Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette struggles began before Aubemeyang

Arsene Wenger thinks that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s arrival at Arsenal has forced struggles on Alexandre Lacazette, but it began before that.

Alexandre Lacazette is in a pickle at Arsenal, and, as I have suggested, I think he is in need of having a serious sit-down with himself to decide his own future. He can be a huge part of this Gunner’s attack going forwad, but that involves sometimes playing deputy to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when things don’t go right.

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger thinks that Lacazette’s problems are compounded thanks to the arrival of Aubameyang. Obviously it was the Gabon striker that relegated Lacazette to the bench these past two matches, so there is some truth in these statements.

But if we can’t be honest about what is really going on with Lacazette, then we aren’t in a position to address it and fix it. Aubameyang isn’t what is wrong with Lacazette, and that should be obvious.

Lacazette’s problems began earlier than that. They began with the initial errors of removing him early from every game and neglecting him completely in bigger games.

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I mentioned when this started happening that we really needed to be careful not to spoil him right from the word go. But it’s looking like that might have been too little too late. Eventually, Lacazette started staying in for 90 minutes, but even when he did, he was not very effective. It was, after all months into his tenure of being flustered by his game time.

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Then the winter hit and Lacazette went dead cold. He still is. One goal in 13 matches and it’s not even about a lack of service. He is fluffing his lines and it looks like a lack of confidence and/or pure dejection on his part.

This is why I say that he really needs to figure out what he wants to do, because he isn’t helping anyone by mulling around in the pits of his own despair.

That said, Aubameyang was a logical culmination to Lacazette’s woes. I said this in my article earlier in the week, but no one owes Lacazette anything. He has to take it if he wants it and if he doesn’t, well then there are other options out there, as selfish as that sounds.

It’s not the end of the world. We all knew that he was going to have struggles. The problem may be as simple as Wenger trying to anticipate the problems and flubbing the follow through.

I don’t want to see Lacazette prematurely quit in the summer, but not everyone is cut out for the heated competition of the English game.

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http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/11/arsene-wenger-suggests-aubameyang-arrival-dented-alexandre-lacazettes-confidence-7305141/