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

[drippin]

Hydro just wants the best for Arsenal that's all.

Sure, but his output here is basically only trolling, now that his jokes are gone. Or maybe those are his jokes. Not for me.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

It's a hobby of mine, once in a couple years. I now have him on ignore like you.

Why would you have me on ignore? I'm probably the best poster on this God forsaken site.

 

[Tosker]

will the club have put Auba through a thorough physical and mental examination, preferably done by non-club professionals, to see if there is anything that needs fixing? can they if he doesn't agree to it?

 

[tcahill]

He's never been good at anything except goalscoring. He can't pass dribble or defend. Play to his strengths.

I refuse to believe that this guy has forgotten how to play football after 5 world class seasons. Play him at striker and treat him like a pure goalscorer. Put Pepe/Saka/ESR on either side of him, and whichever out of Ødegaard/Madders behind him.

Get him running in behind, poaching, finishing chances. Pretty much just imitate how Leicester use Vardy.

 

[The_Playmaker]

He's never been good at anything except goalscoring. He can't pass dribble or defend. Play to his strengths.

I refuse to believe that this guy has forgotten how to play football after 5 world class seasons. Play him at striker and treat him like a pure goalscorer. Put Pepe/Saka/ESR on either side of him, and whichever out of Ødegaard/Madders behind him.

Get him running in behind, poaching, finishing chances. Pretty much just imitate how Leicester use Vardy.

Yeah. This is literally a failure on Arteta. We give him the money, the arm band and then play him as a wing back in the later stages of his career. Why are we not managing him?

 

[Maybe]

Why can't people accept wherever he plays he is still a player in decline? Sure, it's best to play him as CF even with that, but Arteta and the fans need to accept the fact that even Henry was finished as a top player once he was 30.

At this point, Laca is a better option, which says a lot. We simply won't have a forward this year to drag this team and we will be completely reliant on Pepe and Saka to have an outstanding season.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Why can't people accept wherever he plays he is still a player in decline? Sure, it's best to play him as CF even with that, but Arteta and the fans need to accept the fact that even Henry was finished as a top player once he was 30.

At this point, Laca is a better option, which says a lot. We simply won't have a forward this year to drag this team and we will be completely reliant on Pepe and Saka to have an outstanding season.

I’ll accept it when the manager plays a style that creates chances. Auba is still in his prime years 31 isn’t a death sentence and he hasn’t declined physically. He’s never been a great footballer he’s someone you pit at the end of chances not playing like a wing back.

 

[Maybe]

I’ll accept it when the manager plays a style that creates chances. Auba is still in his prime years 31 isn’t a death sentence and he hasn’t declined physically. He’s never been a great footballer he’s someone you pit at the end of chances not playing like a wing back.

We shouldn't be paying a 350k/w contract for someone who needs everything on a plate to score goals. For that money, he should be able to create something on his own, but with his limitations, he just looks silly every time he tries something. That's why our Burger King Laca is still a better option, he can at least connect with other players at times.

If we have a team that would be able to create chances for fun, I would still fancy Martinelli then and get rid of this guy for good.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Put Auba in a more central position where he has productive players around him and he'll be one of the top scorers in the PL. It's not rocket science.

We all know Auba's general game has weaknesses, they're the same ones he had when he was banging in goals for us in previous seasons and at Dortmund before that.

The way some talk about him you'd think he was an OAP. He's 31 FFS. 28-32 are generally prime years for strikers.

Sure he's limited but there aren't many 25 goal a year strikers around and certainly not ones we could afford, so you get the best out of the one you have already.

 

[Makingtrax]

With a decent manager Auba will shine again, he’s a great finisher his stats shout it out. Only with Arteta has he struggled, hardly surprising. While Arteta’s here it’s very harsh to judge any of the players.

 

[Gunners1616]

Last season when Auba' finally played centrally he was incredibly bad... It's like we were playing with 10.

He just need to sit on the bench until he finds some sort of inner motivation. Now he got his money and we are a mid-table level team with no Europe so i can't see him being motivated at all at 32 y.o.

 

[Riou]

The creative side in our team has declined since Auba has been here, so even though he isn't the most rounded of strikers, I do feel sorry for him.

He came into to a very attack minded Arsenal team under Arsène, with Özil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Mkh and Iwobi in it.

It obviously isn't our best team, but our most creative players now are 2 youngsters...plus, Arteta isn't Wenger, when he comes to attacking football.

I don't know if he will get his best form back, but it definitely isn't all his fault.

 

[MauveGunner]

The creative side in our team has declined since Auba has been here, so even though he isn't the most rounded of strikers, I do feel sorry for him.

He came into to a very attack minded Arsenal team under Arsène, with Özil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Mkh and Iwobi in it.

It obviously isn't our best team, but our most creative players now are 2 youngsters...plus, Arteta isn't Wenger, when he comes to attacking football.

I don't know if he will get his best form back, but it definitely isn't all his fault.

Plus his personal issues last year and malaria. Not to be underestimated. The latter seems to hit harder than I thought, while seeing some pre season matches. Or he just cba with the situation and Arteta.

