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5 Reasons Why Adryan Needs To Perform vs Bolton

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Last time we played Bolton, we won a hard-fought three points following a cross-turned-shot from Stephen Warnock.

Since then we have brought in some good, new talent to Leeds, including the 20 year old ‘Heir to Zico’, Adryan Oliveira Tavares. This Brazilian trickster sounded like the most promising and uplifting signing we had made in what seems like decades.

However, after a confident start in which we saw 25 yard efforts and a dash of roulettes here and there, Adryan has become somewhat quiet in recent games.

Here are 5 reasons why Adryan needs to perform well against our next opponents, Bolton. There are also some other fans thoughts at the end of this post.

1) Needs to settle

Adryan has now played 12 games since being at Leeds, so by now some will have expected him to settle into his surroundings a little. Failure to improve his form may lead to some questions being asked of the 20 year old ‘wonderkid’. Adryan has been fairly quiet for the last few games. He hasn’t assisted a goal since the Doukara opener at Blackburn. He also hasn’t featured for a full 90 minutes in his last 5 games. Adryan needs to contribute more to goals soon or maybe even score one or two himself.

Adryan’s Current stats (whoscored.com)

Appearances: 12

Minutes Played: 713

Goals: 0

Assists: 2

Key Passes Per Game: 1.1

2) Competiton?

Adryan’s slight dip in form has meant that young prospects are now seeing an opportunity to play a few games for the first team. Particularly Chris Dawson, who has been a first team fringe player for some time now, and with his ever-increasing list of good performances for the development squad, he must be in touching distance of a staring place. With talent from the U21s snapping at Adryan’s heels, he will need to improve quick, or he may find himself featuring quite frequently as a substitute.

Dawson Chris

Chris Dawson

Age: 20 years old

2014/15 Appearances: 0 (2)

2014/15 minutes played: 35

Pass Completion Percentage: 88.2

Tackles Per Game: 0.5

3) Must Win Games

Leeds have an important run of games coming up after the Bolton game, including 3 of the next 6 being teams around a similar position to Leeds in the table. Therefore, points need to be gained at every opportunity. Adryan will need to perform against Bolton if he wants to give himself a real shout for contention in these games, it’s starting to become make or break for Leeds.

Leeds Fixtures

4) Next Season

We are halfway through the season and unfortunately the situation doesn’t look great. At best we will still be a Championship team next year, and soon Leeds will be looking at areas in which they can improve upon for the next season. Goals are certainly an area which needs to be improved, and after contributing little in goals or assists, a price tag of around £3.5 million may seem a little steep for Adryan, especially if he doesn’t start performing better soon. Thus, permanent move to Leeds may be less likely.

5) High Expectations

We all got our hopes up tremendously high when we heard that Adryan was signing for us, if not a little shell-shocked that we had brought in someone with some actual potential. However, since then he has lived up very little to the hysteria that surrounded him when he first arrived here at Leeds. I’m afraid that if he doesn’t start to perform soon, he may lose some of the fan support he has been so graciously handed.

Fan Thoughts

I took to Twitter to ask – “What are everyone’s thoughts on Adryan? Current form, price tag, etc.” – here are what some of you out there are saying:

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  • Bryan says:

    He went through a phase where team mates would not pass him the ball, Doukara even turned into trouble and towards his own goal when the easiest option was a 5 yard forward angled pass to Adryan. This trend carried into the next couple of games before Adryan made his feelings known (that was Redfearns job), that game he did not come out for the second half and has been subbed early, on the bench or side lined since (up until the sunderland game).
    He has shown us some brilliant footwork and vision way beyond his years, personally I think he’s a young lad with lots of ambition stuck in a struggling newly formed squad.
    £4m…. value for money?… No question about it, this kid IS the new Dennis Bergkamp.

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