Garth Crooks has blamed Mikel Arteta for Alexandre Lacazette’s poor form at Arsenal previously this season, as per his comments on BBC Sport.
Lacazette has recently returned to his best and hit five goals and his last four appearances, after being given a run of games up-front for the Gunners.
But Arteta has not always used him as an out and out centre forward this season.
Lacazette had a spell of matches where he was being deployed as an attacking midfielder by Arsenal.
And Crooks feels that Arteta was making a silly error by tampering with the £46 million Frenchman’s (BBC Sport) position.
He said: “It shouldn’t be difficult to play a player in his right position.
“However, it seems Arteta has struggled to get a grasp of the obvious at times. The Arsenal manager has mixed and matched players, and even tried to put square pegs in round holes on occasions.
“Lacazette is a natural centre-forward and any other consideration is nonsense. It’s not complicated. The striker’s two goals suggest Arteta would do well to leave him where he is. His perpetual tamperings have cost him in the past.”
Whether Crooks’ comments are entirely fair on Arteta are very much up for debate.
Lacazette was given a run of games up-front at the start of the season, but he was failing to fire, and Arteta’s decision to move him into a deeper role was simply to try and get his attack to function.
In the end Arsenal have looked better since Emile Smith Rowe has been brought into the team, as the young playermaker has helped to forge for more openings for Lacazette to score from.
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