You may recall that feeling of excitement when Arsenal bought Lucas Podolski and what it might have meant for the club to finally have secured a World class finisher.
That was back in 2012 but by 2015 he had gone to the football junkyard known as Galatasaray. His Arsenal career was over before it really had a chance to begin.
Yet Podolski had shown that he was a force to be reckoned and his international class was obvious to see. Immensely strong, intuitive and classy with superb balance and timing, so what happened?
Wenger appeared not to trust or fancy him in front of goal which is at odds with most Gooners, who liked the player and what he had to offer. By 2014 Podolski was becoming frustrated with constantly being substituted. Sound familiar?
Here we are again with seemingly the same issue but with a different player, Arsenal’s record signing Alexandra Lacazette.
The Frenchman has shown that he has genuine quality and an eye for goal but his manager appears unimpressed. In fact, Lacazette could probably have 14 or 18 goals to his name in the Premier League but for that to happen, he needs to stay on the pitch.
Wenger seems to have no idea how to line up his center midfield and knows even less about who to put in defence. Yet it’s up front that he clearly shows an appalling lack of judgement by either not playing or withdrawing Lacazette.
The tag tactics with Giroud is temporarily haunted due to injury but we eagerly await Wenger’s next tactical anomaly in terms of Lacazette. Perhaps he will put Ramsey in the striker’s role once fit, maybe even insert Theo from the B team or ….hold on a minute, my sister played netball once, surely she’s worth a go.
That’s how bewildering it has become, I didn’t understand Podolski’s predicament and I sure don’t understand the Managers cotton wool approach to the most exciting striker we’ve had in years.
