AmericanHotspur's Offical Scouting Thread

[AmericanHotspur]

Yeah sounds good, until we get a new signing.



Just PM me guys if you have more suggestions or comments.

[AmericanHotspur]

Hello again, bet you guys thought I had forgot about my duties as head scout here at TH.TV? No sir (or ma'am) I have just been waiting until we got a new signing to do a scouting report on them as we were linked with every player under the sun.

Well, now we have a new signing! Two, actually! So what I plan to do is do a double scouting report- a full one (even better than the Ruiz one) on Mr. Adebayor, and add a sort of mini-scouting report on Falque, as I am not going to pretend I know anything about him.

Sadly, I have school and so it will not be out until tomorrow at the earliest, but the silver lining is that it gives you guys ample time to send in anything you would like me to include in the reports, videos or articles that you think might help me get a better understanding of the player, opinions of someone who watches them a lot, or of course anything you would like to say about the player personally. How to do it? PM ME!!!!

I expect the PMs to be rolling in soon...

But until then...

Have a good night, don't get too stressed about the transfer market, and be glad that we have made it to Europa League Group stages! -AH

P.S. mods you can close it now.

[AmericanHotspur]

Hey guys, as promised, I have a 2 for 1 scouting thread for you! I really am sorry for the wait, but I honestly couldn't find the time during the week! But here you go...

The players in question are a Mr. Emmanuel Adebayor of former Arsenal, Manchester City, and Real Madrid caliber, and young Iago Falque. I know most of you know Adebayor, have seen him before, and are thinking "wow what we need a scouting report on him for?" I'll tell you why- because he deserves one! And now, without further ado (and yes I have added some new features in), the Adebayor scouting report!!!!

Emmanuel Adebayor

History- Started off his career at Togolese club FC Agaza in 1998, soon moved to FC Metz and played a couple years in their B team before breaking into the first team at 17 years old in 2001. He had a pretty good 2002-2003 season with Metz, as a 19-year-old, with 13 in 34 league goals, seeing Metz get promoted to Ligue 1. He then moved to Monaco soon after, and played pretty well but had a by all means pedestrian goal-scoring record of between 1 in 3 and 1 in 4. However, importantly, during his time with Monaco he did reach the CL final and while he did not play in the final, he did gain a lot of experience in the process. However, he only scored 1 goal in the entire 05-06 season with Monaco and then left.
Obviously most of you know the story from here, he moved to Arsenal as Wenger spotted something in him, and he moved for 7m. His first season he started out pretty well, with 4 goals in 13 appearances, but also 4 assists to go along. He had another OK season in 2006-2007, but 2007-08 was the season that set him apart as completely different class. 30 goals, in 46 games, in all competitions. He was named to the PFA team of the year and won many other accolades, such as Best African Footballer. He was linked with big-money moves that summer and was regarded as one of the top 5 strikers in the world. However, the following season he injured his hamstring. He still managed to score 16 goals though.
Then, he moved to City in 09, had a pretty good year but fell out with the coaching staff and was loaned to Madrid. This move proved to be positive for him, but Madrid refused to make the loan permanent.

And now he's here!

Age/Experience- Born 26 February 1984, so currently 27. He has reached his potential and played at the highest level you can. What has been missing in his career, though, is trophies. To think that in all of his years at Arsenal, City and Madrid, the closest he ever got to a major trophy was at Monaco, is mind-blowing. But Adebayor has definitely been tested at the highest level, and more importantly, in the Premiership. And he will have no trouble adapting like other targets would, as well as he will be up for the big games. He is a world class player, and those players play at the highest level.

Position- Adebayor is, simply put, the prototypical lone striker. There is no other position for him, although he can play alone or with a partner. He usually stays up top, on the last man, but he can also move around to receive the ball and is always in the box for crosses, making him a constant threat. Add that to his hold-up skills and there are few strikers better than him playing alone in the world. Our need is a lone striker, and Adebayor fits like a glove.


