Iago Aspas

{Profile Posted 30/05/13}







Position: - False number 9, striker, winger

Nationality: - Spainish

Current Club: - Celta Vigo

Estimated Market Value: - £6.5 million

Linked with: - Joining Liverpool









General Comments:





Hello all, again. In the rush to get this Apsas profile up (I only have half an hour spare), I am going to do something similar to the Kolo Toure profile I did a week back. Rather than a profile, i.e. positives, negatives, work on this, work on that etc., I am going to look at the qualities which have drawn Liverpool to buy him, and as to how he will fit into the team once he completes his transfer.





Firstly, he is a Spanish player, and what can all; of those do? Play tika taka football. Would you rather Carroll or Aspas? Is probably the question you have to ask yourself, and which one of those would fit into the system better? So therefore, Apsas should be able to slot right into the system straight away, and will have to problems keeping the ball, passing it around, and moving. Pass and move will be burnt into his play like nothing else!!





Also, if you take a look at what positions he can play, he is quite similar to both the departing Suarez, and also Sturridge. Aspas is a player who can play out wide on the wing - usually the right wing as he is left footed - so he can cut in, but equally, he can play behind a main striker, a bit like Coutinho behind Sturridge, and feed balls into the man up top, or finally, he can play as that man up top with support behind him. It means that in a system where the front three need to be able to interchange and fill into each other's positions to get fluidity going, then Aspas has the experience and quality to fit into all of those positions.





He is also a good finisher (I have not put any statistics in as that takes almost as long as it does to write the profile - as with the Kolo Toure profile, I will do the stats when I have time.) He is a very consistent performer, and for the last few seasons running, he has scored over 10 goals a year - grabbing 12 this year - with one match remaining. And, if you consider that he is playing in a team lacking quality at the wrong end of the table, and is not always the pinnacle of attacks (i.e. he can play out wide as mentioned), then to grab 12 goals is something very special.





He also has all of those other Spanish qualities of a decent touch, good passing and decent vision. He is nothing like an Henry when it comes to finishing, and he is nothing like a Coutinho when it comes to through balls - but, we already have that in the team (Coutinho and Sturridge), so it is not key.





If we look at the financial aspects of this deal too, then Apsas outlines a very small part of the money we have to spend this summer, at a tad over £6m Sterling (it is 7.7m Euro, isnt it?!), and, with the fact that we needed another striker/wide man, then the deal is a very cheap one, where nothing much can go wrong. Age is on his side at only 25, so we should, fail or fairy, get a very good return on him if and when he goes. Also, if you look at wages, he is probably going to be on less than somebody like Ince would demand, certainly less than Kone, and so much less than another striker such as Benteke. So this deal is financially very sound.







However, without going overboard and doolally, Aspas is not the greatest player to ever grace the earth - no disrespect to him; I cannot hit a barn door when shooting!! He is a decent, perhaps above average player ion most of his game. Nice touch, nice passing, decent wing play. In those areas, he is probably not a huge improvement on what we have got. But as Ed001 wonderfully pointed out earlier today on the main Liverpool rumours site, it is not about buying the best and most expensive players, when you dont have a clue what to do with them. You have to buy the players who will fit into your system, who will be able to perform in that a=system, and although not explosive, Aspas will do that, and show that he is a quality player within our system.







To conclude, I would like to end on a bit of a novelty note, about Football Manager. We often get silly posts about this player and that because they have performed well on a silly computer game. But recently (well, over the past few months), I have worked hard with Crewe, on FM11 - having had my wages cut three years in a row, and having no transfer budget three years in a row, I have, as I am a superb manager, guided Crewe to the automatic promotion spots of League 1, yes 1, in only three season. Having tried to sign Aspas on a free transfer, I failed, and he went to Charlton, who later got relegated into League one. They soon thought that Aspas was too poor for their team, so I snapped him up on a free transfer - merely because Liverpool had signed him in real life. One match in, and Im sure he will be another shrewd signing for ''Brendan Rodgers - Crewe manager'' (Yes, I call myself Brendan Rodgers because when I started the career, guess who had taken over....)









Cheers guys, enjoy,



Ed052