Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has come under increased scrutiny this season, with the Arsenal goalscorer struggling to hit his former heights.
The 32 year-old is yet to hit double figures(he has nine so far) in the Premier League this season after 25 appearances, in comparison to scoring 22 goals in 36 appearances in both the previous seasons.
Charles Watts disagrees that his season has been as bad as it looks on paper however, claiming that he simply wasn’t provided with enough chances in the earlier half of the campaign, which then affected his confidence, but his return has increased since the creativity has returned.
His performance against Liverpool has again seen him come under scrutiny, although I can’t recall him being provided with much to work with.
One opinion that Watts is also not buying into is that the player’s new contract has played a part in his struggles this term.
Watts told his YouTube followers (via Thisisfutbol): “I hate the link between the new contract and Aubameyang’s loss of form. I just don’t believe that at all. I just think he’s having a difficult season when Arsenal weren’t creating chances, he wasn’t scoring goals – it’s as simple as that.
“Since Arsenal improved since Christmas and started creating chances, he’s scoring goals. Yes, he may not be scoring quite at the rate he was. But as I said, nine goals in 14 games, a lot of strikers would kill for a strike-rate like that, it’s not bad at all.
“And that’s because he’s getting more chances and he was also missing chances. Although it’s frustrating, at least he’s missing them. In that first half of the season when a lot of people were having a go at him, he wasn’t even missing chances because he just wasn’t getting them at all.”
Do we really believe that Auba’s form has been affected by his new contract in any way?
Patrick