Alexandre Lacazette: 2019/20 Performances

[Football Manager]

Giroud comparison was me just taking the p*ss tbh. I don’t think Firmino is irreplaceable myself and coaches say all sorts but I am not trying to change any bodies mind today.

My main argument is Lacazette isn’t sh*t, I honestly do not care about Firmino, he’s got CL and Prem trophies he shouldn’t be mentioned anywhere near our players (I certainly didn’t bring him up.) I think he is in the tier below WC, I believe Laca is or has been too.

Then how do you explain the huge gap between the two players that I have listed here below?

It's hard to find players with the following amazing qualities:

Firmino is much more silky and skillful......he controls the ball in tight space like its sticked to his feet, dribbling past players for fun.

He is a lot better on the ball. Firmino is also much better in teamwork, involve in general play a lot more to help the team in the build up.

It's not easy to replace the above qualities. Giroud is definitely not the one who can do it.

And lacazette can do nothing that I have mentioned above either. And because of this, it sets them levels, and levels, and levels apart.

Unless you don't rate any of the amazing attributes I have listed above.......then fair enough......maybe they are in the same tier.

 

[KrissKringle]

Why are people comparing Laca, a striker (poacher) to Firmino, a creative midfielder (false 9)?

Firmino may end up in the same position at times for Pool, but that doesn't make their set of skills comparable in any way.

Has this thread completely lost the plot?

 

[Football Manager]

If Laca is half as technical as him...

Now, I can only place my hope in Martinelli.

In fact I never support the signing of Özil, laca and auba who are not good on the ball. We have too many of these final third players/off the ball players.

(to be honest, I hate laca, auba, Özil, just as much as giroud, walcott, chamberlain...I knew their flaws from day one)

This hurt our build up as a team, we have less possession, we create less overload, lass space, less chances, and therefore, less goal as a team. Because they either won’t, or not capable to help in our general play/build up play.

We need more van persie, we need more nasri, we need more fabregas...... good technical players who are good on the ball, and heavily contributed in the build up phase.

Forget about individual stats, forget about individual goal/assist. Just get good players who are capable to play good football. Get intelligent players who are good on the ball.

Every single players (at least all the non-defenders) should contribute a lot in the general play. Dominate the opponent team and create tonnes of chances.

Then our strikers don’t even need to be clinical. It can even be a non striker like aouar and our team will score more than 80 goals a season.

Auba, laca, Özil might have good individual stats, but they are bad for the team. By the time we replaced all of them with more technical players (and get rid of other non-technical attacking players like nketiah/willock). We will get much better results as a team.

 

[Macho]

I'm not one for Firmino circle jerk anyways. He's good but I don't understand whats going on here.

Auba is not bad for any team lol. Seriously what is this?

 

[Riou]

 

[KrissKringle]

If you had no idea who he was and what position he plays in, you'd think he's a box to box midfielder from this video compilation.
That's how **** our midfielders are, ffs.

 

[Football Manager]

Able to dribble past a player once/twice in a match (and unable to do it eight/nine times in the same match), is different to doing it in every attack (and pull it off eight times out of ten).

Even Mustafi can look good in YouTube video. You really need to watch full match to see how good/bad a player is.

If you watch Firmino plays in full match, he dribble past players for fun. He does it whenever he has the ball, in every attack, he has great skills in him. If Firmino is in a crowded area, fans will think: with his magical skills, he may be able to pull off something.

And if you actually watch Lacazette plays for a full match, you will know he is not skillful at all. The ones in your clip are outliers moment. If Laca is in tight space, fans will think: he is going to lost possession. Even if he is able to do that one time (like the ones in your clip), you will feel surprised that he actually has dribbled past a player.

That is how skilful Firmino is. Lacazette is not a natural baller.

 

[Macho]

 

[Makingtrax]

Tbf we might need to bolster our attack and midfield, we only scored 56 goals this year. That’s 27 less than last year.

Also we improved our goals conceded from last year.

We had this discussion last year We should resign Auba, and leave Laca and Pepe to play with the back up from Saka and Martinelli. We can't change everywhere at once and priorities are further back.

If we get a decent midfield with players that are mobile, don't give the ball away, and at least one that can drop his shoulder and pass a player like Santi/Jack/Cesc then we'll see what those forwards are like when they get some decent service.

 

[Football Manager]

We had this discussion last year We should resign Auba, and leave Laca and Pepe to play with the back up from Saka and Martinelli. We can't change everywhere at once and priorities are further back.

If we get a decent midfield with players that are mobile, don't give the ball away, and at least one that can drop his shoulder and pass a player like Santi/Jack/Cesc then we'll see what those forwards are like when they get some decent service.

I agree with you that we need Santi/Jack/Cesc type of players.

But our forwards should be within the group of service provider, rather than waiting for the service.

I want 11 players who are good on the ball, and can all contributed in the build up phase. If this is not achievable, at least all the non-defenders has to meet the above requirement.

You can’t afford to have forwards just waiting for service.

