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

[Camus]

Are people really turning on Auba? My god.

He's just in bad form, that's it, he's still got 9 in 24 league games despite being largely off this season and I think not starting against Sp*rs really knocked his rhythm.

Plus playing him on the wing against West Ham was just plain dumb (sorry Arteta) and at this point we hamper him if he plays on the wing.

He'll be back soon.

He scored 3 against Leeds and 2 against Newcastle. That's 55% of his league goals this season in TWO games. That means that in the remaining 21 PL games he's played this season he's scored only 4 goals. Of the 23 PL games he's played, in 16 of them he has ZERO goal contributions. That is truly pitiful. Really, really poor.

*Note I'm disregarding the Leicester game in these stats since he only played 6 minutes*

But even beyond his abject stats, he's attitude and general demeaner has been bad this season. At least with someone like Lacazette even when has a bad game he's at least putting in a lot of effort, he looks like he's trying, he looks like he's upset etc.. With Auba the effort and drive does not seem to be there this season like he was last.

Cynically you could say last season he was playing for a big pay day and now that he's got that he's levels have clearly dropped. I honestly question his intentions for staying in the 1st place. At top striker who's 31 in the twilight of his career having never won a major trophy and he decides to extend with us, a club who isn't likely to win a major trophy while he's still around and yet he turns down concrete offers from the likes of Barcelona and Chelsea?

 

[Riou]

He didn't win us the FA Cup single handedly, that would be VERY unfair on the rest of the players...but he did basically win us it on his own, scored all our goals in the semi and final, what a striker

 

[dka1]

He scored 3 against Leeds and 2 against Newcastle. That's 55% of his league goals this season in TWO games. That means that in the remaining 21 PL games he's played this season he's scored only 4 goals. Of the 23 PL games he's played, in 16 of them he has ZERO goal contributions. That is truly pitiful. Really, really poor.

*Note I'm disregarding the Leicester game in these stats since he only played 6 minutes*

But even beyond his abject stats, he's attitude and general demeaner has been bad this season. At least with someone like Lacazette even when has a bad game he's at least putting in a lot of effort, he looks like he's trying, he looks like he's upset etc.. With Auba the effort and drive does not seem to be there this season like he was last.

Cynically you could say last season he was playing for a big pay day and now that he's got that he's levels have clearly dropped. I honestly question his intentions for staying in the 1st place. At top striker who's 31 in the twilight of his career having never won a major trophy and he decides to extend with us, a club who isn't likely to win a major trophy while he's still around and yet he turns down concrete offers from the likes of Barcelona and Chelsea?

Alright he's been poor this season, I suppose I should admit that but I'm more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Why? Because I think we were generally sh!t in the first half of the season and his poor form coincided with our team just not creating enough chances. You could even take it a step further and say our poor play directly contributed to him not scoring.

Sure he wasn't that combative during that period but I've never really seen Auba as that kind of player to get "stuck in" so it's not particularly something I expect. What I think is fair to criticise is that he wasn't making the runs in that period but at the same time I honestly he was just suffering from a lack of confidence.

And sure he's scored more of his goals in just a few games, and I did realise that Leeds contributed heavily to his tally but, I also believe that before Sp**s he's looked better recently and I'm confident that if played in the middle he'll be able to start scoring again.

To add a summary, look, denying he's been under par would be stupid because he has been. But he's been crazy good for us for 2 seasons and a bit.

I'll stand behind our captain till atleast the end of the season as he deserves that pass, if he's still pumping out sh!t performances next season then I think that's the time to have a discussion.

 

[DanDare]

433 doing him dirty

 

[Trilly]

I love Auba but why do you keep making stuff like this up?

His conversion rate was great last season. That's one season. The season before that it was slightly below what you'd expect, and indeed his career average is slightly below what you'd expect.

Aubameyang is not, and never been an elite finisher. He's average / slightly below average in that regard (this doesn't mean bad), and anyone who has actually watched him consistently will tell you he misses loads of chances. He's a brilliant goalscorer because he has elite movement, and gets loads of shots off (and both of those are more important than being slightly below average finishing wise).

Two* seasons in a row. Simple mistake mate.

As for the rest of your post, you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know. Can’t believe this is the post you’ve forced me to reply to, you thought you really did something didn’t you?

 

[say yes]

Two* seasons in a row. Simple mistake mate.

As for the rest of your post, you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know. Can’t believe this is the post you’ve forced me to reply to, you thought you really did something didn’t you?

Might be a simple mistake, but it still changes your post quite a lot. I rate Auba and think the criticism is ridiculous, but his stats speak for themselves. There's no need to claim they're better than they actually are.

