Danny Higginbotham: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Alexandre Lacazette? Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has dilemma on his hands over first-choice striker
SunSport columnist believes Arsenal have finally put together a terrifying group of attackers — but they could still lose a few games 6-5
ARSENE WENGER must be licking his lips at the attacking talent at his disposal now.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joining Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil, Jack Wilshere, Henrik Mkhitaryan and Aaron Ramsey makes it an embarrassment of riches.
But I don’t see how he can get BOTH Arsenal’s two most expensive signings — £60million Aubameyang and £44m Lacazette — in the same side as they are both out-and-out strikers.
Aubameyang played wide left with Saint-Etienne at the start of his career but has been a No 9 over the last few seasons.
Of his 98 Bundesliga goals, 97 were scored from inside the box. Lacazette plays on the shoulder, trying to get in on goal.
Wenger can hardly stick either of them out wide. It just won’t suit their game. So, will he play two up top?
Two up front is great going forward and you can cause real problems for opposition defences — especially as full-backs fly forward so much these days. But it brings problems defensively and Arsenal don’t need any more of those.
They need to tighten up, not be gung-ho — especially away from home, where their record this season is pretty poor.
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The problem with two up top is that not many other teams play it.
Everyone used it in my day when wingers were more fashionable — think Giggs, Overmars, Duff etc — and full-backs sat back.
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But the trend now is to pack midfields with formations like 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.
So if Arsenal revert to two up top there is a real danger they will be outnumbered in the centre of midfield — and that is where games are usually won.
Of course, Leicester won the league playing 4-4-2 but it actually morphed into 4-5-1 a lot of the time with the tireless Shinji Okazaki dropping into midfield.
Neither Lacazette nor Aubameyang is the type of player to do that for Arsenal.
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One option for Wenger is to go with 3-5-2. But then someone else has to miss out! The five across midfield would be two wing-backs and three in the middle.
Wenger could play Wilshere holding plus Ozil and Mkhitaryan but that is not exactly solid defensively.
They might win a few games 6-5 — but they will lose a few 6-5, too!
It will be fascinating to see if Wenger can cram all that talent in to his team and keep the balance between defence and attack. If he can, there could be fireworks at the Emirates.