Alexandre Lacazette: Laca the Net

[bingobob]

Of course the counter argument would have been, what would have happened if he had pulled up with an injury in the last 15 minutes given Giroud is out for the foreseeable future.
People on here would have been up in arms and questioning Wenger again.
Given our other alternatives right now don't look great, I, for once, had no problem with this substitution.
At 3-1 we should have had enough daylight to see the game out, which we did, all given our sleepy defence trying their hardest to embarrass the manager once again!

We could play Alexis up front and bring in Iwobi. Or push Wilshere forward or play Welbeck or Walcott as strikers.

The fact we took him off wasn't to protect him. It's because that is what we have done in (I think) every game he has started. If it was a one off then your protection idea would have merit.

 

[samshere]

Warning:boring long post

I read this thread as a lyon fan and it's kinda shocking to see a few definitive statements of how bad Laca is and will be. I suspect some of these users here are Giroud himself, his wife and his mummy lol

But seriously he doesn't have a great great start in the Arsenal shirt, but 8 goals/3 assists (actually 9 goals as he wasn't really offside, and involved in the construction of more than 3 goals) is not that bad of a start considering:

-He always lived in Lyon since child and play at the same club, so moving your family in a new country for the first time and play in a new league is not that easy for someone who's not used to.

-The connections with his new teammates are not here for the moment. They need to learn from eachothers. His little 1 in 2 trick with tolisso or fekir were a big part of destabilizing defenses and make space to go for the goal. They were always searching for Laca and his key passes/movement were always leading in a goal or at least dangerous actions.
For the moment at Arsenal, you have Sanchez who NEVER EVER pass the ball to Laca, he keeps the ball for himself, or always choose Kolasinac,Özil,Bellerin but never ever Laca to make 1/2 passes,construct actions,etc. Özil in the other hand is beginning to do it and trying but really not that much until now. Ramsey and welbeck were the ones who tried more to find and do tricks with Laca in this season first part, but you could see there were not a good understanding for the moment (and it's normal for new teammates)

-Laca is the most subbed player of ALL the EPL players, and not even started in two big matches. He also didn't play at all in Cups and in Europa.
This 70min sub' EVERY WEEK is a bit weird and frustrating for him when you know that from his 100 goals at lyon, he scored 31 in the last 20 mins. The defenses and the match open up at the end, with his runs and clinical finishing it's the perfect time to score goals and build confidence aswell as to ameliorate Arsenal's goal average.
Not to mention that when the second half begin, he knows that he has not much time left at all to score, so I'm sure he thinks about it and can't be really relaxed and maybe forcing his actions, etc..
I mean I can understand him being subbed here and there, but not every fckin match and being the most subbed in the EPL.
Even if Wenger want Giroud to play everytime, you can still finish some of them with two upfront, I'm sure they would work together.
Also even if it's his first season, he didn't hide against the top6 sides and managed to grab a few goals/assists.

-A not important thing but still: During corners and freekicks Wenger put him in front of the goalkeeper in the middle of the goal, when in Lyon he was always at the second post, and scored maybe 15 goals and had few assists from there, because of his awareness.


-Arsenal scary defense and tactic. 3 at the back to have a better defense, but that mean one less mildfielder to construct actions, participate in attacks and find laca.
The 3 at the back nearly never participate in going forward and don't make passes that break the lines. They always pass right or left and stay quietly at the back.
And when you have players like Koscielny, Xhaka, bellerin, even sanchez etc having a really really difficult season, losing the ball a scary amount of time per match, making dumb moves, etc it's really not helping the team and give confidence to the opposition. Now these few players have no confidence anymore, they always choose the safe pass and don't take risks, they don't want to make big errors again and it's killing the arsenal play as a whole. Their mojo will come back for sure, it's not their real level, but for the moment xhaka and majority of the defense are having nightmares of a season.

-And to finish the main and more important reason he's lacking goals for the moment is simply because he has nearly no service at all per match.
His movement and clinical finishing are his greatest attributes, but how many one on one situation with the keeper he had all season? Maybe not more than 5.
Each match he makes almost 10 good runs asking for the ball, which could lead to a goal or very very Dangerous situations, but never receive any balls, arsenal players don't chose to make that direct pass to him.
The 5 defenders choose the safe pass right/left/behind, sanchez never ever pass to laca, only xhaka/ramsey tried a few times at the beginning but missed their passes with too much power in it and gave the ball to the goalkeeper, after a few missed attempts they completetly stop trying for months now.
All his runs are never answered. It's what tolisso/fekir/valbuena/umtiti were searching and trying all the time, answering Lacaz runs with a direct pass (often on the ground) between the defensers that would lead to a Laca shot and a goal. (and even when it didn't lead to a one on one situation, Laca would hold up the ball well, attract all the destabilized defense around him and make a key pass that lead to an action of goal).
I hope Wenger will give more time to Wilshere, he is the only one for the moment who is not afraid to make those passes and confident in his technical ability (like that pass to sanchez the last game). If the defense was more confident, I would love to see a 4/3/3 with ramsey/xhaka and wilshere in number 10/8,5 position. It could turn out as a wonder front four.

