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Alexandre Lacazette: Laca the Net

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RacingPhoton

Established Member
Agree that Giroud has 3 years on Laca which are supposed to be the prime years of his career. But it's not like he is a 21 year old. He's now 28. To be elite he'll have to really improve a lot. Make more runs, be ruthless. Generally not a fan of strikers who are constantly attracted to the ball especially with our poverty options outwide. If we had good inside forwards making runs he'd be ideal because his play style like Firmino. Or maybe a goal scoring 10 like Fekir/Griezman.

We have playmaker style wingers. It's better to have someone who moves away from the play with his movements. Don't think Laca offers that. You can just tell by the type of goals he has been scoring, difficult goals but his xG is always low because he doesn't get himself into good positions. Also for someone with elite finishing he takes very few shots in a game. Even at Lyon.
Don't think hes suddenly going to change his game at 28.

If 3 years ago someone had told me that we'd have both Auba and Laca but are debating on if we should sell one, I'd have thought you were mad. But that's what unbalanced recruitment does I guess.
Laca scored 28 goals in his final season at Lyon. You don't get those numbers if you're not good at taking runs. At Arsenal, he ends up going back to win those balls because we have an absolutely pathetic excuse of a midfield that doesn't function on its own. He is being forced to go back. Look at the number of goals scored by Auba when Laca is not on pitch. Buying a winger is not going to fix that.
Sell our dross like Xhaka, Mustafi, Elneny etc. and buy good replacements for those positions. Then check if Laca/Auba partnership works. Right now, selling Laca means trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
 

Ashybashy86

Well-Known Member
Laca scored 28 goals in his final season at Lyon. You don't get those numbers if you're not good at taking runs. At Arsenal, he ends up going back to win those balls because we have an absolutely pathetic excuse of a midfield that doesn't function on its own. He is being forced to go back. Look at the number of goals scored by Auba when Laca is not on pitch. Buying a winger is not going to fix that.
Sell our dross like Xhaka, Mustafi, Elneny etc. and buy good replacements for those positions. Then check if Laca/Auba partnership works. Right now, selling Laca means trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
The team desperately needs wingers. Plus a massive improvement on Kolasinac, who hopefully will be sold. I cannot stand the over-reliance on him to create our chances. We need more unpredictability in our play (not performances).
 

RacingPhoton

Established Member
The team desperately needs wingers. Plus a massive improvement on Kolasinac, who hopefully will be sold. I cannot stand the over-reliance on him to create our chances. We need more unpredictability in our play (not performances).
Our team has scored more goals than both Chelsea and Sp**s in the PL. Though wingers are necessary, we are not in desperate need of them. If buy good midfield and defense instead, we can do even better in our attack. Laca and Auba literally carried our team to 5th position this year.

Even if we sell Laca and buy a winger with that money, there is no guarantee that the new player is going to shine for us. Just look at United to see the number if failed players they have in their squad even if they paid lot more.
Good players are hard to get. Strikers are even harder. If you get one, you hold on to him unless you get a ****load of money.
 

FluffyDoozi

Active Member
Laca scored 28 goals in his final season at Lyon. You don't get those numbers if you're not good at taking runs. At Arsenal, he ends up going back to win those balls because we have an absolutely pathetic excuse of a midfield that doesn't function on its own. He is being forced to go back. Look at the number of goals scored by Auba when Laca is not on pitch. Buying a winger is not going to fix that.
Sell our dross like Xhaka, Mustafi, Elneny etc. and buy good replacements for those positions. Then check if Laca/Auba partnership works. Right now, selling Laca means trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
He has what, 9 penalties that season. One's that he didn't win like say Pepe. Scored 19 then 20 non penalty goals in those prolific years. He was also known as a flat track bully in those last years in France(he's improved in big games).

I think fans thought since he was a small guy he'd be making runs in behind. Wilshere described him as a Defoe but that's not his game. He has always dropped deep. He used to be a wide midfielder earlier on and it shows in his game.

