Arsenal: Nobody Should Be Judging Lucas Perez Period
Arsenal’s new striker Lucas Perez is suddenly and ridiculously being prematurely judged. This is ludicrous and needs to stop.
Arsenal has two bits of voodoo working on Lucas Perez right now. First, the curse of the No. 9 is alive and well. To hand that shirt to anyone other than a Robert Lewnadowski-esque striker is to confront a serious chunk of bad juju.
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But there is also the curse of Olivier Giroud, which we are seeing now in the media. Arsene Wenger came out and defended Lucas, saying that we should not judge him now and he is absolutely right. All he should have had to say is ‘stop judging Lucas.’ He went into detail explaining the various pressures and whatnot, but it was all unnecessary.
Stop judging Lucas. Period.
For starters, what Wenger said is right, it’s hard to adjust. But going beyond that, there is no reason to judge him anyway. Lucas was playing on a brand new team with no Alexis, one of Arsenal’s primary engines, and no Xhaka, who would help a speedy striker like Lucas feast.
Even with all of that, it’s not like he was a blundering fool. This wasn’t a Yaya Sanogo instance where we have no idea why he’s with the squad. Lucas’s qualities were plain to see. His speed was fantastic, his work rate was solid and his passing was just a smidgen off, else it would have been an inspiring outing.
Yet here goes the media calling him a flop, a winger, a waste of money. I feel like all the people out there that were calling for that ambiguous world class striker that doesn’t actually exist pinned all of their ‘world class striker’ attributes on Lucas and expected the world. That’s foolish, unrealistic and, honestly, irresponsible.
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Lucas is a different kind of striker, just like Giroud. He isn’t just here to score, he is here to link up play and bolster the attack. We saw that already in his first game. Just because the numbers don’t back him up does’t mean that he had a particularly poor game. Unless you actually see him play, which I’m guessing many of the critics didn’t, you can’t say ‘oh, well he was worthless.’
Because he wasn’t. He was a bit out of sync with his brand new team mates. Big deal.
It makes me sick sometimes. Giroud can’t catch a break in the media because his hard work goes blatantly unnoticed. At this point it’s more like a joke than anything. A single misstep will offset an entire 89 minutes of solid play. I would hate to see Lucas go down a similar route where he just can’t win.
Let me ask you Gooners, and answer me honestly. What do you expect out of Lucas? What did you think of his match? Am I crazy to think that everyone else is crazy?
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