I'm sorry for this long msg but I had to give my opinion after seeing some comments that triggered me a bit haha
It's not really fair to condemn him without taking in consideration the bigger picture. He doesn't have a great arsenal start career but being involved in 12/15 goals is not that bad considering the things above (and I think majority of Arsenal legends didn't became worldclass directly in their first season no?) Give him and the team a little bit of time and you'll love him like hell
(though there's also the Wenger issue, I'm not really sure what to think about him anymore, and if he is still able to bring out the best of his players with a good tactic/formation/motivation,etc, we'll see)

Look at the serial killer you will have once him and his teammates understand eachother, once few players have their confidence back again and once the team style of play is more directed to use Laca's qualities

I didn't read your post but I agree with every word you say.

 

[skip spence]

I would be interested to see how many minutes both have played this season if your going to compare their goals tally!

In the PL:
Giroud: 376 min 4 goals; 0,96 goals per 90 min; 4,31 shots per 90 min

Lacazette: 1276 min 8 goals; 0,56 goals per 90 min; 2,96 shots per 90 min

Source: Squawka

 

[Zaza]

We could play Alexis up front and bring in Iwobi. Or push Wilshere forward or play Welbeck or Walcott as strikers.

The fact we took him off wasn't to protect him. It's because that is what we have done in (I think) every game he has started. If it was a one off then your protection idea would have merit.

Think it has something to do with his Stamina. I heard he's been going through rigorous training or something for it.

 

[yybecause]

Special

 

[bingobob]

Think it has something to do with his Stamina. I heard he's been going through rigorous training or something for it.

One of the best ways to build up stamina is to play 90 minutes regularly. And he is doing the opposite of that.

And even then personally I find it absurd that a professional footballer lacks stamina to last 90 minutes. Perhaps early on but not at the mid point of a season. This is where fitness should be at its peak.

 

[infinium]

It is not so much "peak" fitness but you hope that by mid-season you reach an efficient and effective cycle of exertion and recovery to maintain a competition level of fitness. Lacazette can last 90 minutes but the question is (and this is only one that the coaches with the data will know) whether he can do 90 mins at PL tempo with relatively short recovery cycles in between with noticeable performance degradation setting in. It maybe that the coaching staff are just being cautious with his first season in the PL.

 

[burnsjed]

We could play Alexis up front and bring in Iwobi. Or push Wilshere forward or play Welbeck or Walcott as strikers.

The fact we took him off wasn't to protect him. It's because that is what we have done in (I think) every game he has started. If it was a one off then your protection idea would have merit.

All of which would have carried merit if we didn't have a 2 goal lead.

Wenger likes to break new foreign players in to the EPL, and is also probably aware that he usually has a winter break.
I think it would be natural to see his minutes increase as the campaign continues, but that may be somewhat delayed due to the injury of Giroud.

Lets face it, none of us know what the manager is thinking, and with so many voices on here there are 2 camps on about every single issue!

 

[MutableEarth]

His most average performance in the shirt so far - he started off well and had good patches in the game but some of his attempts at linking up fell well short of quality.

This has not soured me on him at all, but an indication that he will have to do better. A good thing about this game is that he had more opportunities to shoot. Law of averages should indicate that if he continues to get more he will score more.

 

[Camron]

His most average performance in the shirt so far - he started off well and had good patches in the game but some of his attempts at linking up fell well short of quality.

This has not soured me on him at all, but an indication that he will have to do better. A good thing about this game is that he had more opportunities to shoot. Law of averages should indicate that if he continues to get more he will score more.

Agreed. He was as poor as the rest. We do need to create more opportunities for him though. Our current game just doesn't suit him (not sure what kind of striker would do well in it tbh).

 

[MutableEarth]

Agreed. He was as poor as the rest. We do need to create more opportunities for him though. Our current game just doesn't suit him (not sure what kind of striker would do well in it tbh).

The striker we need is 2001-04 Thierry Henry unfortunately.

 

[LG10]

No matter how you sugarcoat it, he had another mediocre performance.

 

[CurryFlavoured]

Just not decisive enough. He had opportunities to score and play a killer pass at points but he failed on both counts. We need him to be more clinical on days like today.

 

[GDeep™]

Poor again.

 

[Lookin' for a new Baby]

I'm prepared to give players a chance, but he needs to score a few now.

 

[GDeep™]

It's not just about scoring, his general game is below par.

 

[bingobob]

I'm struggling to see what we adds to the team. He has a neat touch that's about it. I really don't see what he offers over Danny Welbeck currently. And I'm sure Danny feels the same.

 

[field442]

I'm struggling to see what we adds to the team. He has a neat touch that's about it. I really don't see what he offers over Danny Welbeck currently. And I'm sure Danny feels the same.

A first touch and composure in the box for a start. I’m not sure how anyone could compare the two. Welbeck couldn’t hit a cows arse with a banjo.

 

[SuperGoon]

It's not just about scoring, his general game is below par.

Agreed. We're not playing to his strengths, I think, but I'm not seeing much strengths. I want to believe, but he's given little hope.

 

[GDeep™]

Agreed. We're not playing to his strengths, I think, but I'm not seeing much strengths. I want to believe, but he's given little hope.

Other than finishing there are NO strengths. It's not anything some haven't said for years.