Javier Hernandez vs Alexandre Lacazette – A statistical comparison
Arsene Wenger has finally managed to land one of his long-term transfer targets in Alexandre Lacazette this summer. The French international was wanted by the English club for more than a couple of years now but they have finally managed to make him their record transfer, ahead of next season.
Most clubs around Arsenal have also found interesting players to lead their attacks next season, and one such player who could compete with Lacazette for goal scoring supremacy is West Ham’s surprise recruit, Javier Hernandez.
Chicharito has been in sensational form for Bayer Leverkusen in the last couple of seasons, picking up 17 and 11 goals respectively. But he is nowhere close to being as productive as Lacazette, who picked up 28 and 21 goals in the last two seasons respectively.
Averaging 1.3 and 1.9 key passes per game last two seasons, the Frenchman picked up 3 assists in both those campaigns. The West Ham man has also been similarly effective on this front, averaging just 1.1 and 1.2 key passes per game in the last two seasons, but picking up 2 and 3 assists respectively.
Both players are genuine goal scorers with sensational finishing abilities and it does not come as a surprise that they average around 2.9 shots on target every season. Lacazette was sensational in the Champions League in the 2015-16 season, where he averaged a career best of 3.8 shots on target per game.
Lacazette is also a decent dribbler and averages 1.8 and 1.7 successful dribbles per game in the last couple of campaigns. But Chicharito is not bad either, having recorded 1.1 successful dribbles per game in both of the previous seasons.
However, the West Ham’s new signing is slightly more effective in the air than the Arsenal man in general. Lacazette wins just one aerial duel per game and loses upto 1.7 duels per game. Chicharito is slightly better in this regard, winning 1.7 aerial duels last season, getting better from 1.4 in the season before that. He only loses around 1.4 aerial duels per game.
Lacazette is slightly more established as a star in Europe and will be a big attraction for Arsenal. But that will bring with it, a lot of expectations, which will have to be met quickly. Hernandez will have his own issues at the club, but he will be given more freedom to express himself, which might come in handy.
In this case, Lacazette might come out as a winner, considering the amount of supply he’d be getting from his midfielders and his conversion rate of 38% last season.