Alexandre Lacazette: 2019/20 Performances

[Mraven]

The question should be if we're aspiring to be a top4 club challenging for trophies would you rather have Laca as your secondary goalscorer, a deputy striker when Auba goes down/is rested or would you give that role to Nketiah/Martinelli and expect them to perform when called upon?

Auba isn’t a #9 in Artetas system. The question is do an aspiring top 4 club keep Lacazette as their primary striker? Of course not

 

[krengon]

Laca’s best form here was better than anything I’ve seen from Giroud tbf, he couldn’t keep up that level for long unfortunately.. Overall they are probably around the same tier with Giroud having the much better career..

 

[FinnGooner]

 

[say yes]

It’s not about this season. In his “amazing” season last year, Lacazette still couldn’t outscore Giroud. And the fact that you need to include his EL stats says it all.

Four questions for you:

1. Why have you put “amazing” in quote marks as if it’s something I said?

2. I haven’t mentioned Giroud in any of my posts. Is Giroud’s performance actually relevant to how productive Lacazette was last season - which is what we are actually discussing here - or are you just trying to turn this into a Giroud vs. Lacazette debate because you cannot dispute Lacazette’s numbers without looking foolish?

3. On your point about the Europa league: is it your claim that Lacazette’s 6 goal contributions against Valencia and Napoli in the knockouts are worthless and should not be counted?

4. What are your comments on the stats showing that Laca’s goals won more points than any other PL player last season, and his record against the bigger clubs?

 

[MikelHadADream]

For his own career and reputation he should be pushing for a move this summer. Lone striker in the Premier league just isn't for him. He'd probably put up decent numbers for a team that plays with two central strikers in a less physical and slower league.

A Partey Lacazette swap would be immense.

 

[Beksl]

Auba isn’t a #9 in Artetas system. The question is do an aspiring top 4 club keep Lacazette as their primary striker? Of course not

He's not our primary striker.

 

[Makingtrax]

Where was this level of defence for Giroud when he was here?

One of Wenger’s greatest ever signings absolutely battered by AM. Horrible scenes.

Yeah, Laca can't even break into into the French side, but Giroud . . . who's scored the third highest goals for France behind Henry and Platini was a complete donkey.

 

[A_G]

Fair, it definitely seems like some people are. Here are some facts I believe can't be argued with. Please let me know if I'm wrong.

Lacazette only spent half a season as Arsenal's main striker so judging his output against Giroud who was always our main striker is unfair. You put two goalscorers together and you rarely expect them to maintain their output.

Lacazette's numbers have been good, as a secondary goalscorer in the team. As a team going for the top 4 I think you take your secondary goal scorer chipping in with approx 20 goals a season.

I think it's fair to say that Giroud played in a much better team than Lacazette and was our primary goalscorer. Lacazette hasn't been great but when he gets compared to Giroud our undisputed spearhead just makes my blood boil.

Lacazette's numbers aren't a problem considering his role in the team, the real issue with him is his overall play deserting him.

This post has too much nuance for this thread.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

If you have to debate so much if a player a is good then they probably aren’t. I remember when Auba had some bad form and people started turning on him but eventually couldn’t say anything cos Auba proved them wrong. Lacazette just needs to prove us wrong but he just gets worse instead.

 

[Furious]

This post has too much nuance for this thread.

Absolutely nobody stops Lacazette from scoring more, when Auba isn't in the team or prior to signing him, where he was playing with Alexis and Özil. Bogus stuff creating this primary/secondary striker angle.

Lacazette is an average premier league striker, and hasn't shown anything to suggest that he is better than Giroud, whom we all loved to hate, that much is pretty clear.

 

[MikelHadADream]

People love bringing up that Giroud played with better players. But no one considers the fact Giroud played against better opposition in the Champions league, whereas Lacazette has played against farmers year after year in the Europe league that inflate his goalscoring stats .

At the end of the day Giroud was a better player for this club, as well as a better player in general.

 

[A_G]

Absolutely nobody stops Lacazette from scoring more, when Auba isn't in the team or prior to signing him, where he was playing with Alexis and Özil. Bogus stuff creating this primary/secondary striker angle.

Lacazette is an average premier league striker, and hasn't shown anything to suggest that he is better than Giroud, whom we all loved to hate, that much is pretty clear.

Even the people who rate Lacazette admit he doesn't score enough, that's not the issue. The problem is that people refuse to accept that it's not exact comparison because Giroud played in a settled team where chance creation wasn't a problem. Lacazette joined when the team was a mess in 17/18 and then played for a manager most on here think is the antithesis of attacking football.

I'm pretty confident in saying that Lacazette would've outscored Giroud if he had played with Cazorla/Özil/Alexis in their primes. Everyone acknowledges that Lacazette isn't a tier 1 striker, so obviously he needs the players behind him because he can't single handedly raise the level of the team.

