Arsenal: Lucas Perez’s Confusion Is Wenger’s Failure

Arsenal signed Lucas Perez on a whim, clearly, and without much in mind. So now that the Spaniard is ‘confused’ we can only look to Wenger.

I don’t think many of us knew what to expect when Arsenal signed Lucas Perez this summer. There was such a diverse array of nay-saying mixed with incredible optimism. He showed great talent and his past showed that he was always merely the victim of crowded systems.

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In just seventeen appearances he has netted eight goals and added five assists. He is tallying a goal every 133 minutes. He’s almost contributing to a goal every time he touches the pitch.

Yet, like Danny Welbeck, he isn’t being used. And according to Goal.com, the striker is a bit confused, and he has every right to be.

When Lucas first said back in November that he was expecting a bigger role, I questioned how it was that Wenger finagled his move. Could he possibly have lied to the Spaniard? Because that’s kind of messed up.

Whatever the case, the fact that Lucas has no idea what he is supposed to be doing here indicates a massive failure on Wenger’s part. It makes Le Prof look like a hypocrite. Here is the all-caring manager who always stands up for his players, yet you have a perfectly capable player in your midst that doesn’t know what his role is or what his future is.

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That’s a massive shame. Lucas is such a useful weapon that could be allowed to do so much more for Arsenal than he is and the question really becomes where he goes from here. If he sticks with the club, who’s to say it gets any better?

It’s not made any better by the fact that Alexandre Lacazette is moving this summer or the fact that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has acknowledged the need to move. Or the increasing likelihood that Sergio Aguero is going to look elsewhere or the ever-present possibility that Antoine Griezmann finally moves on.

But we have Lucas Perez and Wenger won’t play him. So if he leaves and we don’t sign a new striker, which I assume we won’t, then what was the point?

If anything, the point was to tease us with what could have been. This guy is a talent and one that has a lot to prove, but we just did not give him the opportunity to prove it.

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But hey, at least I’ve found something that I can’t blame on Mesut Ozil.