 

[Maybe]

The creative side in our team has declined since Auba has been here, so even though he isn't the most rounded of strikers, I do feel sorry for him.

He came into to a very attack minded Arsenal team under Arsène, with Özil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Mkh and Iwobi in it.

It obviously isn't our best team, but our most creative players now are 2 youngsters...plus, Arteta isn't Wenger, when he comes to attacking football.

I don't know if he will get his best form back, but it definitely isn't all his fault.

He was still able to drag the team on his own even without anyone creating many chances for him. Think it's perfectly legit to say his game is in a sharp decline. That's perfectly natural and should've been considered before the contract extension.

Saying that there is still a chance he could hit decent numbers with a better team behind him, but so can Laca

 

[Riou]

He was still able to drag the team on his own even without anyone creating many chances for him. Think it's perfectly legit to say his game is in a sharp decline. That's perfectly natural and should've been considered before the contract extension.

Saying that there is still a chance he could hit decent numbers with a better team behind him, but so can Laca

I think you posted earlier, that for the money we are paying him, we should expect much more from him, which I agree with.

But no matter how much you give Auba, he won't become Henry... he's like Walcott, in the sense he can be extremely useful, but needs to be used very specifically...so I have some sympathy for him, despite his wage.

He was great in 2019-2020, but that was s freak season...you can't expect your forward to be that clinical, it's not sustainable... every striker needs to be allowed to miss, tbh.

Think it's more Auba's style not fitting the team and the team's style not fitting him, more than anything right now... hopefully we become a better attacking unit this season, as if we do Pierre will start scoring again.

 

[Makingtrax]

The creative side in our team has declined since Arteta has been here, so even though he isn't the most rounded of managers, I do feel sorry for him.

Fixed

 

[BigPoppaPump]

He was still able to drag the team on his own even without anyone creating many chances for him. Think it's perfectly legit to say his game is in a sharp decline. That's perfectly natural and should've been considered before the contract extension.

Saying that there is still a chance he could hit decent numbers with a better team behind him, but so can Laca

Yeah but unless you’re Messi it’s unsustainable to play like he did towards the end of the FA Cup win season. If you don’t create chances for your forwards they won’t score.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I think you posted earlier, that for the money we are paying him, we should expect much more from him, which I agree with.

But no matter how much you give Auba, he won't become Henry... he's like Walcott, in the sense he can be extremely useful, but needs to be used very specifically...so I have some sympathy for him, despite his wage.

He was great in 2019-2020, but that was s freak season...you can't expect your forward to be that clinical, it's not sustainable... every striker needs to be allowed to miss, tbh.

Think it's more Auba's style not fitting the team and the team's style not fitting him, more than anything right now... hopefully we become a better attacking unit this season, as if we do Pierre will start scoring again.

Fair points but ultimately it's on the manager to get the best out of his squad and particularly the individuals within the squad with the highest ceilings in terms of performance and output.

It's not likes Auba's weaknesses were a shock to Arteta or anyone else, they've been the same his whole career.

The family issues and malaria were unfortunate and you can't blame Arteta for those but I do think Auba's form last year was in the majority down to poor management / tactics.

Personally I think Auba is far from on the wane. I think there are another 2-3 years of top level performances from him if he's managed correctly and the team is set up to aide him as a priority.

 

[dka1]

With a decent manager Auba will shine again, he’s a great finisher his stats shout it out. Only with Arteta has he struggled, hardly surprising. While Arteta’s here it’s very harsh to judge any of the players.

I mean people need more evidence of Arteta's foolishness?

The man signed one of the most deadly CFs in Europe to 350k a week and didn't have a long term plan to move him to the middle?

So he thought Aubameyang would keep outscoring his xG from the wing?

And a whole season has gone by in which we can definitively see that Auba works better in the middle than on the wing and he's still playing fetch with Auba sometimes taking up positions at LWB, are you mad?

Not only that but he didn't sell Lacazette and now the guy that's leaving in 12 months is still sharing time as a starting striker.

Talk about short sighted and short term, Wenger hasn't passed yet but he's already turning in his grave.

Absolute rubbish.

 

[Batman]

Fair enough if you were against it, I think everyone, myself included is starting to see that signing up your 32 yo striker when you have a £20m offer on the table is probably not the best idea.

Watching Auba now reminds me of watching Neymar, in 2016/17 Neymar was razor sharp, so quick to react to new situations as they arise and find crisp execution to capitalise. Fast forward to now and everything just looks slower and lazier, like his brain’s slowed down, muscle memory’s decayed. That's what I think has happened to Auba. While they've likely both lost a bit I think raw pace is easily secondary to speed of thought and that looks to be going even if they can both still produce moments.
A lot of people think the only aspect of decay is physical but cognitive performance peaks early and starts to dip around 27, I thought it happened to David Silva and I thought it happened to Iniesta too, there comes a day when you just can't cut it anymore. I think with Neymar it's because of too many benders and with Auba it's just because he's getting old.

Neymar is still easily one of the best players on earth and he hasn't even remotely lost a step. Auba has fallen off a cliff. Nonsensical comparison. Neymar would be the best player in England the moment he entered the PL. Auba isn't even the best player at this 8th place club.