I’d be interested to see his assist, xA and chances created stats, to see if his link up is actually effective.
There’s no doubt he is very good at winning the ball from the front, mind.
And I appreciate his defensive workrate.
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In the most traditional sense of ‘total football’ a type like Lacazette, I’ve been saying that he is a target men forever, is pretty essential to create those triangles on the field. Think of Kluivert back in the day.
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1.1 Key Passes per game to Giroud’s 0.4 when they were playing in the same team, 0.9 and 74.2% PS% last season, this season 1.1 and 75.4%, Giroud’s best with Arsenal was 0.9 and 68.1% in 15/16, when he had 6 assists in 26 starts, or 1.0 and 68.9% in 13/14 when he had 8 assists in 36 starts. Lacazette had 8 last season in 27.
One thing is for sure, Lacazette is a more accurate passer, Giroud’s game was much more based on low-percentage flicks. Add in that Lacazette averages a full dribble more a game than Giroud did, Lacazette is much more useful pressing, and you just have the picture of a better all-around striker. Though scoring at this rate Lacazette is not good enough.
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is there anyone else that may realistically be available if we were to move him on?
I don’t think there is. Whilst I agree that Lacazette is not a great striker I want Arsenal to invest in positions around him (left winger, attacking midfielder) with better players around him I think he can elevate his play too / become more effective. I expect more out of Pepe too next season. By having more individual quality around him the centre of the pitch probably opens up too, which would be to his benefit.
I would prefer we’d keep Aubameyang over Lacazette for the record, but think it’s more likely that he would leave.
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Yeah, ideally you’d sell Lacazette, let Martinelli get more minutes at CF, and bring in with the money from Lacazette a talented young wide player (Talles Magno just got rated #2 talent in the world by FootballTalentScout, wouldn’t mind going young and Brazilian again), but what would the market for Lacazette look like? Maybe West Ham, Everton types but would he make the move?
If we want to take full advantage of the (inevitable?) decline of Liverpool/City in one or two years another Martinelli is probably a bit too young I’d guess. A player in the 21 - 25 years age bracket would make more sense in our team building process. But in order to get those we will have to pay up. If Arteta can make that happen anyway.
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Yeah, I don’t see where the funds would come from to buy what we need in midfield (a deep lying midfielder, a progressive midfielder like Ceballos or Szoboszlai) and defence (CB, perhaps LB/RB), and an attacker like that (say Ziyech). You’re looking at about £100-125m if we do it well with the first three needs, and at the very least another £30-50m for the attacker, no?
Stop it!
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Xhaka sale should generate some funds.
Same with Mustafi sale (£10m is something I guess, just got to cut losses)
So you guys are telling me there is nobody else really, with lacazette’s profile in terms of defensive workrate and buildup? His turnovers seem pretty high just based on watching him, can we not find someone to improve on that or do we assume he will get better?
We only need a backup LB if Kola leaves, RB and LB is set with AMN/Bellerin and Tierney.
We should have enough to concentrate on the major area, but yes it does seem the CF position will be a hard one.
@shamrockgooner that was too easy :ozil:
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I’ve read 150 posts in this thread today and thats the only one that triggered a response. 
I would assume Arteta is going to give it a go with Bellerin, Tierney and Torreira next season. I expect Arsenal to sign two midfielders, a winger and a centre back in the upcoming summer transferwindow. That should be business we should get done in one summer with a potential sale of Aubameyang and/or other players who are a surplus. Those are real gaps in my mind with Ceballos being a loanee and the contract situations of Ozil and a few of the centre backs. After that they can decide who is actually good enough to stay or should be replaced.
@Electrifying surely there will be other better options around (I just don’t watch that much football to come up with a proper alternative). But I don’t think that Lacazette is as bad that replacing him is necessary (yet). Not whilst we have some other gaping holes in the summer like I described above.
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I’ve found this article from the year before he signed that kind of makes me a bit more encouraged that he may be worth persisting with.
But goddamn it he has to increase his shot volume, and get shots off quicker.
EDIT: nice @A.F. Well we see there that Auba is just as effective when it comes to defending, and gives us more goals.
Laca dribbles more and has more touches in the oppo box.
They’re not too much different when it comes to xGA.
Yeah but if replacing Giroud with Lacazette is not producing better results, what is even the point?
I like Laca and I take the difference in role between Auba and Laca when talking about them. However, honestly speaking he has not upgraded Giroud.
Last season he was really good but this season he has been lesser than Giroud.
He cost £46m at a time when Morata cost £60m and Lukaku and Higuain cost £75m.
I don’t know why people have spent the last 2 years telling themselves we’ve paid top dollar here and then keep bringing his price up as some kind of reason he should be great.
There were probably better buys out there that summer but Arsenal weren’t exactly making the best buys around that time. We were desperate for anyone but Giroud up top and that was the summer that the club / Wenger decided we couldn’t neglect it anymore and acted.
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I guess I feel better that a few other clubs spent a bit more money in a worse way than we did.
Indeed, and I feel people are lamenting that Wenger and the club didn’t do a better job when it came to FUCKING FINALLY buying a striker to replace Giroud. Seems like a valid complaint, we’ve spent money unwisely and poorly quite consistently for a few years, Lacazette is part of that. He was a club record fee, cost more than any of Liverpool or Tottenham’s forwards or attackers, and he’s fairly average and in terms of output not a huge improvement on Giroud. Seems fine if people have some complaints about him imo.
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I’ve got my complaints too, but I don’t think what he cost is particularly outlandish for the player he is / was.
We recouped 20m from a 31 year old Giroud, so taking age etc. into account I don’t think 46m is a horrific sum to have paid for a forward that’s had enough decent performances for us (as well as some obviously shit ones). I’d imagine we could get back most of that money if we really wanted it so it doesn’t really bother me.
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If that is how it works out, then like you I won’t be too bothered.
I don’t hate Laca or think it was a disaster if a deal by any stretch, I’m actually often quite fond of Lacazette in a way. I like the bit of swagger he seems to have in his personality, and he has a real penchant for a goal in a big game, which is one think I think really counts as a positive for him (especially as its a big contrast to Auba who does not seem to necessarily raise his game in the big matches)
I guess I just expected a bit more from him, but maybe my expectations are my problem and not his lol. But it’s never been a caelse of me demanding 35 goals a season, I just think that for the money spent it wouldn’t be unreasonable to hope that at least one of his three seasons he might look like hitting 20 league goals, I don’t feel that’s an unrealistic or unfair hope to have for him.
The other thought might be to do with us having spent about a hundred and ten million quid on two central strikers who can’t both really play in their preferred position at the same time, so part of me wonders what else we could have done with the 50m we spent on Laca if we had spent it elsewhere and still got Auba. I think for others that probably factors in a bit too, because I do confidently believe that that fifty million quid could have done a lot for our side if we had in some parallel universe spent it differently and still secured Auba. But seeing as that didn’t happen, that’s all a bit pointless to dwell on now several years later.
But you’re probably right and it’d be best to remove the transfer fee from my thinking entirely 
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Laca is unsung for this side. Lets not forget for the last 18 months the team was disfunctional as fuck.
Lately he’s been really selfless in his play. Has lead the line well and ran himself into the ground. His goal output should be better but as long as he’s doing the minimum expected I’m a fan.
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