LAC-ING IDEAS
Ex-Arsenal boss Emery says he wanted to play Ozil with Aubameyang and Lacazette – but struggled to fit them into a team
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UNAI EMERY has admitted he struggled to get his best players to gel at Arsenal, before being sacked.
Mesut Ozil was continually left out by the Spaniard while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette rarely led the attack together.
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Speaking after being dumped for Mikel Arteta, Emery acknowledged that it was difficult for him to find a system that accommodated all three.
The Spaniard told : "I wanted Lacazette, Aubameyang and Mesut to work together, each one of them with their own characteristics.
"But there were times when I had to leave one of them out of the XI."
Aaron Ramsey was also a key factor in the Gunners line-up before his summer move to Juventus.
And, while Emery was excited by to prospect of managing such talents, he found fitting them all in a big conundrum.
He continued: "We had Mesut or Ramsey playing. Ramsey was very capable of applying the pressure we demanded.
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"With Mesut there was less pressure but we had more capacity of having the ball and his brilliant combinations with the ball.
"I used to play tactically depending on the characteristics of our players. If the pressure was higher or not so high, aggressive or less aggressive.
"You try to find a team that is competitive and I found it last season, but sometimes, for one reason or another, for instance, the injury of Lacazette, or Mesut being out for almost a month with the problems he had with the recent attempted robbery he was less available.
"There was a time when I couldn't use the three of them.
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"The capacity to try to find how to put together the three different qualities of these players was a tactical motivation for me."
Since Emery's exit, interim boss Freddie Ljungberg and Arteta have preferred to keep Aubameyang out wide while giving Ozil freedom in behind Lacazette.
However, results haven't changed with Chelsea earning a 2-1 win from a goal down at the Emirates on Sunday.
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