Alex Lacazette is a well respected striker in the club. His impact in big games especially has been one of his best attributes. It is not easy to be a striker in the English Premier League as it is a fast paced league with little spaces to explore. Lacazette via Arsenal media talks us on what it takes to be a modern day striker in the PL.
“To be a top-level striker, you need a sixth sense but also to have a good relationship with your team-mates,” Lacazette told Arsenal Player. “You need to know your partners, the players who play around you, as much as possible. It’s really important to know them very well. Then afterwards, it’s about having that sense of where to be inside and outside the box.
“When the team has the ball… it all depends on my position and the position of the offensive players. I try to have the best position to help the team as much as I can, so I will go deeper to help the team in the build-up, or I’ll go into the space to leave the space for my team-mate to attack.
“I think most of the part of my game is due to my instinct to play, but also when we train in the week with the coach I have to adapt to his tactics as well. When you know the game, when you know the league, it becomes easier to take the information and make a better decision.
“When I receive the ball, I already know what I have to do. In the Premier League we have to see everything quicker because if we don’t, the defender is going to take the ball. You have to decide before which decision to take. Sometimes it’s tricky but you have to try to analyse the situation so you can make the right decision with the ball.
“When I get the ball, I try to find the best option, whether that’s giving the ball or shooting. Then afterwards I choose the best decision. Sometimes I shoot instead of passing but if I have to give the ball to my team-mate because he can score, I can do it. No problem.
“In a normal week, with the other strikers like Auba and Nico, we work a lot on our finishing. We try to work on it maybe two or three times a week, to have extra time after training sessions. Sometimes the coach asks us to stop because we’ve been out there for so long, but we love it! The goalkeepers are out there for a long time and have their own work. I think strikers should be like that too.
“We’re not working on specific types of finishes, it’s more about the session as a whole. After training, it’s up to us what we do. Sometimes we know that we miss certain types of shots more than others, so we want to work on that technique and build up our confidence to be ready for the game.”
Lacazette has scored 38 times for the Gunners and will look to add to that tally as the team travel away to the King Power to take on Leicester this weekend.
