Debut Review: Wellington Silva

Wellington Silva made his debut for Bolton Wanderers against Nottingham Forest, having arrived from Arsenal on a season long loan deal in the wake of Tim Ream's exit.

Let's begin with my overriding opinion of the Forest match. Clearly miracles are real as we managed a goal and thank God (by which I of course mean thank Dougie the one true deity) Dougie Freedman didn't leave the Macron with three points. But I feel a duty to say a few things to help keep people's feet on the ground.

Bolton managed 21 shots on goal, which is absolutely fantastic have no doubt about it. But only three of those were on target! Now in my article A Need for Goals (read here) I noted that Bolton's managed 27% of their shots on target against the mighty Milton Keynes Dons which was somewhat disappointing. Three shots out of 21 on target is an even worse stat at only 14% on target (well 14.3% to be precise but I'm not sure that makes it any better...). This is pathetic for a group of professional football players.

So despite Stephan Dobbie finally finding the back of the net for the club's first goal of the season there is still cause for concern.

Now back to the point - Wellington Silva. It's fair to say this probably is not the attacking signing I was hoping for as Silva is not a striker but can be deployed either as a winger or in behind the strikers.

Having said that, I have thought for a while that Wanderers are lacking a real threat on the wing (I can hear people yelling at the screen but Liam Feeney is always such a constant threat on the wing and never puts a foot wrong, if there is actually someone who holds that opinion then they may need to be committed to an institution but that is beside the point). That and a lack bodies in that area mean that Silva is a welcome addition in my book!

I am making the assumption that Silva will be used on the wing almost entirely. Although he can play in behind the striker I expect to see Mark Davies, Zach Clough and Stephen Dobbie play in that role predominantly.

Obviously as mentioned above we do have Feeney. Now I appreciate the effort that Feeney puts in on the pitch and I don't have as much of a problem with him as a player that many do (he apparently even put his best performance of the season against Forest when back in his native position). But I don't think anyone reading this will need it pointing out that Feeney does have his weaknesses, well quite a lot of them in fact.

On the topic of Feeney's best performance of the season hopefully the use of him as a winger rather than as a striker will become the norm. Personally I am a huge fan of wingers flying down the pitch getting on the ball taking their man on and really taking the game to the opposition's defence (this being the reason I have always had time for Feeney despite his failings because he can be that player, and it was always something I thought was lacking from Chung-Yong Lee's game when deployed out wide). It appears that both Feeney and Silva did this well against Forest, and that excites me greatly.

Hopefully this can make us a dynamic and effective attacking force this season!

Beyond Feeney we don't have many options in so far as a natural wide player is concerned with Tom Walker being the only other player in the first team squad I am aware of who can really be described as a winger (if I am forgetting someone do feel free to point out my stupidity in the comments!).

Considering that we often have to resort to playing the likes of Neil Danns or Mark Davies out wide, which I think is a waste of their respective talents, we could really do with reinforcements so I am happy to see that we have finally managed that.

Now we have established that Silva should fit perfectly into the squad and help balance it out let's delve into his past.

Silva began his career at Fluminense in his native Brazil. While at the club he had a trial at Arsenal and a year later a £3.5 million deal was agreed. The deal was delayed by two years until 2011 due to his age (rules in South American football I believe stipulate that a player must reach the age of 18 to make a move abroad). His chances were limited at Fluminense though in part due to a spat with the manager.

On arriving at Arsenal he was given a special talent visa by the FA, but this was revoked meaning Silva needed to be loaned out to clubs on the continent to become a citizen there in order to be allowed to work in the UK. This is the first season Silva has a visa to play in the UK, hence this being his first loan move to an English club.

Pre Bolton Silva spent his time playing in the Spanish leagues (it was of course necessary for him to stay in the same country to become a citizen there as fast as possible allowing him to work in the UK).

He enjoyed six loan spells at five different clubs beginning at Levante. Silva failed to really break into the team at the La Liga outfit so was loaned out to Alcoyano in the Segunda Division where he managed 16 appearances and three goals.

Silva then spent a season on loan at Ponferradina, who were also a Segunda Division side at the time. He managed 23 appearances in total, 20 of those came in the league but rather remarkably all of them came from the bench. Ponferradina narrowly missed out on the playoffs.

Silva went one better in the next campaign when he was loaned to Real Murcia who did make it into the playoffs though were unsuccessful. Silva managed 39 appearances in all competitions for them. It is nice to see that we have managed to add yet another player with experience of playoffs, even if this was an unsuccessful example.

Silva spent last season on loan at Almeria who are also a Segunda Division team, making 35 appearances, but for the first time in the Spanish second tier failed to find the back of the net. During that spell he was issued with a Spanish passport, which of course courtesy of the ever wonderful European Union meant that Silva was now qualified to play in England (and I am not going to lie if he has a good season it may well greatly change my opinion of the EU but that's a story for a very different type of article!).

If you want to know more about the Silva then take a look at what another of the Lion of Vienna Suite's guest writers Danny West had to say the other day when asked Who is Wellington Silva by clicking here.