Tottenham want to sign next Paul Pogba as Samuel Iling-Junior transfer on the cards for January
Tottenham have gone into the November international break three places lower than they would have hoped after unexpected back-to-back losses against Chelsea and Wolves.
Both results have come at a time when Ange Postecoglou’s squad has started to fall apart a bit with suspensions and injuries mounting up, thanks to that chaotic 4-1 defeat against Chelsea.
Injuries to Micky van de Ven, James Maddison and Destiny Udogie, as well as suspensions for Udogie, Cristian Romero and Yves Bissouma have exposed Spurs’ soft under-belly, which is that their fringe players simply aren’t cut out for playing at this level of football.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Eric Dier and Ben Davies were among those who came into the starting line-up at Molineux in the final Premier League game before the international break and none of them impressed as Tottenham suffered a late 2-1 defeat and their slump from first to fourth was completed.
It’s obvious that Postecoglou has an incredible starting line-up. However, his side’s weakness is that they’re just a small crisis away from having to name a team similar to that which finished eighth last season – even though Harry Kane was up front.
Spurs need to add to the squad in January. That’s a fact.
A Tottenham team hasn’t looked this good in a long time and Daniel Levy would be bonkers to think that it’s good enough to continue throughout the season.
Right now, Spurs aren’t a finished article. They’re a work in progress and they need new faces to continue the improvement and get back towards challenging for the title.
Luckily, it seems the North Londoners do have their tabs on players ahead of the January transfer window with The Independent reporting on 13 November that they’re in the hunt to sign Juventus sensation Samuel Iling-Junior.
The news outlet reported that Spurs are eyeing the 20-year-old attacker “to add much-needed depth to their depleted squad” and the former Chelsea starlet “fits with Spurs’ plans to bring in the best young talent early in their careers”.
Iling-Junior is a versatile young player who’s started to work his way into the Juventus senior squad. Last season, the London-born ace played 12 times in Serie A, playing mainly on the left or the right wing or as a wing-back. He scored his first senior goal against the ever-impressive Atalanta in May and in his one and only Champions League appearance, he came off the bench to assist a goal against Benfica.
Iling-Junior’s stock was on the rise, leading to Italian journalist Alvise Cagnazzo reporting on the Daily Mail website on 5 August that the England Under-21 international will be “the main protagonist” for Juventus this season in Serie A, filling in the boots for Paul Pogba.
Cagnazzo believes Iling-Junior has many similar traits to the former Manchester United star. Thankfully, they are the controversial Frenchman’s more redeeming features.
“Massimiliano Allegri’s idea is intelligent because both Pogba and Iling-Junior have a common technical characteristic: they have the ability to devastate defensive with driving runs into the final third and create numerical superiority,” said Cagnazzo.
“At the press conference, during the tour in America, Allegri said: ‘Iling can also play as a midfielder’.
“An immediate experiment, carried out against AC Milan, could open new frontiers in the young English star’s way of playing football.”
Unfortunately, this season hasn’t blown up exactly as many would have expected.
Iling-Junior has played just four times in all competitions with all four appearances seeing him coming off the bench as a substitute in Serie A.
He did, however, make a mark against Bologna in August as he came on with 24 minutes left and assisted Dusan Vlahovic’s late equaliser. In that game, he came on as a left-winger but his most recent performance saw him slot into the central role mooted by Cagnazzo when Juve beat Cagliari 2-1 on 11 November.
Stats by FBRef make for good reading about Iling-Junior as they take into account his matchday actions per 90 minutes rather than per appearance. As he’s been mostly used as a substitute in his budding career, the so-called next Pogba ranks high among his peers.
Stacking up against other full-backs, Iling-Junior ranks in the 95th percentile for non-penalty xG per 90 minutes (0.16), in the 86th percentile for shots per 90 (1.11) and in the 83rd percentile for shot-creating actions (2.85).
He’s also in the 82nd percentile for progressive carries per 90 minutes of Serie A football (3.01, the 87th percentile for successful take-ons (1.42) and even defensively he’s shined with 2.85 tackles per 90 minutes, which ranks him in the 90th percentile.
FBRef’s stats page stacks players up against those similar to themselves and the player who’s second-most-like Iling-Junior is Spurs’ Udogie. Fifth is Pedro Porro.
Of course, if Tottenham were going to sign Iling-Junior it wouldn’t be to play him as a wing-back. It’s likely that he would be called upon to fill a midfield role.
His dynamism, pace, and ability to burst forward and generate a high xG while also being able to get back and perform defensive duties well means he could be a superb box-to-box man for Tottenham.
Pogba, in his prime, could do all of those things, which is why those comparisons have been drawn.
One thing not discussed that’s vital for all midfielders is passing ability. Stats by WhoScored show that this season, Iling-Junior has averaged 39.8 passes per 90 minutes in Serie A and 0.8 key passes.
They’re not the best but when he came off the bench against Cagliari on 11 November, he completed 79 per cent of his passes in the middle of the park as he played several high-risk passes to try and add to his attacking numbers for the campaign.
With Hojbjerg’s future in doubt amid speculation recently linking him with a move away as long as a replacement is found [The Mirror], there’s a good chance Iling-Junior’s arrival could open the door for the struggling Dane to move on.
In other Tottenham news, Spurs have shared an update on van de Ven’s condition on Instagram.