The former Gunners midfielder believes the Ivorian forward should be utilised differently on the pitch
Former Arsenal midfielder Adrian Clarke has suggested manager Mikel Arteta experiment by playing Nicolas Pepe on the left flank.
The Ivory Coast international – who is left-footed, has been used predominantly on the right-wing in his career.
He has however failed to hit the heights of his time at Lille since his summer move for a club-record £72 million.
“I was a winger that played on both sides, primarily left-footed, but a lot of my first senior appearances for Arsenal were on the right-wing,” Clarke said on The Chronicles of a Gooner Podcast.
“I was comfortable going on the outside and using my right. I wasn’t as so predominantly left-footed as Pepe.
“It’s something worth considering. It’s all about combinations really.
Clarke goes on further to shed light on how Pepe can become an effective left-winger without much fuss.
“At the moment we’ve got a seriously attacking left-back so the left-winger doesn’t need to do that because the left-back does, so you’ve got [Gabriel] Martinelli or Aubameyang playing as a second striker from the left,” he continued.
“On the right, the reason the balance isn’t as good because we can’t push the full-back on as much for obvious reasons with [Bukayo] Saka playing as a left-winger practically and because of Pepe coming inside. It is imbalanced.
“If Pepe was the type of player that went on the outside, we would be flying right now. I think he should mix up his game more, I think his decision-making absolutely can be better and more consistent.
“I want to see him combining more often with [Alexandre] Lacazette or whoever is playing as the striker. I want to see those give-and-gos a bit more often.
“We’ve seen it a little bit more of late with [Mesut] Ozil and Pepe, which is really encouraging, we want to see more of that.”
Pepe has had a hand in 14 goals (six goals, eight assists) in competitive football this season.
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