Tottenham Talk on - Dušan Vlahović
Tottenham Talk on - Dušan Vlahović
Hello once again and welcome to another day and another informative post. Today we are going to take a deeper look at our #1 striker target, 21-year-old (22 next January) Serbian international Dušan Vlahović.
Dušan Vlahović
Dušan Vlahović is the striker Fabio Paratici has wanted to replace Harry Kane.
Our Managing Director of Football, has felt Kane should be sold and the money reinvested to improve the side, make it more balanced and improve the quality.
Naturally, having been at Juventus for 11 years, he is an expert in the Italian market with Juventus always looking to buy all the best players in Italy.
Paratici Potted History
Paratici played for 12 different clubs in 15 years, mainly in Serie C1 and C2,such is the life of a lower league footballer where contracts are annual or for two years.
After hanging up his boots aged 31, Paratici was hired as the Chief Observer/Head of Scouting for Sampdoria in 2004.
During his tenure at Sampdoria, Paratici worked closely with the club's Director General and subsequently its CEO, Giuseppe Marotta, with the press calling him Marotta's "right-hand man."
In May 2010, Marotta took Paratici to Juventus and the President, Andrea Agnelli, gave him the role of Head of Technical Affairs and Sporting Director.
End of Paratici potted history.
He is a traditional centre-forward poacher who eats, sleeps and drinks goals, somewhat of a rarity in the modern game, but has the skills of a more diminutive striker too.
The global pandemic has hit clubs in Italy hard, who generally have to develop youngsters and sell them on at a profit to survive anyway.
That is the model of Fiorentina, so while this window is perhaps more pressing, the principle of selling and buying a cheaper replacement is one they are comfortable with and prepared for.
Paratici is determined to get his man so let's take a closer look at him.
Serbia is the leading footballing nation in the Balkans with Red Star Belgrade and Partizan Belgrade being the major clubs.
At the age of 16 he became the youngest ever player for Partizan Belgrade who have a renown academy and the clubs youngest ever goalscorer before La Viola (Fiorentina) quickly snapped him up.
The Serbian sharpshooter made his debut aged 18 and earned an initial reputation as a striker who missed chances rather than scoring them but has clearly settled in a new country and developed as he hit seven goals in one half in a pre-season friendly just a weeks ago.
You might think he was slow, but despite his size he isn't, which is great for counter-attacking so he is adaptable to different styles.
Fiorentina allow the opponents to come on to them, much as Spurs did against Arsenal and use Vlahović's strength to hold off touch tight defenders to move forward as we have seen Spurs do many times with Harry Kane.
Finishing it is inside the box where he excels. Of his 21 goals last season, only one was from outside the penalty area so he will need service into the box, which hasn't been our strong suit over recent seasons.
Vlahović has that strikers ability to anticipate where the ball is going and get there ahead of the defender, priceless for a striker, a method used by Harry Kane to win the Golden Boot at the last World Cup in Russia.
He scored 6 goals from the penalty spot, the first and his first of the season, coming in matchday 12, from whence he scored 15 goals in 25 games.
useful for a striker, he doesn't need many touches to get a shot off and his good technique means he can display a variety of finishes, curling efforts, power strikes with laces and precise finishes with the inside of the boot.
Being left footed he uses his dribbling ability to cut inside and shoot.
Aerial duels won 5th in Serie A (48%), Goals 4th (21), Non-penalty goals 5th (15).
Aerial duels is one area where he still has improvement to make and standing 1.9m (6ft 3in) tall you would expect to see him around the 60% mark.
His flick-ons could be a useful foil for a Sonny buzzing around him or Dele running from deeper.
Well that's it folks.
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