If Aubameyang was the best striker in the PL last season, at a club with a midfield as poor as ours, imagine what he would be like at Man City or Liverpool, who play their best players to their strengths.
He wasnāt the best Premier League striker last season though. He was joint top goal scorer.
Aguero and Firminio are miles ahead of him as overall players, hence why they are integral parts of their respective dominant teams that actually win stuff.
He is great for teams reliant on talent or a particular talent, but he is not suited to the type of role and skillset expected of a top level forward.
Heād be a good second option for teams like City and Liverpool though. For us hes a great first option that demonstrates how much we rely on individual talent.
Aguero is a better overall player sure, Firminio is not even a striker and is essentially a system player that wouldnāt get anyway with not producing significant goal returns anywhere else except at Liverpool.
Liverpool is the perfect storm for him, put Auba in a well balanced top team and heād be winning big titles too.
Firminio playing up top in any other PL top team would be getting cussed out on a weekly basis. Playing here, United, Spurs, Chelsea and even City heād be exposed.
Deffo. Spot on, mate.
In my opinion, and my opinion is shit, the best PL strikers are Aguero, Vardy and Auba (in that order)
Except the game at the top level is almost as much about link up play and hold up play and engaging other elements of the team as it is about pure goal-scoring. You need to have both to be at the top because itās just so systematic regardless.
I agree that Liverpoolās system benefits Firminio, but that happens because he can vary his game and provide a lot of different things. Plus he scored 1 in every 2 games and then 1 in every 3 the last 2 seasons. Also had a season of 1 in 2 in the Bundesliga. Pretty much in line with any decent goal scorer.
PEA is pretty limited in terms of holding up the ball and linking up with other players, hence why Firminio is ahead of him as a player because more and more the game is relying on versatility and compatability in multiple ways and Firminio has far more of that than PEA.
If the argument is that PEA is a better pure goal-scorer, Iād give you that, but Iām saying that players like Firminio are ahead on the basis of their ability to function within the team and system as well as individually. PEA is a āpass it to me and Iāll try kick it in the goalā type forward.
Seemingly another player people are beginning to overrate just a little bit. Great goalscorer and belongs in the starting 11 of a team just outside the top echelons of European football. Basically where he is right now.
I donāt see how Benzema of last 3-4 seasons is better than Aubameyang of last 3-4 seasons.
I think people appropriately rate him as one of the best goal scoring forwards around and that this is more a case of you trying just a little too hard to talk him down.
Yup, and Iām saying that there are some specific differences between that (which I agree with and have said as much) and being able to be the main forward in one of the very best sides in the world.
Suggesting that I am talking him down is silly, Iām talking about him on the level I see him at.
The thing is there is much more of a chance of Auba being a success at another top club compared to Firminio if weāre talking about playing through the middle at CF.
Firminio works at Liverpool but wouldnāt necessarily work elsewhere when the striker is expected the shoulder the goal scoring load for their respective team which is practically every other top team in Europe.
Auba has deficiencies yes but they overblown in this case, if we had a well rounded and cohesive team they would be negligible. Auba can definitely play for a top club as the #1 striker, the fact heās here doesnāt prove otherwise.
Well Klopp made both great, so Iāll just lament us passing up on him as another reason to be pissed off.
And which of the top clubs really play a traditional through the middle CF? No one really, they are all key link and hold up players, dropping deep etc. Thatās the modern game.
Itās not like heād be shit at say, City or Liverpool, I just think he wouldnāt be ideal for their overall team cohesion compared to the forwards they currently have, because his style and skillset is better suited to a team like us relying on individuality.
If I think that you are putting him on a level below the one I think he belongs on, that would obviously seem to me like you are ātalking him downā or under playing his quality. If others are talking about him in too complimentary terms for your liking, and you decide to offer an alternative, more realistic take that says he isnāt quite as good as others suggest, that to me is you talking him down a bit.
I donāt think thereās anything silly about me interpreting your comments that way and using such a phrase to describe what Iām reading.
I feel like that phrase might be meaning something different to you than what it means to me in my usage, because the phrase itself wasnāt meant to suggest you have done anything egregious. Iām not having a go or dismissing your opinion as shit or poorly expressed, all Iām trying to do is very mildly say that I think you are being a touch too rigorous with your criticisms/assessment of him. Just a touch though, I did note the positive things you said, so I donāt think thereās much for us to argue here, weāve just got a very mild and minor difference of opinion.
Sterling v Gomez round two.
Oi, heād definitely fuck me up, but letās not make out like Iām some sort of midget. Iām a tall weakling, itās offensive to suggest in a short weakling.
You might have that the wrong the way round.
Your a heavy hitter in the verbal stakes.
Thatās why I mostly do my arguing online with foreigners who Iām never likely to meet
Of course, itās why we are all here; to discuss and contrast ideas about our beloved Arsenal.
I only used the word āsillyā somewhat flippantly; my point is that his proverbial position/ability is, to a decent degree, defined by conjecture and opinion to begin with. And Iām just contributing more lol
@Stroller I reckon Lee Bowyer v Kieron Dyer lol purely because itās hilarious that that actually happened
I donāt think Aubas link up would be that bad in a dynamic system. He can beat a player and exchange 1-2s well enough and his movement off the ball would give his teammates plenty of options.
At the end of the day, when you go back to basics, you want your forwards to have good movement, throw opposition defenders and score goals. Thatās their job in the squad, if they can provide any of that extra stuff then thatās fine but a striker lives and dies by his goals.
Letās not fool our selves for one minute and say other top clubs donāt value strikers or forwards who score because thatās simply not true. Lewandowski, Suarez, Werner, Luka Jovic, Benzema, Quagliarella, Zapata and Ronaldo ,(who now plays as an out an out striker). All of these guys score goals firstly and then add something else, but are valued by their clubs because of their goal scoring abilities not the other qualities.
You want your forwards to score as many goals as possible, just like how at the end of the day despite whatās expected of a modern keeper i.e. using his feet, distribution you want the guy to be able to save shots and stop goals going in. These other things are useless if they canāt do the basics. When you have a player that can get the basics right then itās up to the manager to exploit and take advantage of their other qualities. Aubameyang, is one of the fastest players in the league, has some of the best movement in the league, is ruthless in front of goal and can play accurate quick one two passes. Not his fault heās been shoe horned on to the left wing!
Never a captain this man. Can see him edging for a move in January.