Would Adrien Silva have made a difference to Leicester’s indifferent start to season if Fifa had given transfer go-ahead?
Our friends at Football Whispers look at the impact Sporting Lisbon's passing star might have made in midfield
It hasn’t been the start anyone at Leicester City will have wanted.
The Foxes have just one win from their opening seven Premier League games and are only separated from Swansea in 18th-place by goal difference.
The beginning of the season has gone from bad to worse too, with Adrien Silva’s registration being rejected by FIFA after they missed the deadline for bringing the midfielder in from Sporting Lisbon by 14 seconds.
Our friends at Football Whispers look at whether he would have made a difference to Leicester’s dismal start.
Not being able to register Silva has been a massive blow for the Foxes, as they let Danny Drinkwater go to Chelsea in the belief they had brought in the Portuguese midfielder.
Speaking last month, Craig Shakespeare spoke of his frustration at letting Drinkwater leave.
“Sometimes players see the opportunity to move to a bigger club and the financial rewards that might bring,” he said.
“Danny made it clear he wanted to move and didn't want to be here. The relationship we'd had up to that point had been very good.
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“I’ll be honest, I wasn't happy losing one of my best players. The big disappointment is I didn't want to sell him for any price and ultimately I have to abide by people above me because they run the club.”
He will have been even more frustrated that the man brought into replace him can’t play until January.
Shakespeare will have taken a small amount of solace that Drinkwater hasn’t played so far for the Blues through injury though, so if they had kept hold of him, he would have been unlikely to feature.
With summer signing Vicente Iborra injured for the start of the season too, the midfield has had real issues in 2017/18.
The lack of options have led to Shakespeare preferring Wilfred Ndidi and Andy King in the middle of the pitch.
If you look at the league statistics from last season, it’s clear to see Silva would have brought a passing influence to the team that hasn’t been there this season with Ndidi and King.
The former Sporting Lisbon captain averaged 49.62 passes per 90 minutes, compared to Ndidi’s 30.71 and King’s 30.99 from last campaign.
Over the 2017/18 Premier League campaign, the Foxes’ midfield duo have produced even lower numbers – with Ndidi at 27.33 and King at 23.89.
Silva’s numbers are much more like the man he was brought into replace though, with Drinkwater averaging 47.88 last season at Leicester.
His pass completion rate is also much higher.
Last season compared to Ndidi, King and Drinkwater, Silva had the highest pass completion rate – 84 per cent.
Out of the Leicester players, Ndidi was bottom with 76 per cent, while King and Drinkwater were both on 78 per cent.
After seven games, only West Brom (40.3 per cent) are averaging less possession than the Foxes (41.8 per cent) and they need someone to get on the ball in midfield and keep possession – they must hope Silva will be that man.
He will be important in helping Leicester move from defence to attack as they did so crucially in their title-winning season, but if they want a goalscoring midfielder, that isn’t him.
He has just five goals and three assists to his name since the start of the 2016/17 season.
A major problem for the Foxes has been goals – only Shinji Okazaki, Jamie Vardy and Harry Maguire have scored for them this season and it’s unlikely Silva would have changed that.
Their wingers have been disappointing, with Roma transfer target Riyad Mahrez being dropped due to bad form for their last game against Bournemouth, while Demarai Gray didn’t do much better replacing him.
If you look at expected goals (xG) statistics, Leicester’s xG for this season is 10.23, but they’ve only scored nine.
Only five Premier League teams have a higher xG than the Foxes – Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
That implies they are creating chances, but not necessarily taking them as you would expect.
But with Silva on the pitch, they would be likely to create even more chances – and the more chances created, the more likely they would be to score.
Last season, he created 0.88 per 90 minutes in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. In that same period, King and Ndidi were at 0.37 and 0.36 respectively.
There’s no doubt that Leicester have a Silva-shaped creative hole in their squad at the moment due to Drinkwater’s departure.
That hasn’t been helped by Iborra’s injury either, with the Spaniard averaging 0.91 chances created per 90 minutes in La Liga with Sevilla last season.
When Silva can play in January, he’ll be expected to make an immediate impact, but after not playing football since August, it may take him a while to get match-fit and show what he can do.
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