Posted by Previously: Goalkeeper. Fullback. Centerback. Center midfield. Winger.
Two and a half years after signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Arsenal still haven’t figured out how to work him and Alexandre Lacazette into the same team. All pre-season indications suggest they’re still trying.
I’m not sure why. The pair have played two full seasons together, and in both the Gunners finished the Premier League season in eighth. Lacazette was supposed to be gone by now. Based on pre-season form, most probably wouldn’t be opposed to Aubameyang leaving either.
Yet here we are. God help us.
Center Forward: Alexandre Lacazette
Rating: 4/10
Arsenal remain actively searching for CF reinforcements. They’re not coming by Friday. Barring a surprise, that means Alexandre Lacazette starts the season at CF for Arsenal.
It wasn’t THAT long ago that Lacazette was being favorably compared to Karim Benzema. StatsBomb ran a model in 2017 that ranked Lacazette as the fourth (!) best finisher in Europe.
Safe to say no one’s making those arguments now.
Lacazette opened last season with three goals in three games, but fell completely off the boil after being dropped for game four vs. Liverpool, culminating in a disastrous 75 minutes against Manchester United in which he turned the ball over seven times.
But he recovered well during the post-Christmas period, and ended the season in better form than Aubameyang.
Not that that’s saying much.
It’s clear the club are looking to move on from him. Unfortunately, no one on the continent is buying. If we’re betting, the money would be on him staying. Hoping to be wrong.
Reserves
If Lacazette goes (and the Gunners opt against adding through the transfer market) Folarin Balogun will have big shoes to fill. The 20-year-old nearly left the club after running down his contract last spring, but was convinced by Arteta’s project enough to sign on for another four years.
How Arteta convinced him remains a mystery, but almost certainly included first team playing time guarantees. And a new number; Balogun has shed the 38 that every young player dreams of, in favor of the 26.
It’s clear Arsenal rate him. They turned down bids of £3 million from Sheffield United last September, and £5 million from Brentford in January. They rate him because, as already mentioned, goal scorers don’t grow on trees and Balogun scores them in bunches: 10 (and four assists) in 15 under-23 appearances for the club in 2019-20, and 25 in 19 for the U18s the year before.
Aubameyang will get minutes here. There’s a world in which Balogun fights off he and Lacazette by the end of the season.
Finally, Eddie Nketiah is still here, although probably not for long.
A sale is probably in the best interest of all parties.