Thank you, Laca: Lacazette set to leave Arsenal

[jayramfootball]

Option 1 - gone in summer for nothing.
Option 2 - risky big contract extension for a 30 year old.

What would you do?

We have to let him go.

Firstly he wants nothing less than a Golden parachute contract for his reitrement and we won't offer him that.

Second, he's playing lights out now because he's putting himself in the shop window, same thing Auba did 2 seasons ago .......... he's playing for that big contract.

Problem is we don't know what fat off the land Laca will look like, we know Auba took a massive dip, AFC won't risk that with Laca.

No, sorry, as much as I love the guy I said with Auba, Ozil and that tw*t Willian, NO MORE huge wage contracts for players 30 and over, nope.
We've been stung way too many times, we're lucky we're not still paying for Willian and that he made a charity move and left us.

1 year extension so he and Auba leave the club at the same time.

What makes you think Laca would do that? he's going to be a free agent with offers for no transfer fee, just he gets all the money, why would he sign a one year extension when he's about to get the biggest contract of his career ........... financial suicide if he did so he won't.

Yup.
He's gone in the summer.
We should use him to the fullest this season.
He's probably the only guy who can really fight for the ball against CBs.
We need that.
I would like to see use bring in a top CF next summer. Even if it's the only signing.

[DiamondGooner]

Agreed.

Sack off everything else and get us the best CF they can find, also in the mean time they can try out Pepe as a RF with Auba as a LF this season to see if Pepe a better used up front instead of out wide.

His left foot shot is great and he can get past players, but regardless, CF and maybe a Bissouma and we're done for now unless one of our players takes a massive dive in performance.

[Power n Glory]

We're going to struggle to sign a better striker than Laca

Alexander Issak

Don’t get what people see in him but tbf I haven’t watched enough of him to really notice

We're going to struggle to sign a better striker than Laca

Yes but I would also like to see Martinelli and Pepe play that role at some point. Both are decent in the air and not afraid of the physical duels, good work rate, pace and good finishing. But yes, a replacement striker will cost a lot of money.

Pepe is not even close to being tough enough to play in that position.

Agree.

Martinelli might step up though.

Agree. Pepe would be an awful option as a solo CF and Martinelli would be our best in-house option IMO.

Yeah, we need to change the way we play if we want to play Pepe as a CF. And I don't want another project restart. And there's no guarantee it will work.

We kinda of changed the way we played yesterday by sticking two up front and ditching the solo striker role. That’s a major shift from Arteta already and we haven't established a way we play. Would definitely want to continue with Lacazette and Auba up front but we're going to to have to rotate them eventually.

One - Both players limped off the pitch last night after a hard shift. They should recover from what Arteta has said but we can't afford to overplay them until they're injured. Personally, I would have liked to have seen either Pepe or Martinelli come on for either/both and sticking to a two striker system instead or having Odegaard on, which resulted in shifting our system and having a weaker physical player on struggling for form.

Two - Auba will be off for the AFCON. We'll have to try something new at some point.

Three - Lacazette's contract situation. If we're not going to renew, we may be looking at £60m minimum plus wages for a good striker.

When it comes to our internal options, I would out Martinelli and Pepe above Nketiah and Balogun. I also wouldn’t fancy the latter two as CF over Martinelli and Pepe. We have a league cup game next midweek so we should get to see something new. If it's terrible, we need to start thinking about the January transfer window.

[DiamondGooner]

Agreed I think its worth a shot trying Pepe in a front 2.

His shooting ability can't be argued, I don't think he's doing that great out wide, might benefit him being closer to goal ......... its worth a try.

If it doesn't work out, or even if it does we still have Laca and then we need to buy a top replacement.

[theHotHead]

We're going to struggle to sign a better striker than Laca

Yes but I would also like to see Martinelli and Pepe play that role at some point. Both are decent in the air and not afraid of the physical duels, good work rate, pace and good finishing. But yes, a replacement striker will cost a lot of money.

Pepe is not even close to being tough enough to play in that position.

Agree.

Martinelli might step up though.

[Salibatelli]

Always preferred a front 2, it’s a bit old school but much prefer it to these modern 1 striker formations, strikers are there to score goals, the more goal scorers you gave up front the better.

Has played well in the last 2 games, reckon he’s off summer though.

[DiamondGooner]

@ 1min - On Laca.

its a shame we're going to lose that after this season but contract wise / age, we have no choice, we NEED to buy a top, top replacement, don't worry about any other position, we have to buy a good enough replacement for Laca, we can't just have Auba and that's been proven up till yesterday.

[youtube]

[Fran Solo]

A front two with Lacazette and Martinelli/Pepe is worth trying. Just give Martinelli/Pepe a free role so he can shift from left to right. And don't overburden them with defensive duties. These guys have distrupting run and dribble so asking them to always look behind their back are counter productive. Alexis Sanchez lost a lot of possessions back then, but it didnt really matter because he created a lot of goals. I don't think Sanchez will be as good if the main instruction is "Play it safe, don't lose the ball".

[Angelito]

Option 1 - gone in summer for nothing.
Option 2 - risky big contract extension for a 30 year old.

