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Don’t give up on Aubameyang just yet – He will soon be back to his best

Don’t Give Up on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Just Yet by AI

Arsenal fans, where has that mercurial footballer gone? That ruthless, punishing goalscorer. That guy who came on in a North London Derby and smacked the ball one-time past Hugo Lloris from outside the box. That guy who won us the FA Cup and Community Shield with spectacular strikes.

It is no secret that Aubameyang has fallen out of form, hard. The goalscoring sauce has seemed to dry up and so has the strut of a world-class goalscorer. Given his age and profile, it is easy to assume that the captain is dead and declining. However, that summation is not necessarily true.

According to The Athletic, when Arsenal were scouting Aubameyang in the Bundesliga, they did a lot of due diligence to see how long Aubameyang would still have it, using data analytics and plenty of other resources. They determined that, around his current age, Aubameyang would still be one of the best Premier League players around. In fact, Darren Burgess, Arsenal’s head of elite performance at the time, says that Aubameyang has exceeded the club’s physical expectations ever since he arrived. All that is needed, he says, is careful maintenance of his physical condition.

…

Everyone knows that our last season had a Before-Smith-Rowe and an After-Smith-Rowe, like the new number 10 was some kind of great Saviour. Before Smith-Rowe, Arsenal barely created any chances and the meager chances that was being created mostly fell to Lacazette who promptly wasted them. In fact, at one point through the season, analysts were pointing out that if Aubameyang had maintained his current shooting rate, he would end the season with 5 goals.

Thankfully, there was both an individual and systematic change at the club come December when Smith-Rowe became available for the first time. In that following period, Aubameyang enjoyed a little spurt of form as he started to get more shots away. His conversion was not back at his mercurial best, especially in the Europa League where he missed a few gilt-edged chances, but he was returning back to normal. And then malaria struck.

In the cited article, Darren Burgess noted that even a slight deviation in Aubameyang’s physical conditioning would have an outsized effect on the Gabonese output. Why? Because Aubameyang is not a technically dominant player. While he has all the deadly instincts of a world class striker in terms of where to move, when to move, when to strike, how to strike, the way he capitalizes on those instincts is not through technique but sheer pace.

He is an athletic specimen. His pace is famous and he barely has injury issues and he is always available to play. He can be unstoppable. Once that physical superiority is affected, Aubameyang becomes a shadow of the player he once was.

Aubameyang lost several kilos to the fever. Given the fact that he was just returning to form and his need to rediscover his confidence in front of goal, the physical deviation was enough to throw him off. No wonder he resumed the season early and was working hard to be fit in time for preseason with a Greek club.

The captain still cares. He is nearly back to his physical best and he has been getting chances in pre-season.

Now, all he needs is a goal and the black panther will be back.

Agboola Israel

 

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69 Comments

  1. Zero evidence of him getting back to his best, especially playing under the ultra defensive tactics of the cheque book rookie.

    All our creative freedom has been removed by our micromanager, thats why even when we win we often look poor overall.

    1. Lol PJ…like the name already, cheque book rookie LOL…

      I actually see him as a pundit wasting away as a manager, his brilliant analysis of football can convince anyone easily but reality is conversion to actual practical…same reason Henry,neville and co failed as managers….

      He needed to have started from a small teams like Scot Parker,Rooney and co but our board thought otherwise…..

      Arsenal FC is too difficult for a rookie to manage cuz of our financial constraints…

      My annoyance is his continuous ignorance of the reality that our young stars are the last hope for a golden generation and prolonged success in the nearest future….

      We currently have a crop of talented kids within the 19-24 age bracket that could become unstoppable soon but what do we have now, sales sales sales and a confusing negative system that limits players ability…

      Dortmund,Ajax,Barca,Monaco, sporting Lisbon etc have all benefited from this recently…why can’t we??

      SIMPLY BUILD THE TEAM AROUND THE KIDS with a manager that trusts them enough to deliver with a clear understandable system especially this season where we have no European presence….

      Martinelli,Balogun,nketiah,willock(almost ,saka,ESR,AMN, Emi(lost),mavropanos(lost),reiss,Azeez, guendouzi (almost lost), saliba(almost lost),patino,Moller etc

      That’s 15 talented kids in a club then add the recent buys Tierney, lokonga, tavares, yet we seem to be clueless and lack direction as a club…

      1. If only we had bielsa or a manager that doesn’t depend on large cash splash as our manager with the kids we currently have….only if…

        We are stuck with one that has a fantasy in his head about an abstract style of play only him can see, thereby looking for players without cash available that suit the rubbish in his head thereby discarding our talents one after the other….