International- He's from Togo, and has scored 18 goals in 42 games. He played in the 2006 World Cup for Togo and was named captain soon afterwards, and also played in the 2006 African Cup of nations, scoring 11 goals in qualifiers for it.
He's easily the best Togolese player ever, and as such he is usually marked out as the threat and routinely got double, even triple-teams when teams played Togo.
However, in January 2010, the bus shooting at the Nations Cup caused Adebayor to quit international football. I can understand his decision, and as an added bonus he won't have to leave in January.

Style of play- He plays as a lone striker, as stated before. He'll stay on the last man, and he while he isn't really a fox in the box finisher type of player, he can score goals like that. No, Adebayor's specialties are playing with his back to goal, using his physical strength and presence to hold off the defender, and also hold the ball up, and distribute the ball and work from there. He is also not averse to going up for headers off of goal kicks and long balls, and as he is very tall and good in the air he wins quite a few. For these reasons he is the textbook target man, #9, lone striker type. What you'll see him do for us, is usually be the last man, stay at about the halfway line for most of the game and in the opponent's 18 or at the top of it when we are on the attack. He loves getting his head on the ball and will try to win corner kicks, defend them, score headers, and win goal kicks as well. However, he has another dimension to his game- running with the ball. He's really not bad at it and if you give him space, he can beat a man and get a powerful shot off. He is very deceptive for such a big man.
Also, his (and Spurs') style of play lends itself to a tall striker good in the air who is also good with his feet. Well, that'd be Ade as well. He has very quick feet and is quite agile, and is known for finding small space to get a shot or pass off.
Another thing- he doesn't play much defense but he does put pressure on the back line. He has been described as lazy before but when on his game he hampers the defense and holding midfielders.

Physically- he is 6'3", very tall. He is not a skinny 6'3" either (not another Crouch, that is) and he is pretty strong. The word I would use is lanky- yes he's tall, but he is very long and uses his body to his advantage. His long legs also give him that extra step on defenders and that extra inch to get on a driven cross. His pace is also exceptional for a man of his height, he is probably about as fast as Defoe is now. He is not afraid to use his body with defenders, in fact he loves playing with his back to goal. He is the perfect combination and strength and height for our system.

Mentally- Adebayor's biggest issues lie here. When motivated, he is pretty much unplayable (as Harry has said before.) However, he sometimes struggles with motivation and drifts in and out of games and for this reason is quite frustrating for some fans. He also has a history of hot-headedness and he may receive a red or two this season. But hey, 'Arry is a great man manager and I'm sure he wouldn't have taken him if he didn't think he could get the best out of Adebayor.

Strengths- Adebayor's biggest strength, the one that is truly world class about him, is his aerial prowess. The guy has such a powerful header, and is very good at outmuscling defenders. He is also very agile and can free himself in the box quite easily, as well as having a very good vertical leap. For this reason you will see him get on the end of a lot of balls from our wingers, something none of our strikers do well at all.
Another strength he has (he has many) is his hold-up play. He is one of the top 5 strikers back to goal in the world, no doubt. If Van der Vaart doesn't find a partnership with him, I'll be shocked, as Ade is great at holding the ball up and laying it off for a goalscoring midfielder (ding ding ding!!!) He also has very good feet for a big man and his link up play is good.
His second biggest strength, in watching him, is his finishing. He hits it corner almost every time, a very clean and composed finisher. And that's exactly what we need.
He also has the pace to play counter-attacking football.

Weaknesses/things to improve on- Mentally- he needs to get up for games and not drift in and out. He's almost unplayable otherwise. It has been said about him that the best defender of Adebayor is Adebayor. If he wants to, he can score a hat-trick any day. If he doesn't want to? Well, there are problems.
It would also be better to see him keep a level head more.
Another thing, something that isn't brought up a lot, is that he is a wasteful finisher at times. He missed a few sitters at Madrid last year that were pretty bad, I must admit. However, I think he can overcome those issues and not let them affect him.
Lastly, he has been called lazy. Hopefully he proves us wrong, as it would kill me to see another Pav-like performance.

