Arsenal: Where is Jack Wilshere’s Aubameyang midfielder?

Jack Wilshere, working as a pundit with Sky Sports, stated that Pierre-Emerick is a dream for a midfielder to play with. But where is that midfielder in the Arsenal squad?

Arsenal centre-forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is a very specific type of striker. A little like when Liverpool signed Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez in January 2011, they signed two strikers who played differently and could be played to differently: Carroll required a very specific style to succeed; Suarez was skilful and versatile enough to flourish in any system.

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Aubameyang is a tremendous goalscorer, but his sometimes awkward, ungainly all-around play does mean that teams must tailor to how he wants to be served. For Aubameyang, that service is very different to Carroll. He wants through passes into space ahead of him, he wants early balls from deep, and he wants low, driven crosses across the six-yard box.

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Jack Wilshere was a pundit on Sky Sports’ for Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham United. He was asked about what it is to play like with a striker of Aubameyang’s ilk. His answer was very interesting:

"“For a midfielder, he’s a dream. He came in January last year and I played with him for the second half of the season. He makes runs and he gets frustrated when midfielders don’t find him. But he does it consistently throughout the game, he will make three or four runs a half that are crying out for a ball to be put in behind.”"

Wilshere’s comments are clear: a midfielder who can exploit Aubameyang’s excellent and incessant movement will see him flourish; a midfielder who cannot will starve him of the service he requires.

On Saturday, it was clear that Arsenal could not provide Aubameyang with the attacking foundation that his movement necessitates. And this was not just because Mesut Ozil and his creativity was sat at home. It was more about the lack of structure and support that was offered from the defence and deep-lying midfield.

Ozil’s vision and craft in the final third would have helped, of course. But Arsenal’s primary issues stemmed from their failure to beat the high-pressing tactics West Ham employed and put their attacking players in positions to exploit an exposed defensive shape. It was getting into the areas of the pitch that Ozil works in that was the problem, not being productive in those areas.

Arsenal do not have the midfielder that Wilshere describes: a deep-lying playmaker who can control the tempo of the match and then supply Aubameyang with accurate, creative service from early positions when the defence is still unsettled. Matteo Guendouzi is too young and inexperienced to be relied upon. Granit Xhaka is too inconsistent. Lucas Torreira is tidy but limited in his use of the ball.

Oddly enough for a player who is atop the Premier League scoring charts, Aubameyang could still be used better by his teammates. And for that, the midfielder that Wilshere describes is needed. If only Sven Mislintat would be around to find him.