How Unai Emery can get the most out of Aubameyang and Lacazette

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette are Unai Emery’s main strikers this season, they both want to be starting all Premier League matches but the Spanish coach has refused to change to a formation which supports two strikers upfront e.g 4-4-2. Unai Emery has then opted to instead be playing one ( Aubameyang) on the wing while the other starts as a centre forward.

Both Aubameyang and Lacazette are proven goal scoring machines because they were scoring 20+ goals at their old clubs but the Premier League is a very tough and competitive competition that has given them a challenge because they have only managed to score 12 goals together. Aubameyang and Lacazette have been in the starting elven of Arsenal in its last three Premier League draws but what’s really the problem, one would expect the gunners to be unstoppable if they have these two strikers in their team.

I believe the problem is that Aubameyang is not a winger and Unai Emery has continued with this idea of using him in that position because he can’t also afford benching Lacazette. Aubameyang has scored seven goals in the Premier League this season but four of those goals have been scored in matches where he came in as a substitute. So what does this mean?

LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 07: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal celebrates with teammate Alexandre Lacazette after scoring his team’s fourth goal during the Premier League match between Fulham FC and Arsenal FC at Craven Cottage on October 7, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

When Unai Emery brings in Aubameyang from the bench, his advice to him is to go into the opponent’s box and look for goals as observed in Arsenal’s 5-1 win against Fulham, the gunners changed to a 4-4-2 formation when the Gabon international came into the game and he scored a brace.

Something similar to this was seen in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Leicester City where Aubameyang came into the match when the score was 1-1, and then went on to score a brace hence the gunners winning the game. So this shows that Aubameyang is more impactful when he comes in as a substitute. So a solution for Unai Emery would be leaving Aubameyang on the bench until the second half.

Even though the above solution could work, the Arsenal fans will criticize Unai Emery for always benching Aubameyang yet he is their top scorer, they won’t mind about the tactical overview of that decision.

One other surprising solution would be Unai Emery trying out Alexandre Lacazette on the wings while Aubameyang starts as the main striker, it would be interesting to see how that would work out but the idea of bringing Aubameyang into the second half is much better.