Mikel Arteta has been urged to field Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as a central striker at Arsenal as the Gabonese forward continues to struggle for form at the Emirates.
Aubameyang remains one of the best strikers in the world and he has been among the top scorers in the Premier League in every campaign that he has played for the Gunners.
However, his goals have dried up and Mail Sports’ Jonathan Spencer believes that the time has come for the striker to be played in a more central role at the club.
The Gabonese attacker has been played on the left side of the Arsenal attack in recent months and he has had to cut in or make the run in to score.
The central striker role has been shared by Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah, but as Aubameyang suffers his longest barren run at the club in the league, Spencer reckons that it is time for him to be brought back into a more central attacking role.
He writes: “Arteta continues to put his faith in Lacazette centrally while using Aubameyang on the flank – playing down the right on Sunday. But it’s proving hugely ineffective – Aubameyang is Arsenal’s only true world class player at present and needs to be prioritised centrally.
“Lacazette’s continued inclusion is surprising many fans. His form has declined massively and he looks short in confidence in all departments – he missed a sitter in the opening period on Sunday as Kieran Tierney whipped a fierce ball into the six-yard box. ”
Mattinelli remain best center forward for gunner, in terms of positioning and his finishing, laca loose his form bcoz u people take it away, best auba position is from left attacks, so, if not laca in the center then nkethia, creative midfielder to supply attacks, good pass for striker is half goal, how many of it have u seen in the season, except elneny gave to bellerin for auba goal in europa. Mind u don’t allow who is not arsenal fans to confuse arteta, he knows each player and their capability
The sensationalism from our fanbase is funny.
Auba was scoring goals before he signed his new mega contract. Since he signed it he has relaxed as he is not playing for a new contract anymore.
I don’t see him chasing back / tracking back like he was doing before the new contract. Not bothered to take on even shots on goal like he was doing before. Auba was coming up with goals from out of nothing before the contract and now he seems to be a bit more reserved.
There is a problem with Arteta playing too conservative and defensive but Auba and the rest of the team are not taking even the few good goal scoring chances we are creating at the moment.
Fans want to play ‘manager’ again by deciding where a player should play….
Arteta should make the decision …he knows the players and not the fans…
I do agree with this, but at the same time Auba looks like he could use a bit of a change to possibly get him back to scoring form. Maybe a run at CF for a few games would do the trick.
Even the blind can see it’s time to drop Lacazette and use auba centrally, how many chances does Lacazette needs before he score. A striker that will see 6 chances and score one and the annoying part is that Lacazette can only play as a no9, he doesn’t have the pace to play as a winger so if he’s not scoring, he’s useless.
I saw a commentary here that I really liked:
Lacazette is the new Giroud without the head
I couldn’t agree more
Arteta needs to change the position truly becoz laca is just a waste of time… Lets just try aubu and lets see what going to happen. I pray #GM35 recovers early so that he will fill the gape…
I said that many times before, let’s play Auba as ST and give Pepe-Willock-Saka and Willian some chance behind him since we lack the real playmaker over here
Who on earth is Jonathan Spencer, a nobady journo who hasn’t a clue what he is saying.