We just have to do major surgery on this squad with so many people needing shifting on yet the funds are non existent. We'll need a sacrificial lamb. He happens to be valuable and easily replaceable.
This team has no single player who is irreplaceable like in previous years. It's a sad indictment of the quality of the squad and how unbalanced it is. If a big offer came in for ANY of our players, we have to take it and rebuild. He is the most likely to get a reasonable price hence my view.

I guess we'll just agree to disagree on this.
 

say yes

forum master baiter
Wish people would stop comparing Lacazette to trash footballers. He has 32 goals + assists this season despite sharing minutes with Aubameyang / not being our number 1 man up top. His work rate is fantastic and he’s done it in the big games too. Fully deserved to be our player of the season.

If you think we should sell him for £60m+ to rebalance the squad / fund some wingers then (while I don’t agree) fair enough. But let’s at least be happy that we’ve got a player in our squad who’s worth that amount of money and has big clubs interested.
 

OnlyOne

‘Donkeys don’t have a peak, they remain useless’
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Wish people would stop comparing Lacazette to trash footballers. He has 32 goals + assists this season despite sharing minutes with Aubameyang / not being our number 1 man up top. His work rate is fantastic and he’s done it in the big games too. Fully deserved to be our player of the season.

If you think we should sell him for £60m+ to rebalance the squad / fund some wingers then (while I don’t agree) fair enough. But let’s at least be happy that we’ve got a player in our squad who’s worth that amount of money and has big clubs interested.

Completely agree, that money would only be spent on players we can already afford/attract now, we'd just be able to get more. No CL attraction kills us more than the money tbh.

Now isn't the time to sell our player of the year. If we had CL and wanted to help fund Zaha, sounds good to me, but we can't.
 

say yes

forum master baiter
Just to put Lacazette’s numbers this year into perspective / kill off this idiocy about his numbers being poor: since we moved to the Emirates 13 seasons ago, only 8 players have put up a season with over 30 goals + assists.

Here’s how they rank:

RVP - 51 g+a in 11/12 - 80.3 mins / g+a
Sanchez - 48 g+a in 16/17 - 88.1 mins / g+a
Fabregas - 39 g+a in 09/10 - 78.7 mins / g+a
Aubameyang - 39 g+a in 18/19 - 99 mins / g+a
Walcott - 37 g+a in 12/13 - 80.8 mins / g+a
Fabregas - 37 g+a in 07/08 - 108.2 mins / g+a
Sanchez - 37 g+a in 14/15 - 116.9 mins / g+a
Adebayor - 35 g+a in 07/08 - 105.7 mins / g+a
RVP - 34 g+a in 08/09 - 101.4 mins / g+a
Giroud - 34 g+a in 13/14 - 120.4 mins / g+a
Lacazette - 32 g+a in 18/19 - 104 mins / g+a

He hasn’t had an elite season ala Van Persie in 11/12, Sanchez in 16/17 or Fabregas in 09/10 but when you move past those stand-outs his numbers are comparable to any other ‘great season’ at the club over the past 13 years.

More productive (considering minutes played) than Adebayor or Fabregas in 07/08 and Sanchez in 14/15. And that’s despite our most effective creative weapon being a ****ing LB all season.

Put some respeck on his name.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
More productive (considering minutes played) than Adebayor or Fabregas in 07/08 and Sanchez in 14/15. And that’s despite our most effective creative weapon being a ****ing LB all season.

Put some respeck on his name.
This and one more thing you forgot to mention, the impact of his goals and assists were mostly crucial for those games. It wasn't like he scored half of the goals when we were already 2-0 up. You could also mention that beside goals and assists, he is important for moving the ball forward, very often coming deep which makes it even harder for him to have better numbers, and that's something we won't see in statistics.
 

