Not been impressed with Soldado. He looks like a decent player but he is way too expensive for what he offers. He just doesn't seem to be anything special, he's just a hard worker and does the simple things well. Not really an improvement on Defoe or better than Ade. At least with Ade he can pull something special out from somewhere, even though he is a bit of a ****.
Defoe is the best striker the spuds have, Lord only knows why they don't play him. 'Arry froze him out, despite buying him for Pompy and Spurs and AVB doesn't seem to rate him either. Soldado is massively overpriced at the best part of thirty million. They could have got Benteke for two thirds of that and he still would have offered more.
Too early to say but on form Adebayor is their best striker for me. Soldado is playing in a team with no real width or creativity so he's feeding off scraps. He showed yesterday what an instinctive finisher he is when given the right service. I like Defoe but I think Soldado offers slightly more in the sense he is more selfless. Soldado would probably be approaching double figures for goals already if playing for a side with quicker build up play like Arsenal or even City. I'd give him time, from what I saw at the Mestalla on Saturday Valencia seem a lot worse without him.
Not sure Villa would have sold for less than £25m but Benteke would have been brilliant there, his explosive pace and counter attacking ability is exactly what they need to replace Bale. Right now they don't have any individual player the opposition would fear playing despite the excellence of Paulinho/Eriksen & early form of Townsend. I think the top four all do and that could be the difference.
You're probably right. At the moment Spurs haven't gelled as a proper unit yet and aren't really creating a great deal. But when you look at someone like Suarez, who was bought for around the same price and is surrounded by dross at Liverpool, he still manages to create and score some great goals. He was worth the money they paid for him, Soldado is a max £15m player. Agreed with Benteke, he is a beast of a player and someone Spurs should have got. I wouldn't mind him at Arsenal.
I agree but Soldado is a poacher so he's limited in that aspect. It's like comparing Henry with Van Nistelrooy. Both fantastic goalscorers but Henry had pace, trickery and guile + could create a goal out of nothing whereas RVN relied solely on positional play and anticipation of where the ball would end up. The most underrated aspect of Benteke's game is his aerial ability, he wins most aerial duels and that's something any top team could benefit from, especially Spurs as they are poor at attacking and defending set pieces.
I agree with the general point that Soldado was overpriced. The fact that Suarez was bought for similar hardly proves anything though, just as the likes of Torres and Carroll don't make Soldado look like a bargain. When lots of money is getting thrown around some of it sticks, some of it doesn't. I was disappointed that we missed out on Benteke in the summer as I was sure he would be a success. Even more so when we paid a similar amount for Soldado. Sadly I think we've missed the boat with him but Soldado's a good player so overpriced, or not, I'm pleased we have him. The main trouble, as has been pointed out, is that our attack are still pretty much strangers to eachother. You can see occasionally someone will try and flick the ball on, or play a blind pass where the other player doesn't read it and we lose the ball. The hope is that it will develop over time and the clever, quick move that lead to our second goal will become a more regular occurance. Walker and Townsend are already building a good partnership and the hope will be that others do the same over time. Not sure how anyone's comparing Soldado to Ade or Defoe though. Fair enough, Ade at his best is an excellent player but as everyone's been so keen to point out to us, he's inconsistent as he doesn't try half the time. Ade in general isn't a patch on Soldado though. Defoe's a useful player but when you get a chance in the box, you'd much rather it went to Soldado, as he showed yesterday. Defoe's had similar good chances to pick his spot against Chelsea and West Ham and he scuffed them straight to the 'keeper, Ade's finishing of easy chances is similarly suspect.
In terms of ability Adebayor is easily better than Soldado but as we all know he is inconsistent and doesn't have the work rate of either Soldado or Defoe. Only Wenger and Mourinho have really been able to tap into Adebayor,s true potential which is a shame because he could have been playing at Real Madrid or Barca had he kept up the kind of form he showed 5 years ago. He was beginning to show signs of recovery but he seems to have regressed since the infamous shooting whilst with Togo.
Agree on Ade. Whether you like him or not, the guy has bags of ability. Had he stayed with Arsenal and buckled down, he would have been one of the best around. Unfortunately for him, he's made a few career mistakes along the way and has paid the price.
Possibly it will take some time, but then top quality players like Ozil can slot straight in and play their game and create and score goals almost immediately. My personal opinion is that Spurs' transfer spending was generally overpriced and hit and miss. In Paulinho and Erikson I think you've got two really good players, Lamela has potential, the others though are average.
And Redknapp arguably, but it's less a case of the manager and more a case of Ade losing interest as soon as things get tricky. He seems to be trying to force his way back into the picture at Spurs though and I hope he does, as I prefer the way we play with him over Defoe. With regards our signings, the only one I am slightly disappointed with so far is Chadli, who seems totally surplus to requirements. Capoue and Eriksen look like absolute bargains, Lamela has shown flashes of excellence in very limited opportunities, and I'm glad we're not rushing him into the team as he's still young. Jury is still out on Soldado and Chiriches. Our biggest signing of the summer is getting Sandro back, if only AVB would play him more often. I think to only be three points off the top of the table with all the changes we have made, and the fact the team have actually not being playing spectacularly is quite encouraging for the rest of the season.
Redknapp too but I agree with PISKIE. Other than United, all of the top 7 sides can take some form of encouragement from the opening 8 games. Usually there's one team that will win 2 in 8 and drop off early but there's a number of sides now that are way ahead of the competition.
It's different, as your manager pointed out, when you make several changes rather than one or two. Other than Ozil, Arsenal's attacking players have all been at the club, playing and training with eachother for a year or more. At Spurs we've had the introduction of Townsend, Eriksen, Paulinho and Soldado into our first choice attack. At the other end we've made less changes with only Rose(and he's been injured for half the games) coming into our first choice defence and so it's no surprise that our defence has been performing very well so far with 5 cleansheets out of 8 in the league. Also Ozil is World Class so should be able to fit in well from the start.
In a nutshell, that's the point I'm making. Spurs spent 110m in the summer and none of those players are world class. Whilst I appreciate that it takes a while for players to bed in, for that sort of money I'd be expecting a bit more.
