taken as a joke but it does go to show what he is thinking, in fact what a lot of us is thinking.
Only Emery knows why he does not play the two together on a more regular basis, he must see something in training that the rest of us do not, but when they are on the field of play they do compliment each other and it is hard to fathom why the boss is not convinced.
It makes sense on occasions to go with a lone striker but too many times we have been left baffled by Emery’s team selection, and it seems we are not the only ones as the players appear to be just as confused as the rest of us.
Will Emery get the message?, of course he will not, managers make their own decisions based on their own beliefs and not what fans or players want, but this one will not go away any time soon and at some point the manager will have to clarify why he does not play Aubameyang and Lacazette together more often.