Vlad Chiriches joined Tottenham Hotspur this past summer for a fee of £7 million from Steaua Bucharest in Romania and has already played 450 minutes whilst also being voted as Man Of The Match by ‘Spurs fans’ for the past three matches.
Vlad is a young and talented defender capable of bombing forward in a manner reminiscent of Chelsea’s David Luiz, but has also been described as a man who plays on his luck at times – again, much like the aforementioned Brazilian. However – and this is no more than my own personal opinion – I believe that, though he may be young, with experience he could go on to become one of the best defenders in the Premier League. It is obviously very early days though and he has a lot to do before he reaches that point.
He came in as a replacement in the squad for Steven Caulker, who moved unexpectedly to Cardiff City in a deal worth around £8 million. It is already looking as though the trade between the two centre backs seems fair. Chiriches seems to offer more all-round than Caulker did, however Caulker was, and still is, a top defender and is another who can go from strength to strength with added Premier League experience. It’s a shame that Spurs could not keep hold of the English defender as undoubtedly he will get into the England squad in years to come. He is definitely one for the future, and maybe his move to Cardiff will see him develop into a player who can represent England with pride thanks to the amount of playing time he is sure to see in South Wales – time he probably would not have got had he stayed at Spurs.
Chiriches proved in one game how skilful he could be as a midfielder and still do a job of stopping the goals going into his own net. Against Anzhi Makhachkala, he performed an outrageous chip over a striker as if he was in training. That would have looked really bad if he had messed that up, but he had confidence in his ability to perform such a feat and pulled it off. Later in the same game when Luvannor, the Brazilian Anzhi player, rounded Hugo Lloris, Chiriches raced back to save a certain goal at full stretch.
The Romanian centre back had many fans at his old club FC Steaua Bucharest who seem to have followed him over to his new home in North London. It is quite possible that they single-handedly made him man of the match during the last few matches due to their great support in votes. Though other players may have deserved these awards more, he certainly hasn’t been slacking in matches. He sometimes gets a little caught out, but so far he has made up for his mistakes with good defending. The Premier League, it goes without saying, is a hugely different league to the one that Chiriches played in before and so it goes that he will need to adjust his game over time.
Chiriches has a nickname, Vlad the Impaler. This is most likely to do with his fearsome tackles and strength. We shall see in months to come, whether or not this man lives up to his ominous nickname.
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