Time to put Lacazette on the bench and start using Martinelli frequently. by Lagos Gooner
Aubameyang is serving a three match ban due to the red card he was issued against Palace. In his place, Arsenal used Martinelli against Sheffield United in a three man attack. The youngster shone brightest among the attackers who were used that day; Lacazette, unfortunately, did nothing special in that game.
Against Chelsea this Tuesday and in subsequent games that Auba will be missing, I want to suggest that we should use Martinelli as our top striker, in twin partnership with Pepe, in 4-4-2 formation. Lacazette, with all due respect and without trying to diminish his impact for Arsenal so far, should be rested for some games in order to enable him rest his mind and body, and prepare himself to re-launch his career whenever he is recalled to the team.
In football, form matters. If you are in form, you will get more playing chances than when you are off form. In recent games, Lacazette has not done anything to justify his continual first team opportunities. He has not scored a goal in over nine games and he has appeared frustrated in recent games. He has not scored an away goal for many, many months and our next three games are all on the road.
Martinelli on his part, has grabbed his opportunities, whenever he is called upon to play. In our last game, he scored the only goal we had in that match. He has been a phenomenon on the football pitch, in recent games.
At Arsenal right now, apart from our defensive issues, scoring has somewhat been difficult to come by. In games where we create several scoring opportunities, we end up converting just one or at most two out of those scoring opportunities. When we don’t score goals, we put serious pressures on the defenders, who will try not to concede the goal that will deny us of victory or even a draw, in a game. If scoring of goals was our problem, Lacazette has not grabbed the opportunity given to him to solve part of the problem. Martinelli on the other hand,seems ready to offer goals to the team, if asked to start.
This write up is not saying we should permanently keep Lacazette away from the first team; rather it is only suggesting that Lacazette should be rested until he is mentally ready to score goals again. We have quality attackers in Arsenal. We have Lacazette, we have Pepe, we have Nketiah and we have Martinelli. All these attackers can score beautiful goals on a good day but in recent times, Martinelli has been the player making things happen. Against Chelsea, I won’t be asking too much if I should plead with Arteta to allow this young and enterprising Brazilian lead the attack, would I? We are Arsenal and we are proud.
#keepthefaith
Sylvester Kwentua
Martinelli scored a goal against shf utd but he was not great against them.He had chances in which he should have converted and should have made better runs but this guy is a top talent who should be ever present in the lineup
And i suggested this line up as soon as auba got banned 3412.Use Saka and niles as wingbacks and boom we have the fastest attack.The defence will be stable with 3 CBs and xhaka and torreira has been our top consistent performers under MA so that pivot can be trusted.With ozil in the middle to link up play,i think this looks good.
But i think MA prefers 4231 than any other formation,will be interesting to see who he starts as a main striker.If kola is fit,i will use saka as LW and martinelli up front.
Lacazette is going through a rough patch and i think he plays a role similar to the one of firmino in liverpool(kinda like a false 9)but he must be playing up top as a 9.He needs a rest and i hope he will come back stronger
Arteta’s system swaps the formations between 4-2-3-1 and 3-4-2-1 frequently, depending on the situations:
……….. Leno
…. Mustafi . Luiz . Xhaka
Pepe . Niles . Torreira . Saka
…… Ozil …… Martinelli
………. Lacazette
Ozil failed to link the DMs with the forwards at the Sheffield game and he always plays badly at a tough away game, so Arteta had better replace the no 10 role with a box-to-box midfielder or a half-winger at Stamford Bridge
Lacazette could be a good false nine like Firmino, but he will not be able to that effectively without being flanked by two half-wingers
The problem is OZil is not linking anything anymore, he was useless in our last match and please don’t blame Martinelli for ozil wastefulness, a have the worst midfielders out of the top 6, ozil can’t assist can’t even do a simple pass again, Xhaka has improved under aterta but he’s still average, Torrera is the only one who can really play with heart. We need new midfielders who are willing to work for the team.