Who will get to the end of the service is another question, can be mainly our forwards, or can be shared among others players. It does not matter much at the moment.

But for the creation process, everyone should be heavily involved, and be good at it.

(I do not mean telling auba to involve more in the build up, because even if he drops deep and involve more, he will never be able to dribble past players/pass the ball/control the ball in tight space like van persie/bergkamp did. I mean replacing all these “off the ball” players with more technical players.)

 

[Makingtrax]

I agree with you that we need Santi/Jack/Cesc type of players.

But our forwards should be within the group of service provider, rather than waiting for the service.

I want 11 players who are good on the ball, and can all contribute in the build up phase. If this is not achievable, at least all the non-defenders has to meet the above requirement.

You can’t have forwards waiting for service.

Who gets to the end of the service is another question, can be mainly our forwards, or can be shared among others players.

But for the creation process, everyone should be heavily involved, and be good at it.

All true. I'm not saying our forwards are all that. Just trying to prioritise where we most need to upgrade this year.

If you just have a couple of holes in the squad is easy, but we've got more holes than a colander.

 

[Oxeki]

The sad story of last few transfers windows is that we are probably forced to focus on the attack in the next window. Laca has been such a terrible none success story for us. We scored lowest goal tally since 95 this season and that has to be fixed. I always said that our attack has looked unbalanced and bad. Even worse after we added Pepe there.

We don't have much money but if we can sell Laca now and get someone better instead of him we have to jump at the change. It is becoming close to the last time where we can get something valuable for him, that is if some club is even more stupid than us to pay for him. Lets jump at the change and get something fresh and new in the attack!

Our attack is not the problem. The midfield is.

If we fix the midfield, we'll create more chances which will lead to more goals. We have a lot of goalscorers in this team, but seems they don't get the ball in dangerous areas.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Our attack is not the problem. The midfield is.

If we fix the midfield, we'll create more chances which will lead to more goals. We have a lot of goalscorers in this team, but seems they don't get the ball in dangerous areas.

I disagree strongly here. Our attack is a problem. Our midfield is a problem and our defense is a problem. At least we fixed our GK situation this season.

 

[Oxeki]

I disagree strongly here. Our attack is a problem. Our midfield is a problem and our defense is a problem. At least we fixed our GK situation this season.

I understand where you're coming from, but our attack is not the priority. Our attack is our strongest area of the Field. It makes little sense to invest another warchest in it after paying 72m for Pepe last summer.

Our midfield is the biggest priority. When we fix the midfield, we'll create more chances and also the midfield will protect the defense better.

Agree to disagree though

 

[Football Manager]

Our attack is not the problem. The midfield is.

If we fix the midfield, we'll create more chances which will lead to more goals. We have a lot of goalscorers in this team, but seems they don't get the ball in dangerous areas.

My last post explained why our forwards is also a problem.

Fixing the midfield will only create a few more chances.

Of course....having 4 great midfielders is better than having 4 above average midfielders.

But it's still just 4 players against a block of defence when we are creating in the build up phase (If our strikers are not willing/not good enough at involving in the build up.....)

If we have more skilful/technical strikers. We will have at least 6 creative players against a defensive block. This will create domination in possession and chance created.

 

[Rex Stone]

Laca is honestly so good at certain things but reading this thread you’d think he was a bum.

Decent goals per game in all his seasons here, think we’re just spoilt with Aubameyang.

 

[Oxeki]

No need comparing Laca to Firminho.

Firminho was a No10 at Hoffenheim before Klopp converted him to a No9.
Of course he'll be better than Laca at link up play. But the truth is if he were to come here, I don't think he'll improve us TBH.

Our problem runs deeper

 

[Oxeki]

Laca is honestly so good at certain things but reading this thread you’d think he was a bum.

Decent goals per game in all his seasons here, think we’re just spoilt with Aubameyang.

Yeah. If Auba wasn't here, I don't think most Arsenal fans would have any problem with Laca.

A striker that that puts up world class numbers and has an excellent all round game is very rare.

If they become available, they won't come here.

 

[Trilly]

Agree that we fix the rest of our team first, assess the attack and then go from here. We have a PL golden boot winner and a 72M winger who seems to produce even though his general play appears to have loads of room for improvement.


I don’t think Arteta has any intention of playing Auba centrally so if we sell Laca we have to replace him anyway. What I won’t accept is Eddie being our starting no9.

 

[Trilly]

Yeah. If Auba wasn't here, I don't think most Arsenal fans would have any problem with Laca.

A striker that that puts up world class numbers and has an excellent all round game is very rare.

If they become available, they won't come here.

Laca always gets compared to Auba as if we don’t have both.

Got laughed at in here for saying Laca doesn’t need to score as much as Auba because we already have Auba for that purpose. Strange.

Lacazette (if you ignore most of this season) is good enough for where we are trying to get to in the short term. He recently confirmed what I suspected - he was carrying an injury for most of the season. I have no issues with giving him another season.