Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: From Thriller To Bad, Should He Just Beat It?

[Fabregasm]

Tempting to do a thread, will the Auba situation become anything like the Özil situation, more because I’ve picked out a few things to suggest not. Don’t want to do it though because I don’t think we’re at the point of needing such a discussion yet.

That giving F all attitude behavior after signing contract does seem familiar.

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

Sell him?
no one would buy him with the wages he’s on. Stuck with him now.

I agree. That also doesn't mean he needs to start every game. Just accept that this guy won the lottery with us and let him enjoy his money. Maybe he'll decide he wants to play football again, but until then keep him off the pitch.

 

[GDeep™]

Here comes the new Arsenal scapegoat. Won’t be long before he’s being racially abused at the Emirates like Eboue or being attacked for the way he sits like Özil.

He’s getting absolutely destroyed on here for having his first bad season in the last 10 years. Maybe he lost some spark having to play for a **** club and a **** team.

 

[Iceman10]

Here comes the new Arsenal scapegoat. Won’t be long before he’s being racially abused at the Emirates like Eboue or being attacked for the way he sits like Özil.

He’s getting absolutely destroyed on here for having his first bad season in the last 10 years. Maybe he lost some spark having to play for a **** club and a **** team.

A good test of Arteta’s man management. Contract renewal happened under his watch unlike the Özil situation, so can’t blame it on things prior, and man management also includes protecting a player from fans turning on the player, maybe stating big picture in defence of the player, but not quite in the same way as you have done there. Will be interesting to observe. Biggest thing though I think is the manager needs to put in a lot of work on maintaining communications and relations with the player. There is no choice, he can’t readily offload the player even if he wanted to, although I don’t think he does anyway.

 

[celestis]

What’s the problem here? He’s physically in great shape , lost none of his speed, we know he’s an elite goal scorer. No reason why he won’t go on a scoring streak again. It’s a ****ing no brainer.

 

[Football Manager]

Just get rid.

Sell Auba, Laca, Nketiah, Willian.

Get Edouard, Depay, Gouiri, Thauvin.

 

[Goonger]

Agree with others, he doesn't contribute enough playing from the left. Moves break down on the ball, he doesn't have the intensity without the ball anymore.

He should only be playing as a striker from now on, surrounded by creativity. He can score goals, he's proven that over the years. Is he the ideal all round forward, no, but we need to get him where he does most damage to the opposition & less damage to our build up play.

He has 2 years on his contract, & no one is going to pay the wages we do at his age. So we need to make best use of him. Main forward next season with more rest, then you are starting a phasing out period which concludes when his contract does in 2023 is the proper way to manage this without getting into another Özil situation.

 

[Ash10]

Are people really saying we should be selling him?

 

[Football Manager]

Are people really saying we should be selling him?

We should never have signed auba and laca.

Imagine if we have got Luis Suarez instead of Auba. Or Mahrez to replace Walcott back then.......

I have had enough of these useless shxt players playing for Arsenal.

 

[Iceman10]

What’s the problem here? He’s physically in great shape , lost none of his speed, we know he’s an elite goal scorer. No reason why he won’t go on a scoring streak again. It’s a ****ing no brainer.

One problem is it appears many are convinced he cannot play out wide anymore, especially when we have more specialist options for those positions. Playing Laca and Auba in the same team is no longer a convincing option.

I think this is made doubly worse because Auba is not known for pressing from the front when he plays CF, so when that observation is there it increases burden on him to cancel that out by staying clinical.

 

[DanDare]

What's clear is he just shouldn't be playing on the wing. Especially now we have a selection of players to play there. Arteta needs to not play him if he thinks the game is more suited to Laca up top.

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Here comes the new Arsenal scapegoat. Won’t be long before he’s being racially abused at the Emirates like Eboue or being attacked for the way he sits like Özil.

He’s getting absolutely destroyed on here for having his first bad season in the last 10 years. Maybe he lost some spark having to play for a **** club and a **** team.

About half of Ozils issues were off the pitch and Eboue seemed to be suffering real life mental health issues which culminated in him sending all of his money to his wife without checking what she was actually doing with it.

Can’t find any record of Eboue being racially abused at the Emirates, only in Turkey. Could you please forward a link if you have one. Absolutely shocking behaviour if this occurred.

