Roberto Soldado is a 5 foot 11 inch  28 year old Spanish striker who Spurs have agreed a fee with Valencia to transfer for £26m.  The deal is subject to a medical. 

Background

Roberto Soldado is an experienced striker who has played the last 3 seasons for Valencia where he scored 59 goals in 101 games in the Primera Liga of the Spanish League.  Prior to that he played for 2 seasons with Getafe after playing for Real Madrid for 3 seasons either side of a season with Osasuna.  He as also played 11 games for the Spanish national side. Last year he was the 5th top goal scorer in La Liga behind Messi, Ronaldo, Falcao and City’s new signing Negredo.  Last year he got a goal or assist every 104 minutes.  Not quie in the RVP and Suarez range but very impressive.

Soldado is your acrchetypal fox in the box striker,  a real goal scorer.  It’s no coincidence that all of his 24 goals last season were from inside the box. All the basic stats you want from a striker are excellent.  His chance conversion rate, his shots per game, his in the box conversion are all excellent and on the whole miles better than Defoe or Adebayor.  Of the 24 goals, 19 were with the right foot, 4 were headers.  Interestingly 5 were penalties which could be another dimension to his game.

No real quotes of interest at this stage 

Stats    

Soldado also played 20 times in the last 3 years in the Champions league for Valencia scoring an incredible 15 times with 4 assists.  His overall European record is 41 games for 19 goals and 7 assists.  For the Spanish National team he’s played 11 times for 6 goals and 1 assists in all games. 

fantasy premier league perspective

Lets start with the basics of game time.  Spurs and especially Daniel Levy have not played £26m for him to play on the bench have they?  He also has far better scoring and underlying stats then Defoe or Adebayor and I expect him to start from GW1.  It seems that AVB will be moving to a 4-3-3 formation with Paulino, Sandro and Dembele in the midfield 3 and upfront I can see Soldado playing centre forward with Chadli and 1 other on the assumption that Bale goes to Real.  I say Chadli without having done a profile on him but by all accounts he is better suited to 4-3-3 than Lennon.

His scoring record is excellent. His goal or assist ratio of 1 every 104 minutes isn’t as good as RVP or Suarez but it is similar to Tevez and the next tier down from RVP and Suarez.   He doesnt give the assists that RVP and Suarez did last year, as both these players had double figure assists,  but his goal and assit return per minute were still better than most straikers in fantasy premier league.  

Interestingly Spurs had a very low percentage of goals scored by strikers last year with the goal burden being shouldered by Bale.   Spurs dont really have a creative passing  midfielder in the shape of his countrymen Silva, Mata or Cazorla who will create chances which might explain why Spurs have looked to get Modric back as part of the bale deal.  This creativity gap masked by bales brilliance is the only negative I can see.  Spurs had real problems at times at home breaking teams down which is a sure sign of lacking a chance creator

Obvously we’re not aware of his price at this stage and this may come in to play depending on the comparable value of others.

The fixtures to start the season for Spurs are very good.    I rate spurs as having the 4th best fixtures out of the 20 teams and they continue to be strong after GW1.  Some Spurs coverage is definitely desirable then and Soldado looks a good option (depending on price) if Bale leaves.  If Bale stays he essential but I expect him to leave. 

Here’s Spurs first 6 fixtures:

Crystal Palace A,  Swansea H,  Arsenal A,  Norwich H,  Cardiff A, Chelsea H,

Summary 

Soldado is an experienced International striker who scored 24 goals and 4 assists last year  with a goal and assist rerturn every 104 minutes which is excellent  A real goal scoring striker

Spurs have excellent fixtures and in my mind his gametime is secure as the central striker in the front 3.  Spurs chance creating last year was at times suspect but was masked by Bales brilliance (I’m assuming he’s leaving as an assumption for this article)  This side of Spurs eveidenced by being  prone to lacking in ability to break teams down is my only negative.

However if Bale goes and the pricing is ok compared to other options, given his scoring ercord and Spurs fixtures he’s definitely a option for my GW1 team

Thats it.  here’s the link to my fixture ease article

http://www.fantasyfootballgeek.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-fixture-ease-schedule-gw1/

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stats from www.transfermarkt.co.uk