“When he starts, he does nothing” Arsenal told to still get rid of Lacazette

Gabby Agbonlahor has urged Arsenal to still offload Alexandre Lacazette despite his impressive cameo appearance off the bench against Crystal Palace yesterday.

The Frenchman is in the last season of his current deal at the club and he looks set to leave.

There is little appetite to offer him a new deal at the Emirates at the moment and Football London reports that the striker is also not thinking about signing a new Arsenal contract.

However, the attacker showed in the match against Palace that he might still have something to offer.

With Arsenal heading for a 2-1 loss, he entered the match and changed their gameplay.

He caused all kinds of problems for the Palace defence before eventually getting a goal to help the Gunners earn a share of the spoils in a 2-2 draw.

Despite that performance, former Aston Villa striker, Agbonlahor, still believes the Gunners should get rid of him because he struggles when he plays from the start.

Asked if Arsenal should keep the former Lyon man, Agbonlahor told Football Insider: “I would get rid of him.

“Lacazette comes on and gets the odd goal but when he starts, he does nothing.

“It’s alright coming on and geeing up the fans and doing this and that but since he’s been there he’s not been good enough.

“He doesn’t score enough goals as an Arsenal striker given what they’ve had in the past.

“For me, I would replace him and get someone younger and better in.

“You start Lacazette in the next game and he probably won’t score or even have a decent game. When he comes on he might have a little impact.

“The goal he scored [against Crystal Palace] was not a difficult goal to score, it was a tap in.

“Arsenal need to change quite a few players in that team.

Tags Alexandre Lacazette Gabby Agbonlahor

5 Comments

  1. Laca is potent up top because his link up play causes fluidity, and trouble for defenses. Technically better than Auba in my opinion. He may not get all the headlines but he certainly makes us more of an attacking threat overall.

  2. I’ll preface my statement by stating that there’s no doubt in my mind that we need to offload Laca, preferably in January so that we might actually get something in return for another player we’ve paid handsomely for whom we simply can’t allow, from a learning curve standpoint, to leave on a free come season’s end

    It’s not like I think he’s a scrub, as I was a fan of his when he was plying his trade in Ligue 1, albeit I felt that he was more of a 1B to Fekir’s 1A…I just think we dithered for too long before paying over the number for someone who wasn’t the kind of Striker that could justify the potential financial outlay, at least not in the PL

    for me, he’s best suited in a formational configuration where he can tuck in behind the Striker, then enters the box late so he can find pockets of space in amongst the trees…this allows him to use his size to his advantage, as he had a unique ability, at his former club, to avoid being overmatched by bigger, more physical defenders with his late movement in and around the box

    in my estimation, he’s likewise too small to play with his back to goal, regardless of those who seem to suggest that he can be the link-up lynchpin between the middle and final thirds…the problem is that in order for him to take on this role he needs to come too deep to establish a viable target position, unlike say a Giroud, who could go toe-to-toe with most defenders, so he could dictate terms on the pitch in a much different fashion

    when Laca tries to play this role he has a tendency to flop all over the place at the slightest sign of contact, which could lead to some advantageous free kick scenarios, but more often than not they occur in areas on the pitch that don’t provide anything resembling a scoring opportunity and simply slow down play

    ultimately, he’s little more than a overpaid sub, who’s simply too old to justify a re-upping, as the chances of him take a one year term on considerably less money, with no assurances regarding minutes, is highly unlikely…furthermore, he’s simply not clinical enough to be an everyday starter for anyone with higher aspirations in any League of consequence…that said, I hope nothing but the best for him in the future, so long as that future is not here in North London

  3. I think Lacazette deserves an extension of his contract . For a player who was Arsenal’s highest scorer last season and scores important goals , the club should do the needful. His work rate is also very high..

  4. Only sell if we can immediately replace with quality – if we don’t, we’ll be in big big trouble as we can’t rely on any of our other forwards. I don’t understand how that isn’t clear by now.
    It’s not true at all that he does nothing as a starter, he has off games, but he’s easily our most reliable CF right now.
    Imo, a 1 year extension would be Ideal for the club, but maybe not for the player, but either way we need a new top quality CF at the club asap if we want to move forward

  5. I disagree with Gabby. He generally works hard for the team. He’s just not good enough for a team that wants to be challenging for major honours.
    I don’t believe he’s ever been really convincing since he’s been at Arsenal.

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