'Girth > length': Arsenal fans react as heatmaps of Jesus and Lacazette reveal one striking difference

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'Girth > length': Arsenal fans react as heatmaps of Jesus and Lacazette reveal one striking difference

Gabriel Jesus has already shown that he should fit in well in Arsenal's system as a No.9 - and he performs that role very differently from Alexandre Lacazette.

After the Leicester win, the heatmap of Jesus' movement in that game was compared to that of Lacazette's in the same fixture in March. The contrast is quite stark:

To be fair, it's not quite right to describe Lacazette's movement as 'static' as he frequently drops down as deep as the edge of Arsenal's penalty area. Jesus, however, is clearly more willing to drift out wide, just like he did at City.

This contrast sparked a discussion among the Arsenal fans on Reddit.

cwillard260: "Episode 6 of All or Nothing, there was a clip where Stuivenberg has a one-on-one with Laca about his positioning and says he gets too involved in the buildup and ends up arriving late in the box. Perfect example of that here"

nitram343: "But that is not showing Laca static, it shows him playing way too down. Jesus starts in the middle of the field, all the way to the goal (and yes, incredibly wide too). But Laca was playing on the sides a bit, plus almost on our own area, plus barely into the other team goal!"

ikindalikethemusic: "There were massive amounts of people on here saying Laca dropping back to DM positions was key to 'enabling our style of play'. No disrespect to Laca, who I like, but he was awful last year and people were shouted down for months if they questioned his performances."

imapilotaz: "Oh wait, you mean our No. 9 spending half the game as a CDM is a reason we went games without scoring? I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you"

Jinkzee: "Girth > length"

AuthorMichael EllisSourceReddit
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