Arsenal has struggled for goals in recent games and against Aston Villa on Sunday, the Gunners were in terrible form yet again.
Mikel Arteta has made the team better at the back, which was the club’s Achilles heel before he was made the manager, but the Spaniard now faces a new problem in his attack.
Most of the blame and criticism for Arsenal’s lack of goals has been pointed towards the direction of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Gabon striker is the club’s captain and his new deal makes him one of the top two earners at the club.
Apart from that, fans have been used to him scoring the goals for their team, so they will not understand why the goals are suddenly drying up.
However, we must not forget the fact that Aubameyang isn’t the club’s target man, and he has been playing out of position so that Alexandre Lacazette can play.
The Frenchman has been the central striker for much of the time that Arteta has been at the club, yet fans turn on Aubameyang when he doesn’t score, not so much for Lacazette.
Lacazette has to also answer for the lack of goals in the team. The only reason why he plays ahead of Aubameyang in the centre is that he is supposed to score goals.
While Aubameyang needs to get himself sorted, it is time for Lacazette to also get some criticism if this team continues to struggle for goals.
An article from Ime
Lol I don’t think any arsenal fan blames auba. Not the blame is squarely on lacca and arteta for a crapy team selection
That he’s playing out of position is not even the issue, the issue is that arteta seems to have only one tactics, which is to just hoof the ball to aubamayang and we all know he will do the rest but this season, the other teams seem to have known that as well so immediately we have the ball they put 2 players on aubamayang to mark him out. I read something yesterday that this season is the first time in auba professional career that he will go four matches without having any clear cut chance. I see some fans blaming our forwards but the only person I will blame out of all our forwards is Lava who has seen chance over chance but can’t seem to know how to score, the rest hardly see any chance again. I always read some fans saying auba can’t play as a line striker but if I remember correctly when we signed him in January Wenger use him mostly as a line striker and he delivered, I still remember his goals against everton and burley to name a few, even Emery used him as a line striker before people start putting pressure on him to use the “PAL” front line, in most of our Europa league run to the final we played auba as mostly the lone striker and he scored 11 goal’s, so I don’t get all this he can’t play as a line striker. If an average Tammy Abraham can score 15 goals as a line striker then I believe aubamayang can score 20. And I don’t get all this hold up play none sense that some fans keep talking about, auba does not need a hold up play to score those two goals Lacazette missed against Liverpool or hold up play to score the goal Laca missed against Man city, even that Miss against Aston villa you don’t need any none sense hold up play to put that away. I just pray arteta change this tactics and try aubamayang as a central forward, at least if something is not working you change it.
Agree with you. Auba is being wasted on the left at the expense of Cacazette!
Exactly when he played through the middle for Dortmund he scored over 30 goals in the Bundesliga outscoring Lewandowski who is currently the best striker on the planet
Good points on Artera and the style of play but:
Laca have been missing chances for over 2 years now so that argument is not new.
Auba is not a center forward and always played on the left.
Why’s Saka been our only decent attacker? He’s 19 and is being expected to carry this Arsenal attack. The senior players need to ask themselves why a 19 year old is putting in 10x more of a shift than they are. It’s embarrassing watching Auba, Laca, or Willian play football right now.
If auba is played in the middle i think he will attack those half chances better than any other player in our squad but that wont be the complete solution because he is not a pure no.9 and i believe using him in the wings makes it hard for the opposition defenders because he is very tricky with his runs.He is a superb player when you create for him.
As for our no.9,i just cant think of a solution just hoping laca or nketiah ups their game.
The reason that Laca plays as a CF ahead of Auba has nothing to do with goals but his link up, hold up play and pressing as for Auba every striker goes through dry spells, what worries the most is the fact that his stats keep going down, chances created for himself /teammates, shots taken, numbers of touches over 90mns,his pressing is non existent, distances covered, sprints.. He’s being less involved each passing game, I don’t know what it is but something is not right, is MA overloading his players with instructions? Restricting them, too complicated tactics..?? Or is he just going through a rough spell, is he tired or mentally exhausted? Not enjoying the way we play? I don’t know the answers but I believe these are legitimate questions!
Sorry to go OT… Guess who was back at the Emirates today?!! Only Gunnersaurus 🙂👍
Very interesting reading . Even if u bring Lewandowski or any other top striker, this team will not score goals with MA as the coach. He is a fraud. U cant score goals when our strikers don’t get any touches in the box. We should get the Southampton manager.
Disagree
Think Auba got away with any criticism
We blame lacca , willian, bellerain, mustafi but auba gets away with it
He’s been terrible this season
How can anyone blame our forwards if they are not getting the flow of chances?
All of them are playing in positions that they have scored goals from before, so that’s a red herring in my opinion.
So why is it that every one of our strike force is not scoring goals?
Simple answers must surely be either :
1. They have all lost form at the same time.
2. They just aren’t getting the opportunities required to score the goals.
Can’t think of any other scenario personally.
Agree! They just aren’t getting the opportunities required to score the goals. Also when they get the ball they are too far back in their own half to be able to organize and move forward.
Seeing the ball bounces off Lacazette’s feet on his first touch is hardly a sight to behold hahaha. So much for his “hold-up” play. He doesn’t score, he doesn’t hold-up the ball, he doesn’t have blistering pace, he doesn’t win aerial balls, he rarely make runs behind the defense, he rarely position himself to receive cutbacks or crosses, when he does he missed the goal 90% of the time, he doesn’t play diagonal balls to the wingers like Kane does. His only “strength” is running like headless chicken on the pitch. I see him as nothing but a forward Guendouzi. At least Guendouzi is better on the ball than him.
fans expect footballers to be a robot/machine just like Fifa21
Why does Arteta make Auba a guaranteed starter when he is not scoring? Laca sometimes sits on the bench for the same reasons. He needs to do the same for Aubameyang and start other attackers ahead of him. Pepe is averaging 10-15 minutes in the EPL. Give him a run of games and see if rotating the front three makes them more effective.
I think Willian should be the impact sub, not Pepe.