With Eboues legendary lack of concentration combined with his love of the occasional dive and mental fragility, he would have been absolutely destroyed by social media in the modern era.

 

[DanDare]

How Eboue's life has gone makes me sad. At least he seems to be getting stuff back together now

 

[roz]

Here comes the new Arsenal scapegoat. Won’t be long before he’s being racially abused at the Emirates like Eboue or being attacked for the way he sits like Özil.

He’s getting absolutely destroyed on here for having his first bad season in the last 10 years. Maybe he lost some spark having to play for a **** club and a **** team.

Crap performances warrant criticism. No one said anything about race other than you.

I reckon you’re trolling anyways.

Aubemeyang is lucky to play for us. We’re the biggest club of his career and he should remember that. Much of why people are pissed off isn’t because he’s stopped scoring, it’s because he’s stopped trying. Evidence is any game he starts, we’ve all seen him do otherwise, especially in the build up to his new contract.

 

[roz]

How Eboue's life has gone makes me sad. At least he seems to be getting stuff back together now

He was a decent RB on his day, definitely more better performances than bad ones. Made everyone laugh too. Proper character. Hope he turns it around.

 

[celestis]

One problem is it appears many are convinced he cannot play out wide anymore, especially when we have more specialist options for those positions. Playing Laca and Auba in the same team is no longer a convincing option.

I think this is made doubly worse because Auba is not known for pressing from the front when he plays CF, so when that observation is there it increases burden on him to cancel that out by staying clinical.

He never should have been an option outside , nor should Martinelli if you hope to keep possession. Auba presses fine , there’s three goals resulting from him robbing the keeper. Regardless hes our best goal scorer by a country mile.

 

[Iceman10]

He never should have been an option outside , nor should Martinelli if you hope to keep possession. Auba presses fine , there’s three goals resulting from him robbing the keeper. Regardless hes our best goal scorer by a country mile.

I don’t want to quibble, but your bit with anecdotal on pressing isn’t really adequate. The game has changed with the way teams play out from the back and the idea is to try to suffocate them, especially in the first half. This needs intense coordinated effort across the attacking unit, lead by the CF. There was a good video from earlier in the season when Martinelli led the press and inspired players alongside him to pressure and force the opposition into mistakes. We (Arsenal) have had problems playing out from the back, but that isn’t just on us, it is also a product of what the opposition does on us and what we need to similarly do to them. There was commentary in the first half (WHU) that Ødegaard really wanted to press but the unified committed effort across our front line was not there, and so it doesn’t work because easy channels and space arises to beat any disjointed press from us. In general though pressing is one area where Laca is better than Auba, but only one, not finishing.

(btw, maybe with this I am also stumbling on a reason why we often don’t look good earlier on in matches, and why the NLD was an anomaly because Spuds surprisingly did not press from the opening whistle)

 

[Jasard]

I don't think it's wild to think he's hitting a bit of a decline, a decline doesn't have to be entirely physical. Happens at his age. Imo just play him up top and let him do what he does best. We have better options out wide but not up front. Seems simple to me.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

He's had a couple of poor games in a row. Let's not overact here. It was only a few weeks ago he was banging in 5 goals in 2 games and everyone was back in love with him again.

We all know Auba. He hasn't changed at all. He's a great goalscorer but an otherwise limited footballer. When he's going through a poor spell he's a passenger. That's always been the case.

Auba's never properly challenged for headers and he's always backed out of 50/50's none of that is new either. He was doing it when he was scoring 25-30 goals a season and he's still doing it now.

He's the closest thing we've got to a WC player ( In the realm of goalscoring)

I'd go so far to say the people who want him sold etc don't understand football at a very basic level.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Never play him on the wing again, it made zero sense especially when we've played ESR and Willian there recently, who both find space between the lines to receive the ball and carry it forward. Why play Auba in that same position? I get we were probably trying to alter things a bit maybe focusing on build-up on one side and then switching to his side. But what made even less sense we played him on the right for period which is more limiting for him as a guy very good at coming in on his stronger foot and taking shots, we played Saka on the left when he's been so effective on the right and in the end it didn't work for anyone.

I'm sure given a run at CF with ESR-Ødegaard-Saka behind him he'll start firing again.