I have read this article in which you speak lowly and look down on Laca’s
performance and contribution to the team. You stated that Laca did nothing
special in the Sheffield United game and in other previous away games where
he failed to score. Your assesment of contribution is when a striker scores.
I beg to differ. Laca makes the team play as a unity both offensively and
defensively too. His link up play is second to none. His pressing and work
rate is exceedingly high. Laca’s example is Fermino of Liverpool. He hardly
scores more than 12 goals a season and yet he is the first on the team sheet
I can’t agree more with you henry.Laca is the heart beat of arsenal team.myopic to say the least if judge his contributions on goals alone.Sheffield match is a replica of our match against Wolverhampton where lacazette was subbed and we lost the lead on both occasion.It can’t be a coincidence can it?.Like it or not will start our next game.
loll
To Henry Chimere and mix. I think you are the myopic because you if you looked closely you will see that he cannot keep the ball, less do a pass accurately, always return the ball in a counterattack. Zero dribble, zero creativity, static during counters and not a single run in the back of defenders.
He always seem to be in the wrong position to receive the ball.
I think he is the anti-thesis of Henry. Totally approve Deschamps does not call him for France.
He need to do better, loll and we are still waiting for him this season. Its like “« Anne, ma sœur Anne, ne vois-tu rien venir ? »
Keep waiting, may be it will come good at the end of the season when there will be nothing to fight for.
“Heartbeat of the team” my foot!
Ken be advised that it is beneficial to think with your brains and not with
your emotions. We raised critical facts in comparison of Fermino(9) of Liverpool and Laca(9) of Arsenal. They are both deadly and dangerous but do not
score as much as their their wingers. They are complete players as much as they are team players. Deschamps has personal issues with Laca just like PEPP had with Yaya. Deschamps choose Gerouid ahead of Laca and yet he Gerouid can not fit in most teams in the English Premier League. Please get your facts right
@Henry,
Thank you for politely gave @ Ken the necessary insult, even the Lagos gooner who wrote this article is myopic,thank God, they are not the coach, they don’t know anything about team balancing which Lacasette offered, all these gooners slating Lacasette should grow and wise up.
Lacazette gave Pepe a sharp through ball, then Pepe delivered a great cross to Martinelli. Unfortunately Martinelli lacked the composure to finish that golden chance off
That incisive through ball was something that Ozil couldn’t produce as the supposedly most creative midfielder at that game. Lacazette’s movements were not good, but he can’t do much if the no 10 can’t think out of the box
It is the no 10 position that has to be replaced with a box-to-box midfielder or a mezzala. Arsenal need someone to link the DM/ the defenders with the forwards and the no 10 is supposed to do that in 4-2-3-1 formation
@ Gotanidea, when I read your comments about Mesut Ozil, I know it will always be a bias one. No offence Bro.
@Skills please can you remind me one incisive through pass that ozil made in the last 5 matches bro.
The pass he made to Martinelli in the second half against Sheffield United. Some Strikers would convert that. Not slating Martinelli though. Ozil is no longer the Ozil of 4 years ago. It happens. But we should stop criticizing him because of his 350K a week wages. He played well against Man United and Chelsea. I know why I said that to Gotanidea. We are all fans and do have a right to make our opinions known. But the Ozil criticism is just exaggerated.
@gotanidea got no idea more like lol. Your Comments are always so biased against ozil
How come is Lacazette in need of a rest and the lazy,useless Ozil is not?Mark my words-until Ozil is gone nothing good is going to happen at Arsenal.Get rid of the “ invisible man” now!
The issue is we have midfielders who can’t score goals. Guendouzi can’t shoot. We should have kept Ramsey. Letting him go was dumb. We need goal scoring midfielders. They need to be more aggressive. Ozil should shoot more often. Not looking good at the moment.send Guendouzi and Willock out on loan. Bring goal scoring midfielders in. We should start taking more shots in games going forward. We caress the ball too much. Too much passing in the opposition box
Our main problem is our midfielders, they are so useless, our defense has been playing good under arteta but our midfield and our forwards has been letting us down, all our midfielders can’t score goals thy can’t create chances, our midfielders are overrated, how can we have a world class creator in ozil who can’t hit a simple pass to Martinelli in more than one occasion in the last match, we all know if ozil can’t assist or score he’s useless, Xhaka has never been a creative midfielder for us, Torrera is average offensively, we need new set of midfielders.
