Tottenham Hotspur have been urged to maneuver for Hakim Ziyech within the January switch window.
What’s the speak?
Speaking to Ziggo Sport throughout their Champions League protection on Wednesday (by way of The Express), former Spurs midfielder Rafael van der Vaart acknowledged his perception that, had been Fabio Paratici to land the Chelsea playmaker – who the Italian was linked with a transfer for in the summertime switch window – this winter, Antonio Conte’s aspect might go on to win the Premier League.
Regarding the attacking midfielder, the Dutchman stated: “If Tottenham get Hakim Ziyech, they may win the Premier League. I’m critical. Of course, he by no means actually has a smiley face, however now you possibly can see from all the things that he’s not having a great time.
“I hope he goes to a club where he can just play and not worry about anything else. Ziyech is a boy that always has to play when you get him. When you get players, you buy them not only for their footballing qualities but also for how someone is.”
Missing piece of the puzzle
With it being broadly reported that Conte was determined so as to add an attacking midfielder to his Tottenham squad in the summertime – a transfer that finally didn’t materialise – coupled with Spurs’ usually unfavourable method to matches this season, it’s simple to see why Van der Vaart believes Ziyech could possibly be the ultimate piece of the puzzle for the Italian supervisor.
Indeed, regardless of not often that includes for Chelsea this season – beginning simply one fixture in all competitions – the £26m-rated expertise extremely impressed over his 23 Premier League outings in 2021/22, scoring 4 objectives, registering three assists and creating 9 massive probabilities, in addition to taking a mean of two.3 pictures, making 1.3 key passes and finishing 1.2 dribbles per recreation.
These returns noticed the 29-year-old common an eye catching SofaScore match ranking of 7.09, rating him because the Blues’ 12th-best performer within the prime flight of English soccer final day out – a particularly spectacular feat contemplating solely 14 of his appearances got here as begins.
Furthermore, in line with FBref, the £100k-per-week attacker additionally ranks within the prime 6% of attacking midfielders and wingers in Europe’s massive 5 leagues for pictures per 90, in addition to the highest 25% for assists, the highest 18% for shot-creating actions, the highest 11% for progressive passes and the highest 13% for passes tried during the last 12 months.
Further nonetheless, with the participant who Frank Lampard dubbed a “dream” and Elliot Hackney labelled “unreal” being able to operate in central and attacking midfield, in addition to in a entrance three, the Morocco worldwide would seem to swimsuit both of Conte’s 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 methods on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
As such, contemplating his spectacular positional versatility and creativity in the course of the park, it could certainly seem as if Ziyech might nicely be the ultimate piece of Conte’s puzzle at Spurs, and, who is aware of, might even be the £21m signing to remodel Tottenham from top four contenders to champions this season.
