There is not any technique to sugarcoat it; the previous couple of weeks have been abysmal for Tottenham Hotspur.
Ange Postecoglou’s facet recovered from their shock loss to Ipswich City by hammering Manchester Metropolis 4-0 on the Etihad, however as an alternative of happening a run after such an unbelievable outcome, the North Londoners have seemingly fallen off a cliff.
They’ve drawn at residence to AS Roma and Fulham, misplaced to Bournemouth and Chelsea after which final night time, they drew away to Rangers in a sport they actually ought to have misplaced.
Bar Dejan Kulusevski and Fraser Forster, the entire staff have been dire, however one participant particularly stood out for all of the fallacious causes and might be Postecoglou’s personal Roberto Soldado.
Soldado’s Spurs profession
In relation to switch flops at Spurs within the final 20 years or so, one identify that may all the time pop up, rightly or wrongly, is striker Roberto Soldado.
The Spaniard joined the North Londoners in the summertime of 2013 for a then-club-record fee of £26m, and whereas that was some huge cash, it appeared cheap on the time as he’d simply scored 57 goals and provided 11 assists in 97 appearances throughout the prior two campaigns for Valencia.
Nevertheless, whereas there have been definitely glimpses of brilliance throughout his time in N17, like a few hat-tricks, the Valencia-born poacher simply could not become familiar with life within the Premier League and went from some of the harmful forwards in Europe to below-average at finest.
Soldado earlier than and after becoming a member of Spurs |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Season |
11/12 |
12/13 |
13/14 |
14/15 |
Appearances |
51 |
46 |
36 |
40 |
Objectives |
27 |
30 |
11 |
5 |
Assists |
6 |
5 |
5 |
6 |
Objective Involvements per Match |
0.64 |
0.76 |
0.44 |
0.27 |
Furthermore, because of the disconnect between expectation and actuality, the Spaniard turned one thing of a scapegoat for the staff’s troubles, with journalist Sam Tighe describing him because the “flop of the season.”
This merely put extra strain on him to carry out, and as each mistake was magnified it turned one thing of a spiral till he misplaced his place within the staff and was ultimately bought to Villarreal two years after becoming a member of the membership.
It could be exhausting to explain his time on the membership and switch as something aside from a failure, and now it appears like Postecoglou might have his personal Soldado within the present squad.
Postecoglou’s personal Soldado
So, to get straight to the purpose, the participant in query is Timo Werner.
The very first thing to say is that as a consequence of him being on mortgage and never a club-record signing, the strain on the German to carry out for the Lilywhites is not precisely the identical because the strain on Sodaldo.
Nevertheless, not like the Spaniard, the winger has proven little or no high quality in any respect throughout his time on the membership, and is earning a whopping £165k-per-week, so he has acquired simply as a lot criticism from followers and pundits alike.
Werner’s Spurs document |
|
---|---|
Appearances |
33 |
Minutes |
1616′ |
Objectives |
3 |
Assists |
6 |
Objective Involvements per Match |
0.27 |
Minutes per Objective Involvement |
179.55′ |
This criticism, primarily based primarily round his merely abysmal ending, is the crux of the explanation why he is change into the membership’s new scapegoat and, subsequently, arguably Postecoglou’s model of the previous Valencia ace.
Nevertheless, the supervisor is the person who made or agreed to the “astonishing” resolution, per talkSPORT pundit Andy Townsend, to re-sign him in the summertime, so the criticism of the 28-year-old is partly on him as properly.
Nevertheless, the previous Chelsea ace was so dismal in opposition to Rangers that even the Australian could not ignore it.
He ruthlessly took him off at half-time and doubled down in his post-match press convention, telling the media that the German’s performance “wasn’t acceptable,” which might be probably the most scathing he is been a few explicit participant since taking the job final 12 months.
Finally, whereas Werner would not have a hefty price ticket hanging over his head, he’s on mega cash and has been much more woeful in entrance of aim, which has seen him change into the staff’s present scapegoat, akin to what ultimately occurred to the Spaniard at Spurs.
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