deardevil wrote:
You can't play all of Auba, Pepe, Ozil and Laca. You can play 3 of the 4 at most.
You can understand why both Ljungberg and Arteta have given Lacazette a try though, poor as he is at the moment. No one ever scores a goal in this team apart from Aubameyang. The second on the list is Laca with less than half as many since the start of last season, and then it gets really humiliating as guys like Martinelli and Willock and (I think) Sokratis round out the top 5. If you need to score goals to win games it seems prudent to get both strikers on the pitch at the same time and see what happens, especially when Martinelli is out. Laca would probably have been on the bench today if Gabi hadn't been carrying a knock.
I think Pepé is a different matter. If he had actually done anything of note aside from one half against West Ham he'd be worth sticking with no matter what, but the bulk of his appearances suggests that he's just not worth all the issues he brings at the moment. I can't think of a single league game where he's been more than 4/10 this season other than West Ham. Some bright flashes here and there; a good dribble in congested space, a successful take-on that looks nice in a highlight roll, but they're usually followed up with a weak-ass final pass or a dispossession further down the road.
You feel a bit bad for Maitland-Niles and Bellerin who have had to endure him on their flank this season. They get zero protection from him. If you're gonna be that casual in defence you better produce the goods going forward, but 1 goal every 509th minute is not going to cut it (1 every 1018th minute if you don't count the penalty that Auba literally gifted him). It seems entirely reasonable to me to keep feeding minutes to Gabi and Nelson who have repaid that trust with hard work. Pepé is theoretically on another level as a player, but until he starts showing it we have other options that make us more stable while we try to sort out the other 245 issues that plague us.
