Why Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is not as Good a Player as Many Seem to Think

In January of last year, Arsenal dished out a whopping £60 million on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who despite becoming a fan-favourite amongst Gooners, has been disappointing in the grand scheme of things.

All you’d have to do to understand that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is a very good striker is look at his scoring records over the past 5 or 6 seasons. The Gabonese international is well on his way to a 5th consecutive 25+ goal season in all competitions, furthering his claim as one of the most productive strikers in Europe. Despite the amount of goals that he has scored however, it’s very obvious when watching him play that Aubameyang is not nearly as complete a player as some of his centre-forward counterparts. He has become a favourite amongst Arsenal fans, but this is often baffling as he has also failed in essentially every big match that he has played in his 14 months with the Gunners.

If you follow modern football closely, you will know that centre-forwards are required to do a lot of work. The top ones such as Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero, Robert Lewandowski, and Luis Suarez are a similar mold of player that have a vast skillset. They can shoot from range and with power, dribble, pick out a teammate, play with their back to goal, play through the air, and shoot with either foot.

It’s quite telling that nobody truly considers Aubameyang within this category, because he struggles at many of these things. As good a goalscorer as he is, he is also an extremely limited player who struggles mightily outside of the 18-yard box. Despite being 6’2, Aubameyang has not scored a single headed goal in the Premier League since joining Arsenal – likely due to his fragile frame, which leaves him incapable of winning contested aerial duels.

Of course, Aubameyang has his strengths as well. His movement is utterly world-class, which is the main reason he gets so many goals – he simply has the knack of being in the right place at the right time. However, as a neutral it’s very difficult to ignore the deficiencies in his game. Even his so-called pace, which has become famous in recent years through the EA Sports FIFA game, has hardly been displayed during his time at Arsenal.

According to Squawka, Aubameyang has missed by far the most clear-cut chances in the Premier League, with 19. This shows that his finishing is also quite subpar.

https://twitter.com/Squawka/status/1102249303828033537

The lack of big game performances has been a major issue in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s Arsenal career thus far – another thing that most Gunners fans seem to be intentionally ignoring. In 14 months and 13 matches against top 6 sides, Aubameyang has scored just 2 goals from open play.

He has also shown a seriously worrying lack of composure in these matches, which was highlighted by his weak penalty miss in the North London derby last weekend, which could potentially be costly to Arsenal’s season. Last season against Manchester City he missed a penalty as well, and if you recall the match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge earlier this season, he missed a couple of shocking open nets. These are just a few examples of his lack of bottle when it really matters.

Along with being a more complete striker, Alexandre Lacazette has been scoring far more important goals for Arsenal this year than Aubameyang. The Frenchman has a whopping 9 match-winning goals, which make up 75% of his total tally. Aubameyang on the other hand, has just 3, which totals to 19%. Lacazette’s goals have single-handedly won Arsenal 29 points in the league table, while Aubameyang’s have won them 13, despite him having 4 more goals than the former. So not only is Aubameyang not scoring in the big fixtures, but he isn’t particularly scoring a large amount of goals that are making a difference for Arsenal in the table, or at least not as many as people seem to think.

These are many of the reasons why Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is a good striker, but certainly not as good as some make him out to be. Although he puts up good numbers on paper, he is a player who isn’t nearly as complete as some of his centre-forward counterparts, and one who struggles mightily when it matters most.