Anyway, fair enough for accepting you were wrong. Not going to get involved in the other silliness, but best not to play the victim here given you've been calling me out me in match-day threads about this topic. Good to see you retract that

 

[Maybe]

Most of the criticism comes when he is on the wing and doesn't score, which leaves the team with a -1 player on the pitch.
He had that sweet period on the left when we were playing with a wing back which made him effective, but the team as a whole couldn't play that football and we went back to 4 at the back.

If he plays as a CF and misses 4 chances, I couldn't care less because he's gonna score 3 goals next game, but if he is on the wing and doesn't score, everyone around him will struggle because you can't link play with Auba.

ESR, Willian, Saka, and Pepe, doesn't matter if you like them or not (that's gonna be individual), they are quality options for both wings and there is absolutely no excuse for the manager to start Auba right or left. For me, criticism should be on Arteta and his assistant who still thinks Auba on the wing is a great idea

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

It goes against the narrative on here but statistics wise the idea that Auba needs to only play as a striker is rubbish.

He's scored more goals from the left than playing CF. He also has a higher rate of goals per 90 minutes playing from the left than CF.

Admittedly when out of form I think his natural flaws are exacerbated by playing out wide. The notion that Auba should only ever be played centrally doesn't fit with the data though.

 

[Trilly]

It goes against the narrative on here but statistics wise the idea that Auba needs to only play as a striker is rubbish.

He's scored more goals from the left than playing CF. He also has a higher rate of goals per 90 minutes playing from the left than CF.

Admittedly when out of form I think his natural flaws are exacerbated by playing out wide. The notion that Auba should only ever be played centrally doesn't fit with the data though.

Think as the sample size grows we’ll see that Auba on the left (under Arteta) just doesn’t work. Under Emery he played a mixture of both and his xG was healthy. Under Arteta (on the left) his xG was poor but Auba went on a clinical run that just skewed everyone’s perceptions of his ability to score from the left.

I understand that Arteta wants a hold up play CF playing Auba in to score goals but his plan B of having Auba upfront and letting the three behind him do the creative work actually works. I’m not sure why he keeps trying to get plan A to work when it never has.

He needs to look at his squad and just work with what he has. You don’t need a classic no9 to hold up play, Pepe wins headers against pretty much any fullback he plays against, Saka is pretty strong and protects the ball well and Ødegaard is technically excellent so makes things stick. He needs to view Auba as the spearhead and give up on having a hold-up play striker.

 

[Football Manager]

Think as the sample size grows we’ll see that Auba on the left (under Arteta) just doesn’t work. Under Emery he played a mixture of both and his xG was healthy. Under Arteta (on the left) his xG was poor but Auba went on a clinical run that just skewed everyone’s perceptions of his ability to score from the left.

I understand that Arteta wants a hold up play CF playing Auba in to score goals but his plan B of having Auba upfront and letting the three behind him do the creative work actually works. I’m not sure why he keeps trying to get plan A to work when it never has.

He needs to look at his squad and just work with what he has. You don’t need a classic no9 to hold up play, Pepe wins headers against pretty much any fullback he plays against, Saka is pretty strong and protects the ball well and Ödegaard is technically excellent so makes things stick. He needs to view Auba as the spearhead and give up on having a hold-up play striker.

We don’t need any hold up play. We never need anyone to use their physical power to hold up the ball.

What we need is a skillful striker, someone like Suarez/Firmino/Van Persie/Sanchez, or can be a Ødegaard with better finishing (you know what I mean). Someone who could work well with other technical players in the team. Auba, Nketiah or even Laca, are too much of a poacher to me. They are not skillful enough.

Having Auba on the pitch means one less player in the build up, less possession, less chances created, more possession lost, more opportunities for the opponent to counter attack.

I would rather have the above mentioned striker scoring no goals for the season, than a 30 goals Auba. Because it means we would have a much more dangerous attacking force.

 

[jus2nang]

Clinical? So what? Auba contributes nothing else to the team.

Henry/Van Persie/Sanchez could have scored no goals and I would still loved to have them in the team.

Playing auba is like playing walcott. One man down in the build up play. Meaning less possession, less chances created, more chance for the opponent to play counter attack.

But that's not quite true is it?

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Think as the sample size grows we’ll see that Auba on the left (under Arteta) just doesn’t work. Under Emery he played a mixture of both and his xG was healthy. Under Arteta (on the left) his xG was poor but Auba went on a clinical run that just skewed everyone’s perceptions of his ability to score from the left.

I understand that Arteta wants a hold up play CF playing Auba in to score goals but his plan B of having Auba upfront and letting the three behind him do the creative work actually works. I’m not sure why he keeps trying to get plan A to work when it never has.