        I hope we realize the scam soon before we find ourselves a division below

  2. Yesterday’s friendly is another proof, that starting both Lacazette and Aubameyang together only gives us inconsistencies

    We can’t revert to the counter-attacking 3-4-3 just to accommodate Aubameyang’s playing style and we’ll keep using the possessive 4-2-3-1, so Arteta has two options. Either make Lacazette start alone as a CF, or field Aubameyang as a CF and make him interchange his position frequently with our LW

    We have seen the second option work in some games last season and in pre-season. If we can’t sell Lacazette and Nketiah, we have to do this

    1. I’d much rather sell Auba than Laca, only one of them actually puts a shift in for the team.

      Although in all fairness we probably need to look at replacing both.

        1. Also prefer Laca, but:

          1) Laca will be gone for free next summer, so urgency to sell
          2) No one wants to buy Auba

    2. Abuameyang’s slide has become more real in recent games. Like it or not arsenal has to rutheless . He should be sold otherwise he becomes WILLIAN II.

      1. I reckon Aubameyang’s playing style to be perfect for Simeone’s counter-attacking football. I wish we still have a good relationship with Atletico Madrid

    3. Got an Idea- if we see it why can’t Arteta?
      Last season showed these two simply cannot play together. We have far better options and these should have been seen yesterday.
      You are the one who has consistently stated that Aubamayang and Lacazette together will never work. So why are we going into a season with the likelihood of these two playing?

      1. I’m afraid Arteta is still waiting for Aubameyang’s and Lacazette’s bromance to blossom

        I believe Arteta is too idealistic. If I were him, I would’ve remembered about the towering players who saved Wenger’s and Moyes’ arses in the second halves of their games

        1. GAI
          The obvious thing from what I can see is that Arteta will not sell Auba for whatever reason known to him. In that case he should be bold with his decisions on him before or during games. Because if the team fails to perfom this season he would be blamed by the fans and rightly so too..
          Arteta as a coach should also be flexible in his tactics knowing how to use some of our talented youths well. This A. Wenger was good at in his early days..

          1. Football.london reported that Arteta looked angry at Aubameyang for his performance at Spurs stadium

  3. Its true we have a 190 mill front 3
    Auba Laca and Pepe.
    Arguably the best in the league.
    Emery got the best out of both Laca and Auba.
    For that matter Emery got the best out of Socritis Mustafi Ramsey Ozil Kola Xhaka Niles.
    Despite the addition of Partey Gabriel a fit again Tierney and Bellerin a second 8th place finish resulted.
    Now we have signed Tavares Lokonga and White with more still to come.
    Buying a whole new team means Arteta
    should get us 4th place at least.
    5th was not good enough for Emery.
    Nor should it be enough for Arteta.
    And no none of this top 6 and back in Europe is progress.
    CL football or the sack.

        1. Not quite like that
          In spring we were in the CL places and you have conveniently forgotten the disgrace in Baku

      2. I keep banging on about this SueP, and totally agree with you.

        The dressing room lost Emery, not the other way ’round IMHO – I simply do not buy the language thing … of course they understood the man.

        Just months before the sack, the board had interviewed him for goodness sake – and his language had improved !!??

        1. 👍 👍 And it was only after the Board had sacked Emery and the same miscreants tried the same antics on Arteta, that the Board finally supported its manager and had a clear out.
          The Board sacrificed a good head coach/manager to appease players, who didn’t want discipline.

  4. Either Auba or Laca need to be sold along with Eddie. We cant have both in the starting 11 and certainly cant afford to have both when it was the attacking side of the game that let us down last season esp after xmas.

    Eddie goes, Bologun steps in.
    CF for Auba or Laca, one goes and an attking goal scoring winger brought in once we shift Willian on too.

    Pepe, Saka, Martinelli & New Winger.
    Auba or Laca – Bologun back up.

    Eddie, Willian & Laca off the wage bill and a few pound brought in isnt a bad move at all and we still have Auba, Pepe, Saka, Martinelli & Bologun plus a new signing.

    Lokonga & White good players 👏
    Partey needs to get injury free 🙏
    SmithRowe looks like a boss 🔥

    Few more ins and outs and we could have a decent squad this season.

    1. I like what you just said Sean.

      The best thing is to sell Aubameyang and Nketiah. Offer Lacazette a 2 year deal.
      Buy 1 winger (Kingsley coman or Pedro Neto) and 2 Creative midfielders(2 of Asensio, Auoar, Bernardo Silva, Nabir Fekil)

      We can change to a 4141 formation.
      We free the 350K wages of Aubameyang. We should consider selling him to Dortmund, inter Milan, Madrid or MLS.

