Striker Fernando Llorente has played just nine minutes of Premier League football for Tottenham Hotspur so far this season.
In hindsight, perhaps an old-school style target man like Fernando Llorente was always up against it fitting into the free-flowing football preferred by Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur.
Since his £12 million move from Swansea City in the summer of 2017, the Spanish centre forward has struggled both for game time and goals in North London.
Llorente notched just once in 16 Premier League games across his debut season and has played only nine minutes of football in the opening weeks of this campaign.
Speaking to Mundo Deportivo, the former Juventus and Athletic Club man has admitted that his spell at Spurs has not exactly gone to plan.
“For a large part of my career I have had continuity and confidence (thanks to playing regularly), but now I have to get used to this new reality,” Llorente said.
“It is not easy. It is a daily struggle with yourself because it is hard to accept the situation you live in. When you’re left on the sidelines or you are not called upon it is frustrating.
“But I try to continue training every day with maximum (energy) for when my opportunity comes. Giving up is not an option.”
Spurs’ talismanic number ten Harry Kane endured a slow start to the season after his World Cup exploits with England, but Pochettino was still unwilling to throw Llorente into his starting XI.
Having scored 15 times in just 28 starts for Swansea in 2016/17, maybe the former Spain international still has something left to give.
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