Roberto Soldado had two difficult years with Spurs.
While both Spurs and Roberto Soldado are now happy with their mutual agreement to part ways this past summer, it wasn’t revealed as to why the Spanish international actually had a hard time scoring goals when given a chance — way before Harry Kane took over as the new striker for Spurs.
Between the two strikers that Mauricio Pochettino had at his disposal to start the 2014-15 season, Roberto Soldado was the better player when paired against Emmanuel Adebayor, based on his recent form for the past two seasons: his last year with Valencia and his first year with Tottenham.
But therein lies the problem, Soldado’s first year with Spurs.
When the 30-year-old Spanish striker first joined Spurs at the age of 28, Roberto Soldado was coming off of three superb seasons with Valencia in which he amassed 141 appearances, 82 goals and 16 assists. Fantastic numbers to — at the time in the summer of 2013 — warranted a purchase of £26 million to help fill the void left by selling Gareth Bale and join then-manager André Villas-Boas.
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Soldado’s first year in the Premier League wasn’t necessarily bad but it wasn’t good either. In fact it wasn’t expected that he could sustain his form in a different league that he had never played in before. At the end of the 2013-14 season, Roberto Soldado compiled respectable numbers: 36 appearances, 11 goals and 5 assists. When adding in the Spanish international’s second and final season with Spurs: 40 appearances, 5 goals, 6 assists. The numbers don’t look as bad as it should, but watching him play, his form was clearly off.
One major reason this happened was due in large part to a managerial change from André Villas-Boas to Mauricio Pochettino. These types of changes can help or hurt a player, especially when your former coach signed you only to get sacked four months after you arrived, which is what happened in Soldado’s case.
Here’s Roberto Soldado’s quote when interviewed by AS.
"“I went there with excitement and enthusiasm, thinking that the Premier League offered the perfect football for me.But it was the opposite. After the departure of Villas-Boas, who was the one who signed me, everything was turned upside down.I lost confidence and I had a hard time. But now I think the experience has helped me appreciate and enjoy my life more.After two years in England, the goal was for me to enjoy myself again. We’ve [Villarreal] only just started, but I’m having a lot of fun.It’s vital to be happy in what you do, no question.”"
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André Villas-Boas was sacked, but it was announced as “by mutual consent”, due to Tottenham’s league form at the time.
They were sitting at seventh in the Premier League with two horrendous losses to Manchester City (6-0) and Liverpool (5-0) but doing well in the Europa League, winning all six of their group stage games.
Since returning to La Liga and joining Villarreal on a £12 million transfer, Roberto Soldado has in fact recaptured his form appearing in 7 games, scoring 2 goals and registering 3 assists. It could be argued that he was — and is — only built to play in the Spanish league and if that’s the case, there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Despite his trouble last season with Spurs, Soldado still enjoyed his time at Tottenham and never once said anything bad about the team.
In a way, for some he was disliked as a player on the pitch for not contributing as much as people would have wanted and/or expected for the money spent to sign him. For others, they enjoyed Soldado as a person for always giving his all even though he struggled trying to pick up both Mauricio Pochettino’s high-press offense and a loss in confidence. At the end of the day though, both Spurs and Roberto Soldado are doing well now which is what matters most at this point.
Next: Which Kind of Experience does Pochettino Value for Spurs?
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