Tony Cascarino defended Graham Potter’s decision to take Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang off during Thursday’s defeat to Manchester City after introducing the striker as a substitute early in the game.
The 33-year-old is not the first Chelsea player to have been substituted on and off in a game. Such cases tend to make headlines, however, and it did.
Aubameyang, who was initially among the substitutes when Chelsea hosted Manchester City in midweek, had to come on early in the fifth minute to replace injured Raheem Sterling.
The Blues did quite well in the first half but Riyad Mahrez’s goal in the second half changed the whole situation.
Potter decided to use all his substitutions soon after and Aubameyang was among those taken off, replaced by debutant Omari Hutchinson.
It was not enough, but Cascarino believes Potter made the right decision.
“He [Aubameyang] was on the fringe of the game and couldn’t make any impact at all,” the former Republic of Ireland international told talkSPORT when asked about Potter’s decision to hook the striker off.
“Potter probably felt that he had to make a change there and couldn’t see Aubameyang make any [difference] in the last five minutes of the game.”
Aubameyang failed to manage any shot in the 63 minutes he was on the pitch and only had 13 touches overall.
In fairness, Chelsea struggled to create goalscoring opportunities in the game and were without many key players due to injuries.
Unfortunately for Chelsea, it was clearly not just a one-off poor display from the Gabonese striker.
Cascarino suggested that Aubameyang may have been well past his prime and should no longer be relied on as a first-choice number nine.
“I can’t imagine Aubameyang leading the line at Chelsea next season,” he added.
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