With every top club in the Premier League looking to make improvements, it’s quite obvious that some signings would be made in the transfer window. With the exception of Tottenham Hotspur, every club has signed or is close to signing either one or more than one player.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men have been linked with players like Matthias Ginter, who joined Borussia Monchengladbach recently, Ryan Sessegnon and Joshua King, but nothing has transpired so far. It’s not as if the club that finished second last season and happen to be the tenth richest football club in the world won’t make any signings, but it seems like it will take a while for Spurs to wake up from their slumber.
The latest player to have drawn links to the North London giants is Sporting Lisbon’s, Adrien Silva.
As recently as this past weekend, Silva’s spot-kick in extra time during Portugal’s Third Place play-off game against Mexico sealed a win for Fernando Santos’ men in Moscow.
Silva made only two appearances in the Confederations Cup, but has previously appeared for the national side as many as 20 times, with his debut coming back in 2014 under Santos himself. The penalty that he scored against Mexico was his first international goal, but the France-born midfielder isn’t about that at all.
Having joined Sporting back in 2002, Silva climbed up the pecking order and earned himself his first professional contract in 2007 when he was 19. Currently into his 11th year at the club where the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo took their first real steps to prominence, Silva has won five titles, claiming the Sporting Footballer of the Year back in 2013 when Leonardo Jardim was in charge.
This past season, Sporting finished third in the league behind Porto and Benfica, but Silva was one of their top performers throughout the campaign. He did enjoy his best goalscoring season – finding the back of the net four times, but the job he does is more tangible in the other aspects of play.
One thing about Silva that would attract Spurs fans is his fighting qualities. He can cover every blade of grass on the pitch for his team and give his all when the need arises. He does like to make those occasional bursts forward into the box, but the midfielder is very adept at breaking up play and circulating the ball forward for the attacking players to do their job.
This past season, he won as many as 3.1 tackles per game and made 1.3 interceptions as well. He is the kind of player who likes to sit deep, break play up and feed his teammates going forwards. A determined professional, Silva is better off the ball than on it. He often starts off by pressing from the midfield, adding energy to the play and putting the opposition under pressure – something Mauricio Pochettino likes in a midfielder.
Silva has good vision and can pick out players who are making runs with ease. Despite that though, he plays sideways passes more often than long balls further forward.
Victor Wanyama, who was one of the Premier League’s best signings last summer, boasts of a physical presence that Silva doesn’t have. The Kenyan beast and his usual midfield partner Moussa Dembele occupy positions that Silva generally takes up in the heart of the park, but the duo use their physicality and sheer strength to hold the ball up and keep the play ticking.
Silva doesn’t motor forward, but makes use of tippy-tappy passing skills to build attacks. This is in complete contrast to the approach that Spurs use in the midfield, but it’s variety, versatility and experience that they’ve lacked throughout the last two seasons. And that’s the prime reason why Pochettino’s men haven’t won a single trophy since the good times have rolled in.
They have finished third and second in the past two seasons respectively, but have been found wanting in crunch moments. Be it their 4-2 loss to Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final or their Champions League campaign last season, Pochettino has struggled to find players who offer something different when the opposition has found them out.
It’s not just the freshness that he’ll add that will make Silva a good signing, but it’s the experience that he possesses as well. Currently 28, the Portuguese would be one of the club’s most experienced players, if he signs. He brings to the plate the experience of playing in high-pressure games, and maturity, something that has often been found wanting among Tottenham’s young superstars in critical situations.
The 2-2 draw during the infamous Battle of the Bridge, the 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion prior to that and the 1-0 loss to West Ham this past season can be used as examples to suggest how the Premier League side falter in high-pressure situations. What they need in the side is maturity and characters who know how to deal with critical situations. And that’s exactly what Adrien Silva offers.
