Real Sociedad coach, midfielder hail ‘goal poacher’ Umar Sadiq

Real Sociedad coach Imanol Alguacil and midfielder Mikel Merino have hailed the instant, goalscoring impact their transfer deadline day addition, Umar Sadiq has made in his first game for the club.

Umar Sadiq scored on his debut Saturday for the club against Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid at the Reale Seguros Stadium to secure his club a share of the points after Alvaro Morata scored on five minutes to give the visitors the lead.

The Nigerian was subbed on for Alexander Sorloth at the start of the second half and drew Real Sociedad level nine minutes later.

Having netted within 10 minutes of making his Sociedad bow, Sadiq has now scored on each of his last three appearances in LaLiga.

In his reaction, Imanol said he was not surprised by the level Sadiq shown in his debut since “he has been doing it in Almería until the last day, here he is surrounded by great players and everyone has the opportunity to shine because inside we played a lot”.

Merino believes the Nigerian will score the goals that will lift the club.

”He has demonstrated once again that he is very clinical in front of goal. He performs very well in those forward positions, where he uses his body very well. We have players from behind to give him good goal situations and hopefully we can be successful in front of goal, because that’s what we lack”, he said.