OT.. Nelson and Kolasinac will miss our next 3 games through injury ☹
Laca has to play, imo.
And that means our flanks be targeted by chelsea.
Previous article was about Selling Laca.
Current article is about Benching Laca.
Some Fans are good in viewing but they ain’t good playing Whilst some are waste doing both; they can’t view and they hardly know how to play.!
A good baller would definitely see Laca vulnerability on the team.
Selling Laca: Fu**Ed up
Benching Laca: Screwed up.
Lacazette is a very fine all round footballer who should be given the opportunity to play his way through this barren period which is as much to do with our lack of authority and creativity in midfield than his personal failings.Over the years he has proved himself with Lyon and Arsenal and deserves support at this time.Martinelli is a very promising young player but to entrust him with the role of central striker against Chelsea is to ask too much at this stage of his career.Given our mediocre performances of late I would certainly settle for a point against Chelsea.
So some people can still justify Lacazette performance here, this guy is not good I remember our best performance against west ham Lacazette was benched Auba and martineli were so mobile, Freddie Ljungberg has started benching him if not that martineli was injured,Laca doesn’t have fast movement to receive pass, he is so slow, no positioning, that is not the type of striker we need. Go and check auba game, you will see speed and positioning
I’m not sure you know the definition of Slow and Positioning! If you do, you’ll know Laca doesn’t lack the two myopic words you traded to him..
If Laca is slow, then I guess Ozil is Usian Bolt and Xhaka Gatlin!.
Even Pepe is as fast as a sky jet.
I’m not sure you even know how to control a Up Landing Pass Ball.
All those who slams laca is stupid cause even thou he’s not scoring goals his overall game play has been out standing. The way he keeps the ball up and bring those around him into the game is next level. Apart from a few mistakes which can be over looked cause of the good he’s doing same goes for zhaka but people have the white plate with the black dot mentality. So stop it already and get behind the team cause I’m seeing plenty of improvement
We want to see an article with the title “ Why Ozil need to be sold or released with no hesitation”…
I recognize Laca’s good work rate, but it appears to tank towards the end of games, hence MA has no choice but to sub him. He really need to work on his first touches. I think he should start the Chelsea and match and be subbed at about 65 minute for Nketiah. Martinelli should switch to 9 then. It’s a win-able match. Xhaka need to be more confident and minimize his back passes. We reduce our attacking chances with the excessive back passes.
MA committed a blunder by removing him, he must have learnt his lesson.
ken please don’t undermine Lacca’s performance just to make a point.The best in our match was made by laca to free pepe and laca made a pre assist for our goal but I think you need more than a good eyeglass to see that.Laca is important to the team set up and arteta knows this,so keep your bias assessment to yourself.
As for Lacazette, I think Arsenal have rinsed every goal from him that he will score impo the top flight.
Be best to sell for as much as they can get; then Arsenal can buy a top creative midfielder.
The problem with Arsenal’s attack at the moment is that we are too one dimensional. We are only attacking from the middle. The few times that we have been able to use the wings we have looked dangerous(take for instance the goal that Martinelli Scored). Our full-backs do not overlap often enough as do Liverpool’s for example, due to confidence issues…(also not forgetting that both Saka and Miles are not first choice full-backs..)without being too pessimistic, I still can foresee this trend continuing until our full-backs are up and running..Every striker requires supply full stop. And our strikers have been feeding on fringes.
Lacazette is WORLD CLASS
Lacazett a world class striker
OMG
then auba and Aguero are plannet strikers
We can be deceiving ourself by saying laca is like famino of Liverpool.
Watch both players game and see they are completely not the same, we can keep deceiving ourself that he is world class hahaha