What would you do?

Depends.

If he's willing to take a pay-cut and sign a 2-year deal, I'd be in favor of his stay. He doesn't mind being benched. Is excellent in his link-up play. He's also our best penalty taker. While he's not a clinical striker, he plays the modern CF role better than Auba.

I obviously wouldn't blame him if he wanted to leave, or doesn't entertain a pay-cut.

Contrary to the popular belief, I don't think Martinelli is made for a lone CF role. He could grow into that role. At this stage, I think his best position is on the left. I'd like to see him get a run of games alongside Smith Rowe at CAM—even if ESR's vision and creativity isn't up there yet—and Saka on the right.

Martinelli brings a directness to our game. He's a dribbler, a scorer, and has buckets of energy. That would be helpful to us as we press, whilst also creating spaces for other attacking players.

[Power n Glory]

Agreed I think its worth a shot trying Pepe in a front 2.

His shooting ability can't be argued, I don't think he's doing that great out wide, might benefit him being closer to goal ......... its worth a try.

If it doesn't work out, or even if it does we still have Laca and then we need to buy a top replacement.

Yep. If Arteta is planning on using this formation often it changes things for a lot of players. Striker wise, it's better for Nketiah and Balogun if we started playing two up front because neither seem suited for a solo striker role. Pepe may work as a one of the two up front but things may be better for him out wide since he used to play on the left of a 4-4-2 for Lille. A lot to consider with two strikers.

[Highbury Hillbilly]

What would you rather?

- 2 year extension for a total payout of say £15m

or

- New non-PL striker (El-Nessri or Noa Lang) for £25-30m

[Power n Glory]

A front two with Lacazette and Martinelli/Pepe is worth trying. Just give Martinelli/Pepe a free role so he can shift from left to right. And don't overburden them with defensive duties. These guys have distrupting run and dribble so asking them to always look behind their back are counter productive. Alexis Sanchez lost a lot of possessions back then, but it didnt really matter because he created a lot of goals. I don't think Sanchez will be as good if the main instruction is "Play it safe, don't lose the ball".

It really was a more open game yesterday. Our counter attacks were much quicker too. Would have been good to see Arteta throw on Martinelli and Pepe. I thought we lost our way once Odegaard and AMN came on.

[themessiah]

Tbf Emery’s for all we criticised he mostly played Laca and Auba together whether it was in. 3-2-2-1-2 or a 4-4-2 for a 442 We have always had personal for swift counter attacks and emery was getting best of auba and laca. Laca and Auba are literally made for 442, don’t get why it hasn’t even been tried against most Bottom sides away from and at home games against the poor sides. It also Suits Partey and that Belgium kid as well style of play.

Lacazette drops in behind, Aubameyang can make runs, completely frees up the Lm/LW as the movement is too much for the opposition
We should only play 4-5-1 games the top 6 sides home and away.

[Fran Solo]

A front two with Lacazette and Martinelli/Pepe is worth trying. Just give Martinelli/Pepe a free role so he can shift from left to right. And don't overburden them with defensive duties. These guys have distrupting run and dribble so asking them to always look behind their back are counter productive. Alexis Sanchez lost a lot of possessions back then, but it didnt really matter because he created a lot of goals. I don't think Sanchez will be as good if the main instruction is "Play it safe, don't lose the ball".

It really was a more open game yesterday. Our counter attacks were much quicker too. Would have been good to see Arteta throw on Martinelli and Pepe. I thought we lost our way once Odegaard and AMN came on.

It was. Just look at Partey's role. He was attacking. Not with those long range shots, but with real penetration into Villa's box. He hit the bar from inside the box. Tomiyasu was also running forward a lot. The last time he did this was against Spurs and we also won. We might (and will) get caught if we continue playing like this, but it's ok for me. I'd rather try to score and win the game positively then to sit back and do the careful defensive strategy. We're not good at that kind of game.
Oh, and AMN and Odergaard might be instructed to slow the tempo down. Some players were starting to get tired.

[theHotHead]

Tbf Emery’s for all we criticised he mostly played Laca and Auba together whether it was in. 3-2-2-1-2 or a 4-4-2 for a 442 We have always had personal for swift counter attacks and emery was getting best of auba and laca. Laca and Auba are literally made for 442, don’t get why it hasn’t even been tried against most Bottom sides away from and at home games against the poor sides. It also Suits Partey and that Belgium kid as well style of play.

Lacazette drops in behind, Aubameyang can make runs, completely frees up the Lm/LW as the movement is too much for the opposition
We should only play 4-5-1 games the top 6 sides home and away.

Its because Arteta is a bloody idiot and wants to copy Pep. I get the feeling if Pep could he wouldn't play with any strikers on the pitch. Its so obvious playing Laca and Auba in a 2 is our best option, not least because the 2 always look rejuvenated and happy when they play together.

But no, fuckwit Arteta has to try avoid the obvious and instead sends us out half cocked! Thats why our attack is so shit!! As for playing Pepe as a CF, one of the worst ideas I have heard since being on this forum. To play as a CF you have to have the mindset of a CF, Pepe isn't direct enough and definitely not strong enough, to play up against big CBs.