Arsenal legend Ian Wright defended the signing of Lucas vehemently. Now, suddenly, he has jumped the gun and withdrawn all support. What gives?
I had literally just praised Arsenal great Ian Wright for his assessment of Lucas Perez when he was signed. “Ighalo did it in the Watford team with all due respect. If [Lucas] kicks on in the Arsenal team with the chances that they make, he could easily score 20 goals – continuously,” he said, via the Daily Star.
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It was nice to hear an endorsement from someone on the tube. Not many were in support of the Lucas signing because he wasn’t a big name, he didn’t have the numbers to back him up and his price tag wasn’t out of this world. It was a typical Wenger-esque signing.
Wright seemed to be the only voice looking at this signing optimistically. It’s as if he understood all of what I just mentioned, how price tags aren’t everything.
But now, just like that, Wright has pulled the plug on the Lucas experiment.
“Arsenal need a striker. I thought we would see someone more direct. Hopefully that will happen,” he said, via the Metro. He added, “It seemed to me that he’s a winger.”
So what is it Ian?
We knew that Lucas had been a winger up until last year. It is no great surprise that in a moment of nerves and stress, he reverted back to what he was most comfortable with and used to. There is no harm in that. But to say that he looked like a winger was a bit off. Based on a heat map from WhoScored.com, it looks like Lucas spent most of his time either at the top of the box or off to the side a bit.
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It was nowhere near where Walcott and the Ox spent their time. Clearly Lucas understood that he was there to be a striker.
I will agree that Lucas needs to be more in the box, but to rip into him after just 60 minutes of play in a brand new league and on a brand new team is completely unfair and unwarranted, especially after Wright had just come out in support of him.
Lucas is going to be just fine. He isn’t a winger. There is no reason to hit the panic button after not even a full match. Ian is just getting a bit jittery for whatever reason.
While Giroud will likely re-take the starting role, there is plenty of reason to be comfortable with Lucas deputizing. Even against Southampton, while the numbers don’t support him, as I keep pointing out, he was just a little out of sync. Get him on the same wavelength as his team mates and his slick link up play will start being incredibly useful.
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