The Situation
First and foremost, apologies for the horrific pun in the title. Even I’m ashamed. Anyway, as many people have seen in recent weeks, Arsenal are in some sort of a striker ‘crisis’ – or so the Daily Mail and other low brow publications would have you believe.
Arsenal: Modus Operandi – Is Yaya Ready to Sagogo or Should Other Options Be Utilised
Olivier Giroud has been caught up in a small scandal and, clearly not deemed fit (be it mentally or physically) to start the past couple of games, that is the first choice striker gone. Theo Walcott, the mercurial alternative, has seen his goal-scoring curbed by a season-ending injury and Lukas Podolski is no longer the striker he once was.
With the failed attempt at capturing Julian Draxler in January, Arsenal are in somewhat of a conundrum concerning forwards that can play centrally.
The Decision
Arsene Wenger will have racked his brains long and hard about this: does he go with the once-proven centre forward Lukas Podolski to provide goal threats against Liverpool, Bayern Munich and potentially Sunderland? Or should he opt to give the young, injury-plagued Yaya Sanogo a baptism of fire, and hope the gamble pays off?
As everyone saw, Le Professeur selected his fellow Frenchman instead of the German. I highly doubt this is a French stand against the Germans, for belated war revenge, so we must trust that Wenger sees something in young Sanogo. We clearly saw it too.
However, what would have happened and been different if someone else had started?
Our Verdict
Against Liverpool, he was a nuisance all match. He hassled the defence and, other than for the first few minutes, won most aerial duels against Daniel Agger. It even became apparent that a second defender would commonly come across to deal with him. His holding of the ball was exciting and he showed glimpses of what is to come in the next couple of seasons.
His constant threat proved his ability to be an able like-for-like deputy to Giroud. Of course his movement and technical ability isn’t the same, but his style of play is. As much as Arsenal fans may think this odd, he is probably as close a player (in style) to Emmanuel Adebayor as we have seen before or since the Togolese was at the club.
Podolski would have probably made better runs off the shoulder than Sanogo, but would he have made his presence felt enough that the Liverpool centre backs were reluctant to venture forward and leave a single man marking him? In all, Wenger made the right call. Physicality unsettled Liverpool and may be the only reason we beat them!
As for the Bayern game: take it with a pinch of salt. He started off brightly and had Dante scrambling a couple of times, however his play slowed once Arsenal went down to 10 men. He became disconnected and it is harsh to judge him on that. Would Podolski have been a better option there? Who knows? The second leg may provide more of an answer, but the first leg was not even worth basing an opinion of him on, in some ways.
Overall, with the bonus of blooding a youngster and getting him some game time, the decision was correct in my eyes. He did very little wrong. His control let him down once or twice, but all strikers misread passes a lot. It’s a thumbs up from us!
Your Verdict
We regularly pose the same question to our @AFCModiOperandi followers and include some replies in our articles – if you are interested in having your comments in our articles, follow our account and reply to our questions marked with #AFCMO. Here is what you had to say about Sanogo’s performances:
@Gooner_TTT – “Nuisance in a good way. Strong in the air. Diamond in the rough? He held his own when thrown into two HUGE matches. Lots of work needed but the spark is there.”
@ArsenalDan – “Did more than Mandzukic. Would of had a goal to his name too if Neuer wasn’t so good.”
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow Modus Operandi on Twitter @AFCModiOperandi, @LastwordMKovacs, @LastWordOnHugo and @PitchsidePie. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
Interested in writing for LWOS? We are looking for enthusiastic, talented writers to join our Footy writing team. Visit our “Write for Us” page for very easy details in how you can get started today!
Feel free to discuss this and other footy related articles with thousands of fans at r/football.
