It’s no secret Arsenal FC has a thing for French players. After Anelka, Viera, Petit, Giroud, and, of course, the king Thierry Henry, French manager Arsene Wenger decided to lure in 20-year-old striker Yaya Sanogo.
Tonight, Sanogo will play the U-20 FIFA World Cup final against Uruguay with the French national team alongside rising star Paul Pogba (Juventus). The game kicks off at 20h00 GMT. For those who don’t know Sanogo, it’s the opportunity to see him and other promising players in action.
Born in 1993 in Massy, France, Sanogo started his professional career in 2010 with Auxerre FC. He played 21 games and scored 10 goals. With French youth teams, he played 53 games, scoring 39 goals.
Sanogo is a young and promising player, and it is true that Arsene Wenger rarely makes mistakes when it comes to recruiting that kind of athlete. As a reminder, both Anelka and Henry joined Arsenal at a young age, and we all know the result.
However, Sanogo has a profile very different from that of his predecessors. He is not fast, and not technically gifted either. His strengths are his height (he culminates at 1m91) and, obviously, his heading and off-the-ball game. He could be a good addition to the fast and technical players around him. He can also protect the ball well and play a fairly good one-touch game--just like Arsenal does--so he is a valuable player on set pieces.
However, Sanogo might have trouble adapting to Arsenal’s play style. We can easily compare Sanogo to Marouane Chamakh or Olivier Giroud. Both players had trouble finding a place in the starting line-up. Chamakh never really did and is now on loan at West Ham United.
Rarely have tall players succeeded at Arsenal, and this will be Sanogo’s biggest challenge for the upcoming years.
No comments:
Post a Comment