Swansea manager admits that Spanish youngster's technique is on another level to any other player in the squad
So far this season, I'd argue our two most impressive signings were both made from Real Betis. Stand up and be counted, Jose Antonio Canas & Alejandro Pozuelo. The former has proved to be as astute a signing as he is hirsute a man, putting in tireless performance after tireless performance as he beds in the Swansea squad seamlessly, while the latter has had slightly less time to impose himself.
Restricted to substitute appearances in the league, he's had to make do with starts in the League Cup and Europa League as he bids to showcase his skills, and from what we've seen so far there's reason to be positive we've signed an absolute gem. For a paltry £500k(rumoured) in compensation, we've signed a player who had been once linked with Manchester United & Barcelona (read a profile I put together a few months ago here: LINK), and despite seeming to lose his way at Betis it looks like he's set on taking British football by storm.
He announced himself immediately, scoring on his debut against Malmo with a really tasty strike - thanks to Youtube we can go all multimedia and relive it here - it's the fourth goal (at 2min 23secs) but I love watching Michu's opener - damn that boy is cool.
From what we've seen so far Pozuelo looks a very accomplished footballer indeed. His ability to create has caused havoc when he's been subbed on late in matches, and I look forward to seeing what he can do once he's completely bedded in to the squad - despite operating in an almost exclusively attacking role whenever he's featured he's got a pass completion rate of 87.8% - to me that seems very very high for a player who has blatantly been looking to create every time he's received the ball.
In his five PL sub appearances, he's played three "key balls" which led to opportunities for teammates, and in the Europa League he's already got two assists to add to that goal he got against Malmo, as well as getting another goal against Petrolul. Something else worth mentioning is he's registered as having made 1.4 tackles per appearance in the Premier League - not bad considering he's averaged just twenty-four minutes per showing and it's actually more than Michu's made so far (1.2), so perhaps he puts in more of a shift than I'd realised.
Personally, Pozuelo is the one signing of the summer I'm really excited about. I bloody love Jose Canas, and I think Wilfried Bony will score, as an Australian would say, "heaps" of goals, but the level of technique the man now simply known as "Alex" has shown he possesses is something akin to having Lee Trundle back at the Liberty. "All aboard the showboat", as it were.
Michael Laudrup clearly agrees we've acquired a real talent in Pozuelo:
"I think Alejandro can do here what Coutinho has done at Liverpool. I remember when Coutinho arrived. He came from Inter and he had a lot to learn, but now he is one of the most important players at Liverpool.
"With time, Pozuelo can do the same here because he has the same ability with the ball. He can find space, he is good one-on-one and has two good feet — we don't know if he is right-footed or left-footed. He also has very good vision.
"He has a lot of talent. He's a player that you can see is still young, but he has so much quality with two feet. We have to bring him forward and that's what we will do. He still has to learn a lot of things, but he is getting better and better when we don't have the ball.
"He's not that tall, but he's quite strong. He needs to learn to use his body better, but with a player like that who is only 22, we have to bring him forward slowly. Then he will be another very important player for us."
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With the Swans in Europa League action tomorrow night against Swiss side St Gallen, it's likely he'll once again get a chance to impress as the Swans go in search of a victory which would go a long way in securing progression to the next round of the competition.
Alejandro Pozuelo 7/1 first goalscorer, you say...