Monday Night Football: Andy Cole on the secrets to a successful strike partnership
Cole talks the understanding between Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and his relationship with Dwight Yorke
Tuesday 2 April 2019 00:20, UK
Andy Cole spoke about the secrets to a successful strike partnership on Monday Night Football, discussing the understanding between Arsenal strikers Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and his own relationship with Dwight Yorke at Manchester United.
With seven games to go in the season, Arsenal seized the initiative in the race for Champions League qualification as a 2-0 victory over Newcastle on Monday Night Football lifted them above Tottenham into third in the Premier League.
Lacazette and Aubameyang have struck up an excellent partnership this season and the pair combined for Arsenal's second with Lacazette scoring his 13th goal of the season to wrap up victory at the Emirates Stadium.
And Cole has been impressed with the understanding the pair have struck up in north London.
"What I like is that you can tell they enjoy playing with each other," Cole told MNF. "If one gets a chance he tries to slip the other in for a tap in and when you play in a partnership that's what you want. You don't want one thinking I need to get 30 and my strike partner has 15 and then I've outdone him by 15.
"You've got to play as a team and that's what those boys do."
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With five of Arsenal's remaining league games away from home, Cole and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher think the firepower of Lacazette and Aubameyang is key to Emery's side's top four chances.
"Ultimately, if you are going to finish in the top four you've got to pick your away form up," Cole said.
"If you're going to win games away from home you have to score goals so you've got to try and fit both of them in the team somehow."
Carragher added: "It's not easy to get two strikers in the team nowadays.
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"The problem with the away form is most managers will think they can't play two strikers in a tough away game but I think he has to play two strikers because they can't keep a clean sheet.
"He's probably played both at times, one of them at times but there's not been one clean sheet which is an unbelievable stat. As a manager you've got to go into these games thinking there's not much chance of us keeping a clean sheet so we're going to have to outscore teams.
"We're going to have to score two at least to win the game so we need these two strikers on the pitch. Unai Emery has really got to go for it in these next few weeks away from home."
Cole on Yorke: A match made in heaven
"The partnership between me and Dwight Yorke was just so natural. It was a match made in heaven. Yorkie's football intelligence was fantastic. We gelled really well on and off the field.
"The friendship helped. We are polar opposites, but opposite people get on really well. It wasn't just on the football pitch but away from the football pitch we were very, very good friends.
"We enjoyed each other's success, 100 per cent. We were two centre forwards who were more than happy to tee each other up for a tap in. When you play in a partnership you have to do things like that.
Peter Beardsley was a footballing magician. He was the first individual to tell me to stand still and get space. He was fantastic.
"I spoke to Thierry Henry about it and Thierry used to talk about mine and Dwight's partnership and him and Dennis Bergkamp's partnership. He said he used to love the way me and Dwight played as a partnership, not trying to outdo each other.
"It was an understanding we had. We always knew where each other was on the pitch. We hardly spoke on the pitch and for me, that's what made it even better. We never had a cross word with each other."
