Should penalty taking duties be taken off Aubameyang for now? By Sylvester Kwentua
Hello again! Have you in recent weeks ever wondered if maybe Aubemeyang needed some time off from taking set piece duties, especially penalty kicks? Auba is a deadly striker who on a good day can finish off half of a chance, but it seems scoring penalties has not been one of his strong points lately as a striker at Arsenal. Or is it the pressure of leading Arsenal that is affecting his penalty taking technique?
Since he started playing for Arsenal, Auba has scored 9 out of 13 penalties for Arsenal in the league, and for a striker, this is not a bad record. But when you consider that he has failed to score in two back to back crucial penalty kicks for Arsenal; against Aston Villa and against Watford, then you may start to toy with the idea of probably taking away the responsibility from him till he gets his groove back. Scoring of penalties needs all the focus a player can get and at this period of his career, Auba seems to be struggling with getting back to his best, although he has scored a few goals already for Arsenal this season.
While he gets back to the Auba we have always known him for, who can shoulder the responsibility of taking penalty kicks for the meantime?
Welcome Lacazette! Yes, you read me right. Laca should be considered seriously to start taking up penalty duties for Arsenal.
I won’t be the first to mention that Laczette should be allowed to take up penalty duties for Arsenal, but I don’t mind lending my voice in supporting it. Somebody who has a record of only missing 5 penalties so far in his career, as against the 31 he has scored so far, should be the first choice penalty taker in any club.
Do you know that Laca has scored 8 out of 8 penalties for Arsenal so far? Strangely enough, Ben Foster, when he kept goal for West Brom, was the closest who has come to saving one of Laca’s penalties (which was his first one for Arsenal) and even then all he did was guess the right way.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not in any way trying to teach Arteta his job, I am only asking if he could look into these persistent calls for Lacazette to be allowed to take penalties. But judging by what Arteta told reporters after the Watford game, Aubameyang may just retain his penalty duties.
Asked if Aubameyang may now be taken off penalties going forward, Arteta replied: “He will stay on penalties if he is happy to do so.
“You will miss it if you take penalties, that is part of your career and the job and we will try to help him.” Do we agree with him?
We are Arsenal and proud.
Sylvester