Adebayor is not Kanu, and certainly not Henry
35 comments February 4th, 2008
Since he arrived at Arsenal, Emmanuel Adebayor’s lanky form and African origins have seen him relentlessly compared to the mercurial Kanu. In recent weeks, the goalscoring run that has brought him eleven goals in his past eight games has seen him compared to Thierry Henry. But in truth, neither of these comparisons is particularly realistic.
Adebayor is very much his own player. Whilst Kanu had a similar tendency to drop off and take the ball with his back to goal, he lacked Adebayor’s explosive pace – the Togolese is the second fastest short distance sprinter at the club. Henry has pace to match, but nowhere near the aerial threat that Adebayor provides.
Whilst Ade is probably not as good a ‘footballer’ as either Henry or Kanu, the combination of attributes that God handed him, and that he has expanded upon with a significant degree of hard-work, are currently rendering him unplayable.
The closest player in style is Chelsea’s Didier Drogba, who possesses a similar degree of pace, power, and goalscoring flair. But Adebayor differs from Drogba in several key areas: he is far more comfortable receiving the ball into feet; he covers the entire width of the pitch as opposed to the central third; and, crucially, he is several years younger.
Ade’s evolution has been startling. He’s transformed from a hard-working but limited player to a composed goalscoring gladiator. He always terrorised defences – now he is obliterating them. And the extra marking his increasing reputation is bringing him is simply leaving more space for the likes of Eduardo and Fabregas in which to flourish.
Adebayor could not have played in the Arsenal side that was built around Thierry Henry. He could not have partnered Dennis Bergkamp – the timing of his runs is not yet good enough to latch onto those inch-perfect through-balls.
However, in this new team, he is the ideal centre-forward. Arsene has reneged on his one-time promise never to sign a target man, and in Adebayor and Bendtner is forging brutishly powerful players who are also extremely technically able.
So what next for Adebayor? Well, his primary aim ought to be to keep scoring goals, and enjoying his football. And I have faith that he will. A huge chunk of his success seems to be down to an extraordinary well of mental strength. He has recovered from a couple of serious set-backs in his Arsenal career (the nightmare game at Portsmouth in his first season stands out), and has transformed from perrennial third choice to our leading striker.
It’s not neccessarily what Arsene expected, but he is never surprised by what those who want it enough can achieve:
“When you are a long time on the job you don’t set any limits on anybody. Human beings can always surprise you.”
I can’t wait to see what further surprises Adebayor has up his sleeve this season.