      Lacazette, Balogun and Martinelli are enough for the striker role . No European football this season.

      Sell Elneny, and Bellerin as well.

  5. At the end of last season, it was clear we needed a new midfield. The season is upon us but we have only signed a 20 year old midfielder. How anyone think this season will be different from last season baffles me.

    1. Nifty, why do you, I and others see that a major upgrade of midfield was required, plus a back up goalkeeper. One could argue that Lokonga has replaced Ceballos, but Odegaard and Mat Ryan have left without current replacement. Joe Willock has been sold, Guendouzi loaned for sale and Partey is injured. A midfield of Xhaka and Elneny does not inspire confidence and the squad overall is worse than last season.
      Edu, Arteta and Garlick fiddle (or ride jet skis) while Arsenal burns, after finishing eighth last season, with other clubs improving around it.

  6. Its been 16 months of dire performances. No goals, no tracking back, no holding the ball, no defensive help, no link up play.
    Appalling and clearly not suited to the shit arteta ball

  8. Even when deployed as the lone striker last season, Auba was spending more time hugging the left bye-line than anywhere near the opponents’ 18 yard box where he was expected to be. He was helping out our LB to defend our 18 yard box instead of keeping the opponents’ back-line engaged.

    Our elite performance team didn’t factor in these defensive duties that Auba must fulfill to retain his place in the squad, while making their elite assessments.

    Luckily, we have an elite manager who is the best in handling players recovering from injury. Protecting Matinelli by not playing him after recovering fully and rushing Partey back into the starting XI when he wasn’t fully recovered paving way to recurrence of injury through out last season.

    Let’s TRUST THE PROCESS!!! COYG!!!

  9. Aubameyang may be sold but not Lacazzete. Aubameyang can’t fight for the ball and doesn’t even defend when the team is under pressure. He is too lazy. Arsenal needs a strong and utility striker.

    1. He should offload him for free now. His departure should have been a priority (even hidden one) this window. The guy will cost almost 20m per year (and ee are short of money) for almost nothing in return. if it is 10 goals like last year, we can get that from Nketiah. Plus he will take minutes away from youngsters that are our future (balogun, nelson, martinelli)

    2. He can be lazy provided he can deliver the goals or assists. That’s the problem. He can neither do one of these. And he’s the Captain.
      Captain needs to be changed or have another vice captain.

  11. This article refers to comments made by Darren Burgess an accredited expert in his field. Where is he now? Surplus to requirements, like Steve Morrow and the Arsenal scouting network.
    As far as Aubameyang is concerned I hope he can recover his mojo after his personal and family issues, including a bout of malaria. As bad as last season was, he also had Odegaard in midfield with ESR, servicing the forward line. Odegaard is no longer here, so where will the service come from?

    1. We’ve got “Rolls Royce” Ben White now.

      That’ll do just fine, mate.

      Trust the PROCESS!!! COYG!!!

      1. Irony, used almost all the time, becomes tedious VasC. Why not a serious comment of your own next time please?

  12. Sell Laca and Auba for good money. Then, buy Martinez and start him with Martinelli!

    This would be my preference 🙂

  13. What? Come on, Obamayang has been finished for quite a while. We are still dreaming of his glory days. The earlier his is gone the better for our future

  14. Welcome to the ozil 2.0 situation. Arteta is ticked with Auba. He cant bench him because he is from far the higgest paid player. But based on performances he does not bring anything anymore. He is just hampering the progress of youngsters and development of young core. The more the club wait, the less chances we’ll have to just get rid of him without having to pay him money like we did for ozil and mustafi. We just have esr, martinelli, pepe, saka. We dont need any auba but maybe one experienced guy but not on that wages.

    1. Thank heavens, we’ve already got that one experienced guy in our squad our youngsters can look up to, Willllliiiiiaaaannnnnnnn!!!!!!

      COYG!!!

    2. You summed up my thoughts
      I think he’d be impossible to sell without the club dobbing in money for his salary.

  15. You give a 31 year old a 3 year extension on an obscene £300-£350k a week with the result, that if his goals dry up you are stuck with him. In my opinion he is past his best because of a loss of pace, his main asset but I sincerely hope he proves me wrong. Even trying to sell Laca could be a problem because of his near £200k pw salary but if we don’t he goes on a free next year. I think it’s time to give young Balogun a run, it worked with ESR!!

