Tottenham Hotspur spent a whopping 85 million pounds on Brazilian winger Savio over the summer transfer window, and while the former Girona man led the team with four key passes and four dribbles completed in an inglorious 3-2 loss to Aston Villa over the Premier League weekend, the overall conversation around the new signing has not been an overly positive one.
While Savio has performed better than two of the other blockbuster Spurs additions in Sandro Tonali and Omar Marmoush, he has yet to show that he is 85 million pounds worth, with his goal and assist off the bench in his debut against Charlton Athletic not being looked at as seriously because it was against such inferior competition.
Against better teams in the Premier League, Savio has been lacking goal threat, and even though Roberto De Zerbi has publicly urged him to be more of a scorer and has played him as an inverted right winger, Savio just is not showing the quality required in that aspect.
Savio is brilliant to start games but...
But that isn't a deal breaker, since many felt that Spurs were signing Savio to create the chances, provide the width, and take on defenders as a more traditional left footed left winger. Even in that respect, though, Savio has been an issue.
Yes, he is created chances and producing some of the most take ons in European football on paper, but Savio fades pretty quickly in games. He was a great spark off the bench on his best day against Charlton, and in his Premier League starts, he has been brilliant for 30 minutes of the match.
But after those 30 minutes end, Savio's impact becomes more subdued, and he takes on fewer players. Most importantly, he gets into less shooting positions and produces fewer chances created, going from looking like a top player to a pretty well below average winger.
That is a frustrating trend that continued in Tottenham's 3-2 loss to Aston Villa, as Savio, once again, visibly faded as the game went on. While that points to De Zerbi's new favorite excuse of a fitness issue, Spurs eased Savio along for a couple of weeks - and it's also fair to ask more from an 85 million pound signing already.
Tottenham have to hope that this trend does not continue, because if Savio can't give his full intensity for more than 30 minutes, maybe he has to become Mohammed Kudus's bench player as an inverted right winger.
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