Nacer Chadli was a part of the wave of players that were brought in after the selling of Gareth Bale. Obviously, most of these investments made by Daniel Levy didn’t pan out, leading to the players eventually moving on. Examples are Etienne Capoue, who is currently with Watford, and Roberto Soldado, who is enjoying the Spanish sun with Villarreal.
The only proof that proves that the Gareth Bale money was put to good use was the signings of Christian Eriksen and Nacer Chadli. Both the Danish Midfielder and the Belgian winger have been pivotal players for the Spurs since joining back in 2013.
However, Nacer Chadli seems to be falling out of favour at White Hart Lane. At the beginning of the season, Chadli was handed the starting left wing position. Chadli soon became an on and off winger, playing inconsistently week after week. Soon the Belgian wouldn’t complete a game, which inevitably led to Chadli becoming a substitute for Pochettino’s winning side.
Chadli’s season continued to decline as he picked up an injury in October. In that mid-October match, the Belgian winger suffered ankle ligament damage that sidelined him until December 10th. Chadli returned from injury when he was subbed on during Tottenham’s Europa League match against Monaco.
Chadli has continued to play a substitute role for the Spurs, only playing major roles in Cup matches. Nacer Chadli’s goal drought, which extended from August to January, finally came to an end after the winger scored against Leicester City in a FA Cup match, in which he started.
Chadli went on to score 3 and assist 2 in his next two matches against Colchester and Crystal Palace. These two games began to show signs of the old Chadli. The Belgian winger went on to score two more goals, one against Fiorentina in the Europa League and the other against Swansea in the league.
Although Chadli has been improving, he continues to play a substitute role for Pochettino’s side. The Belgian winger was used an unused substitute this past weekend against North London rivals, Arsenal.
Mauricio Pochettino has shown recently that he has preferred new boys, Deli Alli and Son Heung-min, in the Left Wing position. Both of these newer signings have shown that they can compete at this high-level of Premier League football consistently.
If Pochettino continues to rely on the new boys rather than Chadli, then we can see Chadli packing his bags pretty soon. We all love and enjoy Chadli so we hope he can find his mojo again before he pushed to the reserves, much like Andros Townsend.
