Thierry Henry says that Bukayo Saka is his ‘favourite player’, and has waxed lyrical over the way the 23 year old has made the transition from the Hale End Academy to become one of the best players in the world.
The club’s all-time leading goalscorer spent some time working at Arsenal as a coach, and while he was aware of Saka during that period, the spotlight was shining on other youngsters.
Speaking to fellow legend Alex Scott for the BBC, Henry spoke about how Saka’s development, and how he feels there’s even more to come in the years ahead.
“At the time I was in the academy, people were talking a lot about Chris Willock, the brother of Joe; Reiss Nelson; Donyell Malen,” he said.
“And Bukayo was just… Yeah, he’s good. But he wasn’t the talk of the academy, you know. And that’s why I have mad respect for Bukayo.
“I have a soft spot for him. He’s my favourite player. He’s been there for a long time. He’s so nice. I never thought he was going to reach the level that we’re seeing.
“He’s a starter for England. He’s a starter for Arsenal. I remember when he started at the beginning, he was playing wing back on the left, on the right, wherever there was a position he was playing in, he was doing well.
“And the evolution of his game is just outstanding because he used to be lively, to become too difficult to defend against, to assists, to goals, to now goals and assists.”
As for where there might be a bit more, Henry joked, “I challenged him the other day, you know, you need to take free kicks now because, you know, you got to work a bit on your free kicks!”
While he might have been slightly tongue in cheek, it’s not a bad shout. We can see from Saka’s corners he is capable of delivering good balls with real consistency, and we haven’t scored too many from free kicks around the box in recent times – just two in three seasons (we think).
So, with a manager who is always looking for marginal gains, perhaps this might be something to try. And you wouldn’t put it past Bukayo Saka to step up.
I really feel that Saka has more to emerge. He’s just that good. And Thierry’s right, we need free kick takers. Not sure we’ve had any real numbers since around the invincible or before.
After the Invincibles we had Van pussy and then Özil banging in a few top bins, I think.
Think Podolski scored more free kicks for us than van Persie.
Cesc scored a few after RVP left. RVP mostly smashed them into the wall frustratingly… apart from that one season where he was good and it went to his head.
A couple into top corners when RVP was 22or 23.
ode/rice/saka should be our takers. We need that ball striking & power. Although I’m not seeing too many direct free kicks (positions) for arsenal anyways
It may be my memory but I can’t actually remember us getting many free kicks in dangerous shooting positions recently, let alone miss/not score them. Wonder if that is as much of the issue?
Thats because we don’t play in those positions, it’s one of the reasons the Martinelli criticism is so ridiculous, because it doesn’t address the structural issues with our attacking play.
Havertz has 5 goals this season, Saka has 5, Martinelli 3 and Trossard 3. None of our forwards are scoring at the required level, and that includes Saka who quite frankly is dreadful in front of goal, 4 open play goals from 42 shots, which is much worse than the others
Label.stat.total_final_third_passes This table ranks teams based on the currently selected stat type
Rank Club Stat
1.
Manchester City
3,888
2.
Tottenham Hotspur
2,397
3.
Arsenal
2,232
4.
Liverpool
2,088
5.
Fulham
2,084
6.
Chelsea
2,059
7.
Bournemouth
1,949
What does any of this mean?
Man, keep your little Python program output for yourself.
“Saka who quite frankly is dreadful in front of goal”
I swear I think some people watch a different game and different players to me at times.
I think there’s room for improvement for Saka when it comes to getting in good shooting positions on a regular basis, as he did for the goal against Fulham that was disallowed. But when he gets in those positions his finishing is pretty good with both feet.
He takes over 3 shots a game and has scored 4 goals from open play in 14 matches, by any metric thats awful
I like Saka but my god i feel i’m getting gaslit when people talk about him
One of very few players in the league who are complete in all aspects of the game. Saka is world-class.
I know, some people think a goal every 10 shots is world class!?! What game do they watch?
Cole Palmer scores 1 in every 5.8 shots
Mo Salah scores 1 in every 4.3 shots
Saka scores 1 in every 10.25 shots
This is just open play goals
Watch the game and spot the difference!
Saka gets triple teamed everytime he touches the ball as he’s our only real consistent goal threat. If he had his equal on the other wing or up front, he percentages would be higher.
and Palmer doesn’t? He and Salah get tripple teamed just as much being by far the greatest threats on their respective teams. And Saka has Odegaard who’s always considered a threat by the opposition and they flock to block his shots whenever he has the ball, leaving Saka free sometimes.
He’s a brilliant player Bukayo, but if he becomes more efficient he can be the best winger in the world, and he’s not quite there yet.
No he doesn’t, he has at least 2 passing options at all times often within a couple of yards of him. He has our chief creative passer and an overlapping fullback, neither luxuries are afforded the left hand side. The opposition defenders aren’t there to because of Saka but to counter our tactical plan of overloading the right hand side to create space and opportunities for the left, too often it doesn’t work. The truth is we signed two players in the summer to rebalance the team but as yet haven’t seen that team player together yet My issue however… Read more »
Crap output again tonight. He’s rubbish.
“At the time I was in the academy, people were talking a lot about Chris Willock, the brother of Joe; Reiss Nelson; Donyell Malen,” he said.
They are all 2-3 years older than Bukayo. So it‘s quite normal that Bukayo wasn’t talked about so much as that moment as he was 13/14 at that time.
Henry is right actually. Yes they were older, but they were more highly rated at 16/17 than Saka was. I followed the youth teams through Jeorge bird, young guns blog(when they still did stuff) and youtube highlights. Of the youth players to make a sustained presence in the 1st team in the past 14 years, I was most surprised by Saka and Iwobi(and to a small extent, Joe willock) They were good youth players, but they didn’t really stand out as much as the players Henry mentioned. Nelson was known to me from the age of 14, Chris Willock from… Read more »
People were higher rated at the age of 16 than Saka but he‘s a regular in the first team since he‘s 17? That doesn’t sound very convincing tbh.
It might not sound convincing, but it’s the truth. It’s easy to look back from today and think that Saka was always destined for greatness, but that he did what he did was a testament to his hardwork and determination. At Arsenal youth teams he played left wing, but in the England youth setup he played left back. You also have to remember who we had at left back at the time. There was even a time Maitland Niles was a regular at the fullback spots.
I think Saka has the potential to play anywhere across the forward line, and be even more devastating than he already is.