He needs to look at his squad and just work with what he has. You don’t need a classic no9 to hold up play, Pepe wins headers against pretty much any fullback he plays against, Saka is pretty strong and protects the ball well and Ödegaard is technically excellent so makes things stick. He needs to view Auba as the spearhead and give up on having a hold-up play striker.

Good points.

For me it comes down to Arteta overthinking and analysing, sometimes the obvious way is just the correct one.

I think with Laca being in pretty good form the past few months it's made it a bit more of an issue too. I can't say anything as I was fine with Auba on the wing before kick off on Sunday, so I was wrong too, but it kind of feels like Arteta at times shoehorns Auba in on the left just to get him in the side when Laca's up top. Maybe he didn't want it to appear as if Auba was still being punished after the Sp**s stuff by being dropped.

I'm fine personally with Auba playing on the left at times but when he's in poor form it's not the time to do it. He essentially becomes a passenger.

I think you're probably right about moving away from the hold up / target man too, or at least make it more of a plan B /C option.

 

[avenellroad]

Just feel if there is a chance we can get some decent money back on him this summer, we should take it. There is something Özil-esque about his demeanour since signing the contract.

The club can’t afford to make the same costly mistake twice, once bitten twice shy... a striker is a must anyway for this summer regardless of Aubameyang’s situation.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

We don’t need any hold up play. We never need anyone to use their physical power to hold up the ball.

What we need is a skillful striker, someone like Suarez/Firmino/Van Persie/Sanchez, or can be a Ødegaard with better finishing (you know what I mean). Someone who could work well with other technical players in the team. Auba, Nketiah or even Laca, are too much of a poacher to me. They are not skillful enough.

Having Auba on the pitch means one less player in the build up, less possession, less chances created, more possession lost, more opportunities for the opponent to counter attack.

I would rather have the above mentioned striker scoring no goals for the season, than a 30 goals Auba. Because it means we would have a much more dangerous attacking force.

You're overthinking it and putting aesthetics above everything else.

A striker is judged by how many goals he scores. If he has other strong components to his game, that's great but goal scoring is first and foremost. That's his bread and butter.

As Trilly pointed out above being supplied by technically proficient players with vision like ESR, Saka, Ødegaard and Pepe there's no reason Auba can't thrive up top.

They give Auba the chances and he puts them in the back of the net. That's playing to everyone's strengths.

 

[Trilly]

We don’t need any hold up play. We never need anyone to use their physical power to hold up the ball.

What we need is a skillful striker, someone like Suarez/Firmino/Van Persie/Sanchez, or can be a Ødegaard with better finishing (you know what I mean). Someone who could work well with other technical players in the team. Auba, Nketiah or even Laca, are too much of a poacher to me. They are not skillful enough.

Having Auba on the pitch means one less player in the build up, less possession, less chances created, more possession lost, more opportunities for the opponent to counter attack.

I would rather have the above mentioned striker scoring no goals for the season, than a 30 goals Auba. Because it means we would have a much more dangerous attacking force.

I get what you’re saying and maybe we’d go with that approach if we started the squad from scratch but right now the 4231 with a LAM, RAM and CAM works better for the squad than a 433 with a Firmino type creating for two wide forwards.

 

[Football Manager]

I get what you’re saying and maybe we’d go with that approach if we started the squad from scratch but right now the 4231 with a LAM, RAM and CAM works better for the squad than a 433 with a Firmino type creating for two wide forwards.

Or we don’t need to create for the wide forward. Go for 3 Firmino and play full possession control football.

 

[Maybe]

It goes against the narrative on here but statistics wise the idea that Auba needs to only play as a striker is rubbish.

He's scored more goals from the left than playing CF. He also has a higher rate of goals per 90 minutes playing from the left than CF.

Admittedly when out of form I think his natural flaws are exacerbated by playing out wide. The notion that Auba should only ever be played centrally doesn't fit with the data though.

Data is not only the number of goals scored by a player from some position, that's a fraction of data that fits the agenda of him being good on the wing without any context.
Are we scoring less when he is not playing on the wing? Do we create fewer chances when he is not playing on the wing?
If the system fits one player at the expense of others, what good is having him there? Where were we in the first half of the season when he was playing on the wing in that ridiculous formation? The bottom half, with some major attacking improvements as soon as he was moved away from the wing

 

[Ash10]

Or we don’t need to create for the wide forward. Go for 3 Firmino and play full possession control football.

& never score

 

[Football Manager]

& never score

Fxxk you

 

[A_M Iniesta]

very good 4 star player who's goals have done loads for us as a club,
not a 5 star baller though , aging aswell so we see how things go with him, in poor form but should come through for our Europa league title run COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!