Tony Cascarino says Arsenal legend who scored 185 goals would genuinely struggle in the modern game

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The mark of a truly great player is if they can play across any era of football and Arsenal can confidently claim that they have had many superstars who certainly could have.

Thierry Henry, who is Arsenal’s top goalscorer in the Premier League and in total possessed the world-class finishing, impeccable technique and raw athleticism to torment defenders to blossom in any decade.

Dennis Bergkamp, who Arne Slot adores was similar to Henry in the sense that he too was an elite technician and perhaps most importantly, an incredibly intelligent player that made him ahead of his time during his playing days.

Another Arsenal legend in Robert Pires was a pioneer of some sorts as well, perhaps kickstarting the trend of inside forwards when he was tasked to play a specialised role by Arsene Wenger.

Others such as Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Ashley Cole were similarly timeless footballers to Henry, Bergkamp and Pires.

However, Tony Cascarino has made the bold claim that Ian Wright — who scored 185 goals in 288 appearances for Arsenal would find it difficult to survive in the modern game.

Tony Cascarino says Ian Wright would struggle in the modern game

Cascarino claimed that the reason Ian Wright would mainly “struggle” is because nowadays, teams do not line up with two strikers up front and currently, a number nine has to “do everything” on his own.

Since Jose Mourinho made his way to the Premier League in 2004, he popularised setting up with just a lone centre-forward as he did with Didier Drogba.

However, Ian Wright played in an era of English football where teams would set up in a 4-4-2 formation where it was a cardinal sin not to play a centre-forward pair.

Tony Casacarino said on talkSPORT: “I always ask myself this question: What would Ian Wright be in the modern game?”

“Ian Wright was a fabulous striker alongside Mark Bright [at Crystal Palace] initially and then obviously with [Dennis] Bergkamp at Arsenal and others, Alan Smith as well.”

“Ian was a fabulous striking partner, he just had that ability to work off someone and he did it brilliantly well. And that is one of the problems [in today’s game], that now we’re having one striker who has to do it all.”

“They literally have to be able to run the channels, have to be quick, has to be technical, he’s got to be strong, he’s got to be good in the air. They have literally got to do everything, and where the [two-striker] partnership would take away sometimes. You’d have one striker who was great in the air, not so good technically, the other one was technical and quick.”

However, Ian Wright would likely disagree with Tony Cascarino’s claim.

Ian Wright thinks he’d be “up there” if he played today

Speaking to British GQ during a Q&A session last year, Wright was asked how he compares to today’s attackers.

Wright responded by simply responding to the fan to take a look at his statistics in comparison to several current forwards, saying: “I don’t know, you’d have to put my goals up against theirs and what you had to score on a regular basis.”

“So. I’m kind of up there, man. Sorry guys.”

With Ian Wright being a lethal goalscorer, technically proficient and quick, it seems unlikely that he would not succeed if he played in today’s day and age as Tony Cascarino claimed.