Arsenal: Lucas Perez Definitely Trumps Carlos Bacca
Arsenal were apparently the target club of Carlos Bacca, but surely Wenger knew what he was doing grabbing Lucas Perez instead.
Arsenal’s search for a striker this summer was painful at times. Alexandre Lacazette’s continually inflating price tag was incessantly frustrating. What started out at £35m skyrocketed to nearly twice that in the span of the summer. Lyon’s mind games were enough to turn Wenger away in the long run and that’s perfectly okay.
Then there was Wissam Ben-Yedder. For a very cheap price, Wenger was interested, but the Frenchman was less than convinced and instead joined Sevilla. No harm, no foul.
Out of the blue came Lucas Perez of Deportivo. Not exactly a La Liga power house, Lucas did have himself quite the year at his club, scoring 17 goals, adding eight assists and (my favorite stat ever) creating two chances per game. As a striker. That’s insane, let me tell you.
For only £17m, it’s a shrewd investment that could pay major dividends.
Now, we understand that there was another option that Wenger could have opted for – Carlos Bacca. The Colombian was, according to Slaven Bilic, waiting for Arsenal or Atletico Madrid to come after him, but a move never materialized, so he stayed put at Milan.
Wenger made the right choice. Baccas scored 18 goals and added two assists last season at Milan. There is no doubting that Bacca is a powerful striker that knows how to score a goal, but as is the case with Olivier Giroud, Wenger wants more. And he is right to.
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Wenger wants someone that is going to fit into this attack, link up play and contribute to oil the machine that is this Gunner’s offense. Bacca simply doesn’t do that like Lucas does. The Spaniard is a unique kind of striker that comes from a history of creating on the wings and carried his unselfishness over to the center forward role.
That is a rare combination in the modern game and Wenger might very well and found himself a hidden gem.
Bacca would have done fine at Arsenal. He could have pounded in 15-20 goals. But at 30 years old, he would be toe-to-toe with Giroud and then he’d be gone. It would be a quick hitter. Lucas has a bit more time to give and a much different set of capabilities.
I know people are always clamoring for a pure goal scorer and Bacca may very well fit into that category, but there is more to being a striker at Arsenal than punching home goals.
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