One notable feature of today’s loss to Fulham was the way that Graham Potter didn’t bring on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyeng from the bench.
Even with the team losing, the Gabon forward stayed on the sidelines throughout. Potter was asked to explain that after the game, and he gave a solid tactical reason.
Let’s face it though – it PEA was scoring and playing well, there was no way he wouldn’t have had a cameo as his team chased an equaliser late on.
You can see the coach speaking in the clip embedded here, with this answer coming after 4 minutes and 30 seconds:
Potter is too diplomatic to say it publicly, but anyone paying attention understands that PEA isn’t part of the future of the team. And if he isn’t in form and is gonna sulk about like he did against NF, then he ought to ride the bench in favor of guys who need the experience because they are competing for a role in the rebuild. This is very similar to Ronaldo’s most recent stint at Utd even if Potter is unlikely to ever acknowledge it.