The Tottenham Hotspur duo thoroughly underwhelmed at Aston Villa – not for the first time this season.
Emmanuel Adebayor’s days at Tottenham look numbered. Or, at the very least, his days as a striker that can score goals certainly do.
Against Aston Villa yesterday, the Togolese forward just looked out of his depth. He missed a one-on-one with a very unconvincing finish and contributed very little else all game.
Roberto Soldado, however, was no better alongside him. He may have given a better account of himself but the Spaniard’s overall end product amounted to nothing.
All of which begs the question: what on earth does Maurico Pochettino have against Harry Kane?
The 21-year-old’s match-winning cameo summed up just how ineffective the duo were…
| Chances Created | Dribbles Won | Shots | Shots on Target | Aerial Duels Won | Touches | Successful Final-Third Passes | Big Chances Missed | Mins Played | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emmanuel Adebayor | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 32 | 11 | 1 | 58 |
| Roberto Soldado | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 9 | 0 | 90 |
| Harry Kane | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 22 | 3 | 0 | 32 |
As Opta stats show, one embarrassing statistic says everything about Adebayor & Soldado’s lack of impact. In just 32 on-field minutes, Kane had as many shots on target as his team-mates combined over 58 and 90-minutes periods.
The England Under-21 striker also won as many dribbles and aerial duels as the pair combined.
Adebayor’s one-on-one failure counts as a big chance missed, while Kane’s rate of touches per minute also far exceeded Adebayor & Soldado.
In the Spurs starters’ defence, they did create four chances and complete 20 final-third passes between them. But a striker needs to do so much more – and simply offloading the ball to someone else under pressure usually ends up making the situation worse.
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