Arsenal: Romelu Lukaku exposes Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, kind of

In Arsenal’s loss to Manchester United, Romelu Lukaku was excellent from the right wing while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was largely anonymous. The Gabonese striker was exposed by his Belgian counterpart, though it is not completely his fault.

In Friday night’s rather depressing 3-1 defeat to Manchester United in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Unai Emery decided to switch up his attacking options in the Arsenal XI a little. Rather than play with two central strikers and an attacking midfielder in behind, he shifted Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out to the right and inserted a left winger in Alex Iwobi.

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It didn’t really work. Although it allowed the team to both have attacking width in the final third and control the middle of the pitch, it resulted in Aubameyang being completely anonymous throughout the match, even though he scored the Gunners’ only goal of the game just before half-time.

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That said, though, the role that Aubameyang was asked to play — an inverted right forward who plays on the shoulder of the defence, but starting from a wide-right channel — is the same as what Romelu Lukaku did for Manchester United. Lukaku had two assists, only had ten fewer touches even though his team had just 37% possession and he played 20 fewer minutes, and was the primary attacking outlet for United throughout the match.

Similarly, the role that Aubameyang played has been proved successful by other goalscorers. It is very comparable to that of Mohamed Salah at Liverpool, especially last season when he was the Premier League’s top goalscorer. It is not completely dissimilar to the position Raheem Sterling plays for Manchester City. These players are able to significantly impact games from out wide. Aubameyang is not.

There is, though, a key difference between their roles, especially Lukaku’s on Friday night and Salah’s for Liverpool, when he is not played through the middle, and Aubameyang’s. Lukaku needed to be a counter-attacking weapon. Salah is the same. Their task is made easier by the space that is created by the opposing team having the ball.

If you swapped the roles of Lukaku and Aubameyang, I assure you that Aubameyang would have the very same success as his Belgian counterpart. Cheating ahead of a recklessly bombarding full-back and darting into the vacated space on the counter-attack is precisely what Aubameyang is built for. But that is not the way that Arsenal played.

Rather, their build-up was slow. They controlled the game and looked to prise open opportunities, not directly attack the United defence. That allowed United to pick a deeper defensive line, contract the space in behind, and limit the opportunity for Aubameyang to either drive at exposed and isolated defenders with the ball at his feet or dart into channels in behind.

So yes, if you want to look at Lukaku’s performance and ask questions of Aubameyang’s, then there is certainly an argument to be made. But there are also nuances to the roles they were asked to play, and that does make a difference. Nevertheless, Emery still has an Aubameyang problem to solve.