Can Willian Add Creativity To Powerful Tottenham Midfield?

With the signing of Willian nearing completion according to many sources, will the Brazilian add the creativity to Tottenham’s very powerful midfield?

Willian [Photo: Alan Hill]

Tottenham are closing in on another deal with discussions at an advanced stage for the transfer of Willian from Anzhi Makhachkala to Tottenham for another record breaking fee thought to be in the region of £30m. ESPN report that Spurs have beaten Liverpool to the signing with the deal near to completion, the player having undertaken a medical in London and agreed terms.

Andre Villas-Boas has been a long time admirer of the Brazilian and after failing to sign Willian in last January’s transfer window, he commented,

"It was a big shame to see a player of Willian’s talent staying in the Russian League.”"

Willian “An Asset”

Former Manchester United coach, Rene Meulensteen, who had a short time as manager of Anzhi Makhachkala believes Willian will be a huge success at Tottenham describing him as “an excellent player”. Speaking to SkySportsNews about Willian, Meulensteen provided a glowing reference saying,

"He will be an asset……He’s very versatile, he can play in different positions, he’s a very creative player and an excellent professional with a very good personality. He’s going to be a major trump card for Spurs if they can get the deal to go through. He can beat a player, he can score a goal. I thought he was an absolute delight to work with."

His former manger’s comments are supported by the exciting stats in this tweet by @HotspurRelated taken from WhoScored.com

Tottenham Midfield

This summer Tottenham have assembled a powerful, athletic central midfield with the signing of Paulinho from Corinthians and Etienne Capoue from Toulouse to add to Sandro and Mousa Dembele who played so well as a partnership in the first half of last season. The one element which is missing is a player who can provide creativity who can produce the telling pass to unlock a carefully prepared and well-organised defence.

Luka Modric and VDV in pre-match warm up [Photo: Jav The_DoC_66]The loss of Luka Modric to Real Madrid was a blow to the creativity of the team as was the departure of Rafael Van der Vaart. The explosive pace and goal scoring ability of Gareth Bale covered the deficiency last season but with his probable departure, the lack of a creative midfield influence is an issue which needed to be addressed if the team was not going to suffer the same problems as previously when they often dominated possession but failed to finish teams off and were left frustrated and holding on with only a single goal advantage going into the final minutes.

Earlier talk during the summer of Tottenham being interested in a return of Modric to White Hart Lane as part of a deal to take Gareth Bale to Spain was understandable. He could have provided the creative link between midfield and the striker with his passing ability. Equally understandable was the Croatian midfielder’s unwillingness to be part of any deal, especially after two summers of wrangling over his desire to leave.

The arrival of Willian, subject to a work visa, would appear to be AVB’s solution to the problem and if the deal is completed, there are exciting times ahead at Tottenham, especially if the rumours of a deal for Erik Lamela from Roma are also true.

I thought a former manager told us it wouldn’t get any better than this for Tottenham back in 2012. It looking much better at this moment in time.

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