The rise and fall of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Nearly two months ago Ivor wrote a piece for this blog claiming that Aubameyang was back, “showing excellent form for a thirty-two year old and shows no sign of slowing down”. Luckily for Ivor he did at least end his piece with the question: Is he back for good? Aubameyang is not only out of form but out of the team and out of his captaincy at Arsenal. So what has happened to the former captain?
Well his captaincy and his place in the squad at the moment were compromised by a second disciplinary incident under Mikel Arteta, believed to be that he went to France to visit family and was not back at the agreed time. Although, it is understood he was back in time for training. A relatively flimsy reason to strip a player, with a pretty good history, of their captaincy. So was Arteta just looking for an excuse to move Aubameyang down the pecking order?
When he arrived at Arsenal in the 17/18 season he made an immediate impact scoring 10 in 13 premier league games, with 4 assists to compliment. Coming off 13 goals in 16 Bundesliga games, those are admirable numbers for a player moving clubs mid-season. And they were no fluke, 31 league goals for Dortmund the previous year and 25 before that, Aubameyang was looking unstoppable in Germany, and North London was no different. 22 league goals in his first full season in the premier league and the same again the year after, not to mention a handful of Europa league and FA Cup goals. Then, as Ivor mentioned, Aubameyang had a terrible 20/21 season. 10 league goals in 29 appearances, his lowest tally since 10/11 and his joint lowest assists with the same season. As a natural showman it has been suggested that the behind closed doors games of the 20/21 season didn’t provide Aubameyang with the energy he needed to feed on to perform at his best. So like Ivor said, with fans back in stadiums for 21/22 he’s back on form right? I’d say so far wrong. 14 games in the premier league so far for only 4 goals and an assist. While it’s only halfway through the season he is not showing the signs of his highflying form, and now he appears to have withdrawn himself for the starting 11 reducing his chances of improving his form. He has shown he’s more than capable of scoring more goals in the period in the past. Even last year his league goals per game ended up at 0.34, compared to 0.28 so far this season.
While there is still time to improve this statistic, the question now is not can he improve, but will be even get the chance? At 32 years old Aubameyang is now considered on the older side for a premier league player, but by no means has he hit retirement age: Zlatan, Messi and Ronaldo all perform at the top level at an older age than Auba. So has Aubameyang succumbed to the inevitable enemy of all professional athletes? FIFA Career Mode would certainly have many football fans believing that once they hit 30, players become washed up pretty quickly. But in the real world players show all the time that age is just a number and that they can compete and the highest level well into their 30s.
2 years into Mikel Arteta’s tenure as Arsenal manager, could it be that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Perhaps Auba simply cannot wrap his head around Arteta’s training and his style of play. Maybe Aubameyang isn’t able to trust the process. Up until the present disciplinary incident Aubameyang has had no issue with game time under Arteta, so his poor goal stats can’t be down to an ageist manager influenced by a Career Mode on age. However, at time of writing, 14 of Arsenal’s last 15 goals have been scored by players in their early 20s. So has Arteta got them playing a young man’s game? Maybe Aubameyang just can’t keep up with the young guns and Arteta’s process.
Perhaps he’s just phoning it in the latter years of his career. Aubameyang signed a lucrative contract at the start of the 20/21 season. Could it be that now that’s he’s secured himself a healthy paycheque in the twilight years of his career, done his best to ensure some financial stability for himself in his retirement, that he doesn’t want to put the effort in anymore? Maybe he doesn’t have the same motivation to put in the top performances that he once did.
I’m afraid I think Ivor spoke too soon, and for whatever reason I think Aubameyang’s form is not going to recover any time soon. With half the season still to go I’m sure he hopes he’ll find favour and form if he wants to stay in North London, but perhaps it’s already too late. Could Aubameyang become the next Ozil?
Jim, Four Four Brew