Where he would fit in here- He's the lone striker we need. Hands down. There are few players at that position better than him, and none of them are available in our price range. He is the answer to our striking problem- great in the air and meant to play with VDV.

Star Power- Four out of 5- If it was a permanent deal, I'd give it a 5. This signing definitely shows ambition.

Analysis from opposing fans- I only know one City fan, and they sent me this one sentence about Adebayor- (You can expect) Touches of brilliance, great goals, solid hold up and link play, intelligent runs, and then theres the loose touches, poor passing, offsides and tendancy to drift to the right side and out of the game. Take that how you will.

AmericanHotspur's final verdict- I'd say that it isn't realistic to think he can score 25 goals for us this year. Honestly. 25 goals and 10 assists is realistic as he is the prototypical striker for our system.

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But, we aren't done here! I've still got another new signing!! (this one will be a mini-report, however.)

Iago Falque Silva

Age/Experience/History-Iago is one of the few player in the world to have played for Juventus, Real Madrid, and Barcelona before the age of 21. Yago Falqué Silva began his career with, before moving to Barca in 2001, joining La Masia. After 7 years in La Masia, Iago finally got a callup to Barcelona's B team, scoring a goal as well. However, he wasn't right for Barcelona's system and moved to Juventus in 2008. That move probably affected his career for the worse, as Italian football is not the best at bringing young talent into it's first teams. Serie A sides don't use young players often and most players make their debuts in the early twenties, as opposed to teens like in England. So at Juventus he was put into their older youth academy (17-20) and had a fantastic showing for them. But he was not ready for Juve's 1st team so he was loaned to Bari.

There, at Bari, he actually received no playing time at all. Not because he was bad but because Bari play 4-4-2, and Iago is not quite a winger but not a striker either (attacking midfielder.) So he was sent back to Juventus' youth team. There he excelled again, but then was sent on loan to Villareal B in Segunda Division, a new way of player development by Juve's new director. There, he was great- scored 11 goals in 36 matches in the Spanish 2nd division and being played primarily in his natural role just behind the strikers, producing lots of assists as well. However, Juve still were not ready to blood him into the first team yet and he doesn't really fit in there.


Position/Style of play- Iago is classified as an attacking midfielder- adept in either VDV's role or on the wing, however he isn't a traditional winger like Bale, more of a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 type. I got a lot of info from ITV's report and they say "The young Galician has superb natural skill, developing from a left-sided wide player into a more well-rounded versatile attacking midfielder, able to play anywhere across the front-line. He is perfectly suited to a withdrawn striker role, where his vision and invention come to the fore." So he is basically VDV and winger back-up.
His strengths are that what you would expect from a Barcelona product- great skills, vision, and dribbling ability, as well as pretty good speed. He also has a very good left foot- in fact, he is almost a direct replacement for VDV. Similar to Ceballos as well.

Comparison to Current Player- I honestly believe that Levy got Falque because 'Arry was upset about not getting Juan Mata. He is basically a poor man's Mata. He could develop to be just as good as Mata, and he still has time as he is a late bloomer but I would say that is the best comparison.

Strengths/Weaknesses- Strengths- dribbling, passing, vision, agility, speed, and trickery. Weaknesses- physicality, injuries, cockiness, defense, aggressiveness.


AmericanHotspur's final verdict- We appear to be wanting to strengthen for the future- and Falque has the potential to start at the highest level. He can be the next player to play in VDV's role from our club, however only he can decide if he will do that. We should see him in Europa League and cup games, possibly the odd league game, depending on 'Arry wants to go about it.

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Give me feedback guys! I will be doing my next one on our next signing, and possibly a couple on deadline day.


Hope this helps...