Having one of the best times of his career, Nigerian Bukayo Saka has made one of the biggest contributions to his team Arsenal against Standard Liege, the game that eventually ended in a 2-2 draw.
However, despite Saka outscoring the rest of his teammates, the team’s interim coach Freddie Ljungberg has admitted that things weren’t exactly smooth between the Nigerian and himself before the game. As Swede coach mentioned, his decision to play the game in a 3-4-3 formation with Saka being a left wing-back made Saka a bit annoyed.
Putting up a good 2-2 game
December 12 Arsenal vs. Standard Liege game started off in favor of the hosts as they scored their first two goals in the game. However, as Bukayo Saka went full-on with skill and technique, he quickly turned the fate of the game.
First, he provided an assist for his French teammate Alexandre Lacazette in the 78th minute. Lacazette scored the first goal of the game, making the overall score 1-2. After that, Saka took it all by himself to score the second goal nine minutes after the first one, making it 2-2 and helping his team to finish as Europa League Group F winners.
The result of the match was not only beneficial to Arsenal and especially Saka but for the Nigerian sports betting industry as well. As some of the most popular websites suggest, including https://www.mightytips.com/bookmakers/nigeria-betting-sites/, the odds for Arsenal went up for the next match against Manchester City.
Overall, Saka’s contribution to the game was quite massive: five shots, for key passes, two tackles, and one interception. As for the season, he scored two goals, alongside six assists and countless other highlights.
And the fans exploded Twitter in his support. Some of the best Tweets read: “In Saka & Martinelli, we have a couple of superstars in the making”; “Saka is genuinely what Chelsea fans think CHO is”; and so much more.
Saka not happy about playing wing-back
But as the interim coach Ljungberg admits, Saka wasn’t quite satisfied when he put him as a left wing-back. Now, he has previously played that role when he was in England’s youth teams and in fact, he did pretty well. However, being a left wing-back in Arsenal is a whole other thing as it’s the first time he was asked to play there at the club level.
In a post-match interview, Ljungberg mentioned that Saka was an amazing addition to the team and he made a massive contribution to the overall score. However, he wasn’t happy when he found out that he had to play wing-back and full-back.
Next match with Manchester City with teenage players
As the Gunners are expecting the upcoming Premier League match with Manchester City, Ljungberg has to make a decision: since several A-listers of the team are injured and cannot play against Man City, he has to make do with teenagers. And he has actually named six of them for the match, including Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Tyreece John-Jules, and the other three.
On choosing those youngsters in the main team, Ljungberg adds that they haven’t really been exposed to “men’s football”. Therefore, their experience isn’t on par with their Man City counterparts. However, as they go on by making mistakes on their own, they’ll learn from them and try to not repeat them the second time.
As for Saka, Ljungberg only has positive comments such as “his final ball and last bit… [are] always effective”. And as he had a tremendous night this Thursday, the coach only has positive expectations.
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