Interview

‘He doesn’t shoot a lot - when he does, he scores'

Alex Lacazette and Arsène Wenger
Alex Lacazette and Arsène Wenger

It only took Alexandre Lacazette 94 seconds as a Premier League player to make his mark.

The France international opened the scoring in our 4-3 win over Leicester City and had a goal disallowed after a marginal offside decision at Stoke City last week.

Arsène Wenger has been encouraged by Lacazette’s start to life in London - but believes the best is still to come.

“He is still in an adaptation period to the team and to the league,” the boss said. “He is a bit surprised by the intensity of it all in training and in the games. He will get there because he is brave and he is intelligent. 

“The intelligence of his runs and the quality of his technique is very good. Overall I don't worry for him. He is just in the [early] phase... at the start he was completely taken by the intensity of it and he slowly adapts. I feel every week he is getting better and stronger.

“He was very unlucky to get the goal cancelled out at Stoke. Incidentally a supporter wrote to me, ‘Why did he wear yellow boots? If he had black boots...' He was not stupid at all! I am not sure the linesman saw his boot at all.

“He is a player when you look at his numbers, his assist numbers are good as well and he is not an absolutely obsessed, selfish striker. You have many types of strikers and he is the one who is more of a combination player than a finisher.

“But if you look at his numbers, the quantity of his finishing compared to the rest of Europe is a bit below.

“That means he plays more in situations where he could have taken a shot rather than others. But the quality of his finishing is top.

“He is a guy who doesn’t shoot a lot but when he shoots, he finishes.”

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