Arsenal: 3 improvements Alexandre Lacazette must make if he stays

Arsenal will likely be parting ways with Alexandre Lacazette this summer, but if the Frenchman stays, here are three things he needs to improve.

Alexandre Lacazette landed himself in hot water recently with another balloon incident that paralleled the same problem in the preseason under Unai Emery. Mikel Arteta, as an Arsene Wenger disciple, probably won’t be too thrilled with this, and all of this is coming while talks of an Arsenal exit are already swarming around Lacazette.

It’s been a frustrating few years for Lacazette at the Emirates. He was a pretty easy Player of the Season choice last season, but that form has completely left him this year and many wonder if he was ever even that good to begin with.

After all, Arsene Wenger had to go buy Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang because Lacazette just wasn’t enough of a striker to lift the club up from the dumps. While the two formed a pretty epic partnership, Aubameyang has proven himself capable of being plenty in and of himself, while Lacazette still struggles with carrying the weight of the team.

Arsenal needs these three things from Alexandre Lacazette

Most signs point to Lacazette departing the club and a replacement like Luka Jovic coming in his stead, but in the event that Lacazette does stay, here are three things he needs to improve on to make his stay a better one than it has been.

We start with No. 3.

3. Finishing

We always talk about how Lacazette is worth more than the sum of his goal contributions and that will always be true. But when there is a goal sitting there on a silver platter and he doesn’t put it away, we’re all still moaning that a truly elite striker would have done better.

Lacazette only has seven goals and three assists this year. That’s not a good return from someone who has been here for three years now and should have grown into more formidable goal tally. Whatever he does outside of goals is great, but as a striker, you have to contribute to the lion’s share of goals and Lacazette just doesn’t.

Part of the problem is because he goes through bouts of really poor finishing. More on that later. For now, No. 2.