Alexandre Lacazette scores goals. That’s what he does. In his six seasons with Lyon the local boy made good scored 114 times, eventually leaving France boasting a strike-rate of a goal every 154 minutes. For his new club Arsenal he has already bagged six in nine starts while this week he put two past Germany in an international friendly.
His consistent prolificacy is why he was a wanted man this summer with several leading clubs in the hunt until the Gunners committed a hefty £52m to secure his services. Any early doubts that the 26-year-old would require a settling in period – or worse a season of misfire prompting a collapse in confidence – were swiftly put to bed when he nodded home a season-opener after just two minutes of his debut. Since then he has offered the North London giants the kind of prowling threat up front that they have lacked for eons.
One question then – why the hell doesn’t Arsene Wenger start him?
I mean he does, obviously – hence the nine selections – but for recent trips to Anfield and the Etihad the veteran coach left his most dangerous forward kicking his heels on the bench while the word was, until Oliver Giroud’s injury put a spanner in the works, that same fate awaited Lacazette this Saturday when Arsenal host their nearest and dearest Tottenham.
Ahead of this crucial fixture I was fortunate enough to interview David Bentley, the former midfielder who played for both clubs, and when the subject of Lacazette came up he became animated, genuinely perplexed as to Wenger’s strategy of keeping his striker out of the firing line for the biggest games when he is needed the most. Gunners legend Ian Wright evidently feels the same way telling the Premier League’s official site this week: “If I had him in my squad he would start literally every game. He takes half chances; he finishes well with both feet”.
It’s a sentiment shared by many on the Arsenal forums with one member referring to Wenger’s constant subbing of his star man as ‘managerial sabotage’ while celebrity Gooner Jack Whitehall tweeted on Tuesday evening, “Lacazette has scored two goals for France. Wenger must be so frustrated that he can’t sub him off right now”.
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Even the manner of Lacazette’s deployment has sparked concern among the fan-base. Playing him as a straightforward targetman is fine given the Frenchman’s excellent ability to lead the line (as evidenced in arguably Arsenal’s most impressive away performance at Chelsea in mid-September) but it negates his other clear strengths such as clever movement and an eye for a pass. It is here where Wenger seems to be distrustful, wary of picking a potentially fearsome trio of Ozil, Sanchez and Lacazette for games that require Arsenal to retain possession in the attacking third. For this, Iwobi is preferred, a player frankly out of form at present.
It is a tactical decision that not only insults a player who was compared to Wright even before moving to the capital but also damns Wenger. After all, who signs a forward for a club record fee to elevate a team with aesthetically pleasing football embedded in their DNA but doesn’t trust that forward to be able to play aesthetically pleasing football? Arsene Wenger, that’s who.
Perhaps the problem goes right back, all the way to the signing of Francis Jeffers when the highly decorated coach acknowledged that his purist team needed a poacher; an exclamation point to the flowery prose being written. The Everton ‘fox in the box’ proved to be such a disappointment at Highbury that it reportedly reattached Wenger firmly back to his convictions after wavering and briefly accepting that his beautiful side needed a cold, clinical finisher. It was years later until Arsenal signed Giroud – a perfect Wenger striker in many ways due to his blend of finesse and lethalness in front of goal. Prior to him saw a whole litany of winger-cum-forwards from Gervinho to Eduardo to latterly Welbeck.
Maybe now the Emirates don believes he has finally got the ‘fox in the box’ he has been lacking for so long and with Alexis Sanchez no longer his usual sensational self and firing home 20+ goals maybe now is the perfect time too?
Alexandre Lacazette currently has a strike every 125 minutes and has scored twice that of the second highest scorer at Arsenal in 2017/18. They are undeniably getting the best out him then. The question remains though - what about the rest of him?
https://video.footballfancast.com/video-2015/lacazette.mp4