OSBK

Established Member
Where did I mention that it would solve our defense problems? And why bring up Mhki or Özil like I am advocating for them to stay and play. I said a fast winger on the flanks who stretches teams, which they aren't
I said it would help alleviate some of them problems on the flanks. So you think of we had a wide player in the profile of say Leroy Sane/Mane Maitland-Niles would be facing 2 against 1 situations for 90 minutes all season?
You think if this Sane/Mane esque players was our creative outlet outwide instead of the full back we wouldn't face more counter attacks?

Auba played on the wing 17 times this season in all competitions, not to mention the times he played there when Laca was subbed on but he still almost scored double Lacas tally.
You honestly don't think that a primarily Centre forward Auba, a faster wide player and generally a better balance wouldn't outweigh the 13 goals of Laca?

I mentioned mhky and Özil because they are in the postions you want to sign a winger. I was just trying to figure out why you would sell laca and keep mhky and Özil? And if you dont want them to which i hope is the case there is enough transfer fee and wages between them to buy your winger so we can have a potent from 3. Auba,laca,winger so we match Sp**s/city/pool/chelsea on the attack.

What does alleviate the some problems mean though. If your saying it wont help the defence then why change it, we conceeded over 50 goals last season. Its as clear as that, why spend 40mill on a winger when we will conceeded that amount again. So to boils down to this question alone, are you willing to sell laca to buy a top cb and not improve the forward line? Because thats the solution, if your willing to replace one attacker with another just so we can try to outscore everyone then whats the point??
 

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
Laca scored 28 goals in his final season at Lyon. You don't get those numbers if you're not good at taking runs. At Arsenal, he ends up going back to win those balls because we have an absolutely pathetic excuse of a midfield that doesn't function on its own. He is being forced to go back. Look at the number of goals scored by Auba when Laca is not on pitch. Buying a winger is not going to fix that.
Sell our dross like Xhaka, Mustafi, Elneny etc. and buy good replacements for those positions. Then check if Laca/Auba partnership works. Right now, selling Laca means trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

It's not just about quality, though. The whole system is meant to work that way. Wingbacks as main threat, attacking mids pushed to the sides to interplay with them, two 6s sitting deep most of them time with the central CB pushing almost between them at times, the outside CBs of the 3 pushing out wide, Lacazette being essentially a weird and often isolated number 10 behind striker Auba.
 

FluffyDoozi

Active Member
Wish people would stop comparing Lacazette to trash footballers. He has 32 goals + assists this season despite sharing minutes with Aubameyang / not being our number 1 man up top. His work rate is fantastic and he’s done it in the big games too. Fully deserved to be our player of the season.

If you think we should sell him for £60m+ to rebalance the squad / fund some wingers then (while I don’t agree) fair enough. But let’s at least be happy that we’ve got a player in our squad who’s worth that amount of money and has big clubs interested.
Fabregas, Alexis and Theo really shouldn't be on that list. They weren't ever centerfowards. Them having such numbers highlights how good they were those seasons.
Adebayor was also very wasteful in that season where he was consistent. I remember he used to drive me insane wasting all those chances laid to him by Cesc. Not a top class striker judging by his career before and after that season.
In 08 RVP was injured for a big chunk of that season. The one season he was completely injury free he was unstoppable.

You are also forgetting that Laca is playing Europa while those guys were playing Champions League. Am sure they'd have better numbers in the League only.

Why not compare him with other top players. He is a 50 million pound player afterall.

Just to clarify, ideally I would prefer if Kroenke released more funds and we add onto Laca and Auba but we all know that's not going to happen. Difficult decisions would have to be taken of that 40-50 m budget is real.
 

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
ideally I would prefer if Kroenke released more funds

Mate, how often do people have to say that this isn't possible anymore under current FFP rules? Owners can't gift their own money to their clubs anymore for transfers, only for things like infrastructure.

At the beginning it was that way, but it isn't anymore, which is exactly why some are feeling FFP seems more fit to protect the first group of sugar daddy clubs (City, PSG, Chelsea) than creating a level playing field.

