Thierry Henry has questioned the decision to take Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang off in Arsenal’s match against Manchester United yesterday when the Gunners were chasing the game.
Auba was in poor form in the fixture, and moments after shooting straight at David de Gea, Mikel Arteta took him off.
That decision didn’t impress former Gunner, Henry, who insists the Gabon star is Arsenal’s main goal threat and should have remained on the pitch because they needed a goal.
Speaking on Amazon Prime as quoted by the Sun, the former Monaco manager said: “Aubameyang is your captain. He is your goal scorer.
“You put him as your captain. 15 minutes to go, you’re losing 3-2 and you take him off. 3-2 away from home, you need a goal and you take your captain, your symbol, off the field.
“You know he can score you goals so something is not right there.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
The Arsenal captain was arguably the worst player on the pitch yesterday, and he could easily have played for one more hour and still not score.
We pay managers to make important decisions, and that is exactly what Arteta did in that situation.
Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah are two other strikers at Arsenal, and either of them could also score the equalising goal for the club.
If they had done that, Henry would not be criticising this decision after the match.
It’s not being the captain. It’s all about performance. Some of us are of the opinion that Auba should be rested or come from the bench for such matches. Arteta should know that the success of the club is Paramount than any player. Auba’s wasted goal opportunities is one too many. Let the coach bench non performing players and try other ones. Martinelli can play that position.
Mikel Arteta should count himself very very privileged to seemingly be in charge of a big club with little or no pressure, the form last year was shocking beyond belief, I think at one point we lost 3 home games on the trot and didn’t win a game in about 6 or 7… We eventually finished 8th and did not qualify for Europe for the first time in 25 years.. onto the summer he was given a big war chest and I think spent more than any other club in the PL and again the form at the start of the season was shocking after 3 games rock bottom and no goals scored, of course it picked up a bit but by no means were we Impressive, we played a good half against a very bad Tottenham team and Villa also who then both replaced managers, we were very lucky against Brighton who absolutely dominated us and Crystal Pal which took a last minute equaliser to steal an undeserved point at home.. there is many different opinions on Mikel Arteta and I believe amazingly he still has the support of the owner, board and majority of fans (not me) as a Chelsea fan said last night if Mikel Arteta was Chelsea manager he would have been sacked 8 times by now and as much as I despise Chelsea that’s a very fair comment, big clubs would not tolerate these displays of football.. then of course there’s many excuses, Arteta has had no pre season, he needs more time, you can’t expect him to beat the better teams so those games are free hits, he needs his own strikers, it’s the previous regime, look at the Deadwood he’s cleared out, the results aren’t there at the minute but Arteta knows what he wants, it’s a squad full of kids there will be bumps in the road.. the list is endless.. I go back 20 odd years when Leeds were a team full of supposedly young kids and they played far better football than this Arsenal team, they didn’t go to Old Trafford score early and try to see the game out, that Leeds team as raw as they were was adventurous, brave and more importantly had a style of play under O’Leary.. what style of play does this Arsenal team possess? I see a manager and a team that try to get in front and just wing it from there, at times it’s all very amateurish but of course we go back to the list of excuses that we are a young team and these things happen! All in all apart from the Fa cup win in my honest opinion Mikel Arteta’s reign has been very poor and even the most die hard Arteta supporters deep down know that but they will continue backing him in hope that they are proven right! In reality who cares who’s right or wrong, we just want our club to rise again, maybe not challenging for the league title right now as 3 other clubs are miles ahead but playing some entertaining football and not being humiliated 4 or 5 times a season, there’s a reason we are called a banter club and I used to get angry hearing it but how can you argue with it ?
