UEL: Dundalk v Arsenal | Thursday, December 10 | KO: 17:55 GMT | BT Sport

[tap-in]

He was only on the wing after Emery was sacked and Ljungberg reinstated Laca. He scored about 50% of his goals last season from the wing and 50% from the middle. The prior season and at Dortmund he was almost exclusively a CF or in a pair.

The underlying stats show that he scored with fewer chances and a higher conversion rate from the wing towards the latter part of last season. It's deceptive. It was never sustainable, and masked deeper problem of fewer and fewer attempts at goal as he got deeper and deeper.

There were legitimate reasons to move him back to CF but that belies the fact that we were playing 4231 with 3 playmakers (Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Özil) making chances behind him during the best run of his time at this club.

Sticking him up front with a static midfield 50 yards away and wing backs spamming crosses is utterly pointless.

I agree with all that. You responded to a post where I'd said I was one of those who wanted him at CF. The problem is though as you have pointed out, he doesnt get the service. At least with him on the wing it gives us someone creating for the CF. Ideally we would have 2 decent wingers a great midfield and Auba as CF, but we dont have that!

 

[bergholt]

I very much doubt that team would’ve lost. Most of those players have played together throughout the youth setup and understand each other’s game perfectly.

It also overlooks the point that in the context of a game where the result has no bearing on points or progress, experience for untested players is far more valuable than the outcome.

He needs to start getting results in the league.

Yes, that’s why I said “increased chance of losing”, not guaranteed loss.

If we’d lost in the EL it would add to the crisis narrative, regardless of the game being a dead rubber.