City e.g. have so much money to spend because basically all their sponsorship deals are done with companies from within the Al Nahyan family, overblowing those deals in their value.

City are therefore currently investigated for a) receiving a fund from their owners which incidentally roughly equals the Mahrez transfer fee and was given to them around the time of that transfer and b) for artificially overblowing sponsorship deals exceeding market evaluations of what City should reasonably be offered by sponsors, c) for backhand payments to Pellegrini as well as seemingly Guardiola and d) for apparently trying to derail and mislead those investigations with this last point apparently being the reason UEFA are taking this seemingly more serious than previous cases.
 
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FluffyDoozi

Active Member
Mate, how often do people have to say that this isn't possible anymore under current FFP rules? Owners can't gift their own money to their clubs anymore for transfers, only for things like infrastructure.

https://arseblog.com/2019/05/can-ar...-clubs-fortunes-by-investing-their-own-money/

Just off the top of my head, there's an article by lawyer who deals with the kind of thing. There's other articles out there.

There are ways to get around this as long as it's not full blown state sponsorship like in City's case. The fact that only Arsenal in the last year or so is the only team with 0% in the league shows that you are wrong.

You could probably take time and read more about it. Swiss Ramble is a good start.

If Kroenke was willing to invest there's not much that can stop him.
 

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
https://arseblog.com/2019/05/can-ar...-clubs-fortunes-by-investing-their-own-money/

Just off the top of my head, there's an article by lawyer who deals with the kind of thing. There's other articles out there.

There are ways to get around this as long as it's not full blown state sponsorship like in City's case. The fact that only Arsenal in the last year or so is the only team with 0% in the league shows that you are wrong.

You could probably take time and read more about it. Swiss Ramble is a good start.

That article still lists all the ways owners can invest directly, but continually also says they can't do this to fill the transfer war chest. Exactly what I'm saying. There are a few guys on here more well read about this topic as I am, like @Gooner Zig and @Slartibartfast iirc, so maybe they can fill you in a bit more.

Look, of course there's ways around it. One I have highlighted myself in the other post: Overblowing sponsorship deals. Of course your owner can give you 100m to built new training and academy facilities and somewhere along the way 30m go missing and are suddenly found in the transfer budget again. But it's against the rules.

If you pose the question as open as "could the owner improve the club's fortunes by putting money in?" of course the answer is going to be yes.
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
We sell the useless players and rip up the MF minus Lucas and Douzi. Fix that problem and add wingers and a dominant CB and we should improve cohesion and get more points. Laca should be the first one out of the door unless it's for squad changing money.
 

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐
Really depends on how much we can get for Laca. Anything under £70m and he should stay IMO. I'd much prefer to keep a CF of his caliber but replacing him with a wide player who can replicate his output potentially might work for the better, as risky as it would seem.
 

Tourbillion

Angry & Miserable
Really depends on how much we can get for Laca. Anything under £70m and he should stay IMO. I'd much prefer to keep a CF of his caliber but replacing him with a wide player who can replicate his output potentially might work for the better, as risky as it would seem.
Exactly and give Eddie the backup striker role.
 

celestis

Arsenal-Mania Veteran
Moderator

Country: Australia
It's not just about quality, though. The whole system is meant to work that way. Wingbacks as main threat, attacking mids pushed to the sides to interplay with them, two 6s sitting deep most of them time with the central CB pushing almost between them at times, the outside CBs of the 3 pushing out wide, Lacazette being essentially a weird and often isolated number 10 behind striker Auba.

Yup and that's the problem , all of a sudden Lacazette's first touch and pass become crucial to the attacking play . Before this we had Bergkamp , Reyes, Fabregas , Cazorla and Özil for that role , that's a big technical gulf to Lacazette, who isn't bad technically but can't be expected to play that role .

By his own admission , he's been encouraged to roam by Unai and in the past he has been told to stay close to the box by Wenger.
 
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