    1. The wages are due to the fact that we are not competing anymore. So big names like ozil, and then auba and willian only wanted to extend or sign contracts on higher terms than they would have get elsewhere. Thats why a total rebuild with younger hungry names that will come on lower terms makes lot of sense/is the only solution probably to go back to the top like what liverpool did 5 years ago.

  16. Mr Isreal Agboola, my Nigerian brother!
    Auba and Laca will bring us nothing but 6th position once again!
    Both are slow, lazy and more Fashion-conscious than good strikers!!
    Andre Silva was available for a paltry 34m pounds!! We allowed Leipzig to grab him for 30m..😒
    Arteta, Edu and the club’s management truly wants to destroy this club!😔

  17. The season hasn’t started yet. He was joint golden boot winner but had a horrible season last season

    Give him another chance to prove himself

  18. It is funny to see how arteta got rid or gave no chances and was harsh to guendouzi, saliba and to a certain extent martinelli and nelson. And how he treated Auba and willian (going to dubai with pandemics, coming back fat from vacations) because they are on high wages. I dont know if he is forced to adapt to them while being aware they should not play or play less or if he really believes in them. I dont know too if 1) they lost pace and level with age or 2) if they got disinterested because they won lot of things and we are now in rebuild mode and cannot compete for major trophies. Or maybe 3) they just dont care anymore and are just happy picking their heavy money. Anyway i would prefer seeing auba happy and leave to have a chance to win some trophies while he still can. He used to be a great player and deserves that

  19. just takes a ridiculous critique of Auba to bring out a who’s who of Arteta apologists…nothing like attacking a world-class goal-scoring machine who was clearly given bogus assurances about the direction this club, at least from an offensive perspective, prior to re-upping, only to be left up top with no viable direct play, no counter-attacking options and no one to open up space in and around the box in those high percentage shooting positions

    furthermore, he was publicly skewered by his manager in a poorly disguised passive aggressive rant before the Spurs match for an issue that was far less divisive than the problematic actions of some of Arteta’s more favoured players…I won’t even discuss the other mitigating factors, of a more personal nature to the player in question, as we all know full-well how they might likewise impact production

    as for his connection with Laca, anyone who knows anything about these two players differing styles of play shouldn’t be surprised whatsoever about their struggles, as Laca provides no protection or space for Auba and he’s clearly not a viable target for crosses…for anyone who watched Laca play in Lyon, he’s at his best when he comes into the box late, behind penetrative wide side players, gets lost amongst the much bigger defenders and finds little pockets of space, whereas Auba excels at pace when the scheme allows him to attack against singular defenders and the other offensive players are aggressively filling lanes, like Pool…so the only way to get the most out of this union is if we upped the tempo and Laca played in the Firmino role, but of course we do the exact opposite

    fact is, no one is going to thrive within an offensive scheme where there are never more than 3 or 4 players within a reasonable striking distance of the goal, especially for a team that relies far too much on crosses and doesn’t seem to practice shooting from distance…as such, this issue is 75% tactics and 25% player-related, as he does need to work a bit harder in the final third, at times, but this is a tough ask for a player who in one season occupied more space inside our half than he likely was required to do in the entirety of his career…once again, square pegs, round holes

    1. Got to agree buddy
      2 season at the top of the goal scorning charts ,Arteta comes in and he turns into prime Iwobi
      Same can be said about partey ,was called one of the best CM in the world comes here under Arteta and again looks awful.
      Leno was brilliant under Emery (had to be facing 100 shots a game ) now everyone is calling for him to be replaced .
      A pattern that Keeps getting longer and longer with Arteta in charge .

      1. But people keep saying trust the process arsenal did very well during the second part of last season. So it is due to Arreta, to the players… Still a mystery

        1. this is by no means a “mystery” little Johnze, “trusting the process” has nothing to do with the “now”, it’s all about sacrificing in the short-term to reap long-term benefits…of course, this is only a worthy endeavour if the manager et al take the appropriate steps, in a timely fashion, and never bite the hands that feed them by consciously pursuing their own misguided selfish inklings

          this isn’t a chicken and the egg argument, as the player’s ability to do whatever is necessary to get the job done, under a much less restrictive tactical philosophy, is the only given in the equation, whereas the manager has proven absolutely nothing outside of the bubble blip this time last summer…btw the biggest revelation during that period was undoubtedly the dominance displayed by Martinez and he was quickly discarded when we wouldn’t give him the exact same assurances we offered up to both Willian and Ode/Real…I would laugh, if I wasn’t so busy crying

          1. You do not need to convince me ! I was questioning it, quoting what i hear about arteta. But personnally, i am not sure there is or was any process even though signing of white and lokonga are at least good steps and shows that Arteta is now, maybe, starting to build for the future which was absolutely not the case with the willian signing, or keeping mustafi last summer. I absolutely agree about Martinez and posted many things about the error to let him go, but i was also replied that leno is great, he conceded less goals and blablabla…

        2. If you’re mentioning the purple patch between Christmas and the end of the season, we played 24 league games and won 14 of them. It was partly due to the emergence of ESR and the recovery of Patey, combined with great support from Saka and Xhaka.

