Arsenal: Claude Puel understands Alexandre Lacazette’s brilliance

Prior to Arsenal’s match against Leicester City, Claude Puel has described Alexandre Lacazette as the ‘complete player’. The Leicester coach understands that his fellow Frenchman’s brilliance is more than just the goals that he scores.

Alexandre Lacazette started out as a winger, when he first broke onto the senior stage. Although he was a striker at that time, and was considered a striker, the need to provide him with game time overpowered the hesitancy to play him out of position. And so, he was forced to play on the flank.

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Quickly, though, it was clear that Lacazette had to play through the middle, as close to the penalty area as possible. His goalscoring knack, his ability to find space in the box, his sharp shooting and clinical finishing. And as he developed, he mastered the striking position.

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The man who first offered Lacazette an opportunity to play is the manager who Lacazette will face on Monday night. Claude Puel takes his Leicester City team to the Emirates and has been speaking on the progression of his former prodigy. On the Arsenal striker, Puel was bullish in his praise:

"“He is a complete player with good transition with the ball and without the ball. He is always available for the team. He works all the time and he has kept his clinical edge and I am not surprised about his quality and his good work with Arsenal <…> He had always the same quality and was clinical in the box. He improves on his transition without the ball because at the beginning of his career his only focus was to score and not to work for the team.”"

To label Lacazette a ‘complete player’ is a rather ambitious claim. Even his most ardent supporters must concede that he is not the same calibre of player as some of the world’s elite, centre-forwards like Robert Lewandowski and Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero. But he does offer an element of completeness that is often overlooked.

Yes, the goals are necessary and a key part of his game. And yes, they are what his career has been built upon throughout his time in France and now in the Premier League. But they do not make his brilliance so impactful, as has been greatly illustrated this season when he was introduced after sitting on the sidelines for the first three matches.

As Puel details, it is his ‘work for the team’ that makes Lacazete such an invaluable part of the Arsenal attack. His surprising strength with his back to goal, the surety of his first touch as he receives the ball and brings others into play, his ability to spin into the channels and stretch the opposition defence, creating space for supporting runs from midfield. These are all crucial elements of his game that combine to make a brilliant centre-forward.

Puel understands the brilliance of Lacazette, not just because of his goals, but because of his overall play. It is this brilliance that Arsenal will rely on to take down Puel’s team on Monday night.