Ibrahima Sonko and The Art of Tactical Innovation
Add comment November 11th, 2007
Emmanuel Adebayor is one of the hardest strikers to handle for any centre-back. Reading’s Ibrahima Sonko is no different:
“My cousin said to me, ‘Be careful, he is so quick! When he has the ball at his feet he can be really fast’. I think he is the complete player.”
He’s right to beware Adebayor’s pace – the Togolese is second to only Armand Traore in Arsene’s 40m sprint trials. So how will the Senegalese stopper deal with Ade? Will it be a high line with an organised offside trap? A deep defence with pressure applied from a holding midfielder? Or a man-to-man marking system to cancel Adebayor out of the game?
As it turns out, Sonko’s solution is none of the above:
“Apparently he doesn’t like being kicked. If I have to kick him I will do it. My cousin told me kicking him is the only way to stop him playing. If you do it early on it puts him off. When he starts smiling you know he is going to play well; I hope he won’t be smiling.”
Not the kind of noble sentiment you associate with a player whose nickname is supposedly “Superman”. Presumably then Sonko himself doesn’t mind being kicked at all. I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing that put to the test tomorrow night.
I claimed yesterday that I might translate this interview with Cesc into English. However, seeing as The Sunday Times have done a nice big piece with the midfield maestro in our native language anyway, I’ll instead use the time to do something more productive, like play Pro Evolution Soccer.
I love Sundays.