 

[FinnGooner]

What is this thread ffs?!?!? What does it matter if Giroud was better than Lacazette? We got the best years out of Giroud and moved him out the right time. He was great for us but then in his last year at Arsenal he didn't score a lot of goals and hasn't scored a lot of goals since. He has scored total of 13 PL goals in his last four seasons. Laca has scored 35 in the last three. And yeah, we probably over-paid for Laca. That happens. In the same summer window ManU paid £75m for Lukaku, Chelsea paid £60m for Morata and Kylian Mbappe cost £160m. The striker market was what it was back then.

 

[Furious]

Even the people who rate Lacazette admit he doesn't score enough, that's not the issue. The problem is that people refuse to accept that it's not exact comparison because Giroud played in a settled team where chance creation wasn't a problem. Lacazette joined when the team was a mess in 17/18 and then played for a manager most on here think is the antithesis of attacking football.

I'm pretty confident in saying that Lacazette would've outscored Giroud if he had played with Cazorla/Özil/Alexis in their primes. Everyone acknowledges that Lacazette isn't a tier 1 striker, so obviously he needs the players behind him because he can't single handedly raise the level of the team.

Sure, I can go along with that and probably thought the same before he joined us, that he'd outscore Giroud, but Laca had his own question marks himself, that he hasn't been able to address.

Don't even think we were that poor in the first half of that 17/18 season, were we? Our usual selves until it all went south in December/Januar with the Sanchez rumours, etc.

Also, Giroud still put similar numbers in his 1st season to this "impressive" season of Laca's without the likes of Alexis and Özil in one of our most depressing teams of those times.

 

[Mraven]

He's not our primary striker.

No he’s not, but like you I don’t want to go into next season with Eddie as our starting #9

 

[RacingPhoton]

What is this thread ffs?!?!? What does it matter if Giroud was better than Lacazette? We got the best years out of Giroud and moved him out the right time. He was great for us but then in his last year at Arsenal he didn't score a lot of goals and hasn't scored a lot of goals since. He has scored total of 13 PL goals in his last four seasons. Laca has scored 35 in the last three. And yeah, we probably over-paid for Laca. That happens. In the same summer window ManU paid £75m for Lukaku, Chelsea paid £60m for Morata and Kylian Mbappe cost £160m. The striker market was what it was back then.

How dare you speak sense in this thread?

 

[El Duderino]

And my word was Giroud ****ing crap don’t ever.

Guy had a prime Cazorla-Özil conveyor belt providing him with chances to miss and that’s before you include Alexis and Ramsey.

Giroud.

@blaze_of_glory

 

[Riou]

Didn't Laca start quite well for us in 17/18...think he had around 8 goals in the first 14 league games?

Picked up an injury against Huddersfield, played through it for the next few games which made him look worse...finished the season quite well though and took that form into 18/19 were he was very good.

 

[Mraven]

Four questions for you:

1. Why have you put “amazing” in quote marks as if it’s something I said?

2. I haven’t mentioned Giroud in any of my posts. Is Giroud’s performance actually relevant to how productive Lacazette was last season - which is what we are actually discussing here - or are you just trying to turn this into a Giroud vs. Lacazette debate because you cannot dispute Lacazette’s numbers without looking foolish?

3. On your point about the Europa league: is it your claim that Lacazette’s 6 goal contributions against Valencia and Napoli in the knockouts are worthless and should not be counted?

4. What are your comments on the stats showing that Laca’s goals won more points than any other PL player last season, and his record against the bigger clubs?

I find it ironic you go to such lengths to defend Lacazettes numbers when you would criticise Giroud for anything.

No doubt Lacazette had a good season last year, but I think it’s telling that he still couldn’t outscore Giroud. He should be in the peak of his career, but he is still not good enough for a top team in the PL

 

[El Duderino]

Fair, it definitely seems like some people are. Here are some facts I believe can't be argued with. Please let me know if I'm wrong.

Lacazette only spent half a season as Arsenal's main striker so judging his output against Giroud who was always our main striker is unfair. You put two goalscorers together and you rarely expect them to maintain their output.

Lacazette's numbers have been good, as a secondary goalscorer in the team. As a team going for the top 4 I think you take your secondary goal scorer chipping in with approx 20 goals a season.

I think it's fair to say that Giroud played in a much better team than Lacazette and was our primary goalscorer. Lacazette hasn't been great but when he gets compared to Giroud our undisputed spearhead just makes my blood boil.

Lacazette's numbers aren't a problem considering his role in the team, the real issue with him is his overall play deserting him.

Part of this was bad squad planning, seeing Auba joined 6 months later, but the reason Giroud keeps popping up is that he was brought in as a 12m striker (iirc) and proved to be a great buy *overall*.

Not his fault that we took this long to sign someone to be in our first XI instead of the handsome bastard.

I thought Laca had another gear in him because of Alexis and Özil could bring more out of the player, but I was wrong. And you don't pay 50m for a secondary goalscorer who since he joined is unable to score regularly away from home.