that must have been a very cathartic post K82…although we may disagree on some of the finer details of MA’s tenure, we’re in complete agreement over the underwhelming nature of his managerial reign thus far
to make matters worse, most of his failures have been self-inflicted, which simply speaks to the fact that he was totally ill-equipped to deal with the task at hand…that said, even these seemingly inevitable “growing pains” might have been considered forgivable offences, as most knew that mistakes would be made along the way, if it weren’t for the very disturbing fact that he chose to deviate from the supposed “process” as soon as he got a whiff of success
unfortunately, instead of holding him accountable for his missteps, our largely absentee landlord actually doubled-down on MA’s particular brand of mediocrity…by not only retaining his services, but likewise providing him with a transfer bounty unheard of in these parts, Kroenke mistakenly put the foreseeable future of the club in the hands of someone who had already proven that if left to his own devices he would put his own selfish desires over the needs of the club…this misguided executive decision could have likewise made it infinitely more difficult to cut ties, should things remain on this sideways trajectory, unless this newfound financial model was the new norm
thankfully, some of the new recruits have shown promise, so any future managerial transition could be less problematic, regardless of whether they all fit any potential new tactical script…of course, this above fact alone by no means justifies MA’s continued existence at our club, as I simply don’t trust him to get the “job” done…in fact, this situation could actually provide ownership with an incredible opportunity to right a wrong, with considerably less turnover and internal strife than these scenarios usually involve, by simply bringing in a manager with the skills required to complete this much-needed reinvention of sorts
cheers to you Kev82
@TRVL oh it was mate I could have added more but I didn’t want to flood the server’s lol. Everyone is entitled to their opinions bud but one that gets me is the Jürgen Klopp comparison and how he got 5 years if anyone knew of Jürgen Klopp before Liverpool they would know he done a brilliant job at Dortmund competing with the dominant Bayern and also guiding them to the Champions league final, how can one make such comparisons when Klopp has the managerial experience to his CV not to mention he had Liverpool playing some great attacking football in his first season! and back to your assessment of Arteta and the club I agree 💯 it seems the club reacted too soon by promoting him from head coach to manager obviously caught up in the emotions of winning the FA Cup! I’ll happily admit the club made some promising signings in the summer and they could certainly move to the next level under a better more experienced manager but this is Arsenal they don’t do the logical. Some fans just won’t accept any criticism of Arteta no matter whats staring them in the face it’s almost as if sentiment gets in the way, Emery never got the excuses or support Arteta has and continues to get but the reality is I think a lot of supporters are on board with this process and as long as they fill out the Emirates the club will stick with their man unfortunately.
Well, I disagree with much of your long and rambling tirades.
Amongst all that you have written possibly the only point that has any merit is that Arsenal do not currently consistently play exciting football.
Your comments about those who still support Arteta are disingenuous. There is a difference between criticising the manager and calling for him to be sacked every time there is a bad result.
Oh, dear…
it must make for some difficult reading when you have a flashlight in one hand and a ruler in the other…make sure you don’t get caught little guy
@TRVL brilliant 👍😂
alot of inexperience managers at big clubs
Di Matteo, Lampard, Gerrard, Vialli, Solsjaer and many more
Chelsea will sack if bad perfomances continue…..
they have given time to their managers
Its the media that always call for sack just 2 or 3 losses or a bad run…..
Monsieur Henry obviously doesn’t watch Arsenal matches!😏
Perhaps he thinks this is 2019!😒
Aubameyang fully deserves to be Subbed!
The only issue here is Arteta not showing confidence in Lacazette, Nketiah or even Martinelli!
He prefers Odegaard as partner to a main striker instead!😒
Nketiah and Martinelli should start matches from now till May!
Then sell off Laca and Auba in the summer and get the likes of Ollie Watkins, Duvan Zapata, Calvert-Lewin, Gabriel Jesus, etc as partners to Eddie and GM!
Arsenal will be so Dangerous to other teams!🔥😍
Where was Henry for the last 18 months when the rookie manager Arteta was bungling the most simple and basic decisions from week to week – ranging from team selections, player substitutions and teams tactics.
It’s no surprise Arteta is wishing for Wegner’s return. He would, for certain, benefit from a Wegner crash course in team management, especially how to set a reasonable and achievable work load for a 32-year-old striker.
Arteta was right in subbing off Auba.
Personally, Auba should have been off earlier. It took a sitter miss to convince him to take him off.
Arteta should learn to give fringe players playing time. Not calling on them suddenly from not playing, like he did to Elneny. Martinelli, AMN etc. should be subbed on from time to time as required in games. It’s a shame pepe didn’t come on as we needed players that are confident with the ball, but I understand he is not ready since he has not been playing. If you can persist with Auba this long, pls try to develop every other talented player under you that is not performing currently. Don’t leave them on the bench to get completely worse.
I think what Henry is saying is Auba is our Captain and we should be able to rely on our Captain. We obviously cant so why is he Captain and what sort of message is that sending to the team.
In my opinion, Auba should not have started that match. Laca ought to have been picked ahead of him.
What Mr Henry is saying about Auba being subbed, doesn’t make sense at all. And the fact that he was a great player during his time, can’t make his opinions immune to questioning. Auba was absent while he was on the field, so what is the point of him continuing???🤷 A player who hasn’t scored nor assisted in 5matches or so, doesn’t possess any goalthreat to me, and having even squandered numerous chances in that same match, absolutely deserved to be subbed off (right call by Mikel).