          Xhaka, Saka and ESR started 20, 19 and 18 of those 24 games and 12 of those 14 victories were achieved when these three players started.

          While MA’s handpicked Willian, Cedric and Mari started just 4, 8 and 10 games respectively. The crown jewel of MA’s summer signings contributed very little to that surge in the team’s performance in the second half.

          The academy graduates and the old horses rescued a bit of respectability last season to help us finish 8th in the league table.

          1. Also in that purple patch which some seem to forget was Arteta oversaw us going out in the EL semi final stage while deciding it would be a great idea going with a false nine ,something none of us had ever seen while he was in charge .
            Losing out to what can only be described as a sunday league team and a manager he had replaced who got a better result with pretty much the same team.

    3. TRVL4e, my principal criticism of Arteta’s management of Arsenal is that whatever his “system” or “process” is, it fails to utilize the players available to him. You state well how to bring out the best in Aubameyang and Lacazette, yet players who could score goals under Wenger and Emery, manage to score an aggregate of 55 goals last season.
      Too many people blame the players supposedly dropping form, rather than the system and the lack of both goals, assists and service provided from Arsenal’s non creative midfield.
      “Blind Freddie” can see that a DM to play alongside Thomas Partey is urgently required to free him up to progress the ball forward and an ACM to play the ball into the lanes to service Arsenal’s forward line or drive for goal themselves. Arsenal’s play and service breaks down in the final third and yet the powers that be refuse to address it. How bad were Arsenal before ESR and Odegaard were introduced? Also heaven help Arsenal if Leno had been injured against Spurs. Every time he dives for a ball or at the feet of players, you have your heart in your mouth hoping he gets up unhurt.
      Lokonga may be considered to have replaced Cellabos, but who is replacing Odegaard, Willock and Guendouzi?
      Also why are “wantaways players” like Bellerin, Torreira, Xhaka and Kolasinac still here?
      So far these muppets couldn’t organize a rock fight between Spurs and Arsenal fans, let alone sex in brothei or a pissup in a brewery!

  20. Funny that the same people who turned on Ozil have now done the same with Auba, even though they wanted the club to pay up to keep him.
    Well I haven’t given up on him. I’ll admit it’s been painful [at times] watching the chances he’d have buried a couple of seasons back, sail over the bar, something is up, I can’t pinpoint what exactly, possibly a confidence thing? Although I’m not buying this ‘he’s given up since he signed da ting’ crapola!

    Hoping he bangs in a couple on Friday – I’ll be rooting for him (& the team!)

    1. Sue, please don’t equate Aubameyang with his single handed contributions over all but last season, with Ozil and his one good season.

  21. It’s either a complete lack of confidence, or he really is on the decline. At any rate, playing him on the left makes no sense. I want to see Martinelli playing there with Auba in the centre. But what we don’t need is Pepe playing nice crosses into the box into a void because no Arsenal players are there. Also, serious game time has to be given to Balogun.

  22. Judging by the comments up here most fans have completely turned against Auba for having just one bad season after signing a new contract. This is after deliberately forgetting 3 excellent seasons with us and other previous heroics with Dortmund. Now they think Balogun or another chap from Zootopia will be ‘Superman’ and want Auba sold. What a mistaken thought? This man simply lacks services of a strong midfield and a reliable no 10 to create enough chances for him to score. If we solve this and he still doesn’t bang in 20+goals. Then i can argue a case on his inefficiencies. As for now i can only see the AFTV ranters all over the place.

  23. I have gave up on Arteta a long time ago, if fact right from the start. After so long he doesn’t know that these two can’t play together and especially that Auba isn’t winger. What about using Auba in such a way that you hide his weaknesses and use his strength to the advance of the team. By putting him at the wing expose his weaknesses even more, want about keeping he at 9 and play the game to his strength. What about reducing his game time at 9 to keep him fresh like bring him on late in the game and chance the game to his strength. Arteta is a real one eye coach, can’t see the other options.
    My prediction for the end of the season is Auba to be our top goal scorer and MA no longer at the club and that is based on facts, not likes or no likes. Auba is a quality striker with the right attitude and he cares, he will find his form but I can’t say the same of MA.

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