Multiple sources are reporting that AFC Bournemouth are in advanced negotiations with Elche to complete the signing of 21 year old striker Alvaro Rodriguez for a fee beginning at £18M.

Rodriguez only joined the La Liga side from Real Madrid last summer, for around €2M. He made a total of 10 appearances for the Spanish giants, scoring once. Those numbers improved last season with his new club, where he managed seven goals and five assists in 34 league appearances – including against his former employers, as well as Barcelona.

With relegation at stake on the final day, Rodriguez’s Elche travelled to Girona, who were in the relegation zone. A win would have seen the hosts leapfrog the visitors, but his superb solo strike was enough to claim a point and ensure survival for Los Franjiverdes, whilst ensuring he will always be remembered at the club.

When rumours of his impending arrival began to spread, some were worried that this would be a replacement for Junior Kroupi – but Mark McAdam has stated that this is not the case.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how Rodriguez might fit in with Marco Rose’s new look AFC Bournemouth side.

We do not know exactly how Rose will shape his formation, but previously he has favoured two up front in a 4-2-2-2 (with two ‘6’s’). However, Rose has also been known to play in a 4-2-3-1, similar to that of Andoni Iraola. Rodriguez should be comfortable in either, with last season’s head coach of Eibar, Eder Sarabia, favouring a 4-3-3 or a 3-5-2.

What Rodriguez will offer that is something the club is lacking: height up front, standing at 6’4. Not only is he tall, but he is good in the air (not always a given, think Philip Billing), winning 37 aerial duels (55.4%) last season. Like Iraola, Rose favours a direct style of buildup, quick in transitions, and having a man capable of winning aerial duels could be key to this style of play, as long as there are bodies in and around him.

Watching Rodriguez’s goals and assists from last season show exactly that – how useful he can be with players there to support him. As well as that, his goals against Real Madrid and Girona showed a capability to be able to create things on his own. This may seem a weird comparison to some, but his profile reminds me of Will Oscula, who had an excellent end to the season with Newcastle. Raw, pace, power, height and directness, that won’t always come off, but when it does, it will be a joy to watch. He seems to have good ability on the ball, in terms of link-up play and skill, as well as a good striker’s instinct. This is is backed up by the fact he completed 39 dribbles last season. In comparison, Evanilson completed 16, showing him to be a more direct striker on the ball. Rodriguez also won many more duels than his counterpart: 245 (51%) compared to 113 (38%). Evanilson only managed one assist last season and created three big chances – Rodriguez grabbed five assists whilst creating seven big chances. There is no doubt he offers something very different to the Brazilian.

Upon research, one weakness in his game appears to be holding up the ball, which if isolated, could be a problem. Whilst Evanilson is not a natural-born goalscorer, his hold up play is sensational. With Rodriguez’s young age, this might be something that comes with time, or something that improves if he becomes more physical – or even just playing in a better team with better attacking options around him. Rodriguez is heavily left-footed, there weren’t many clips of him using his right-foot (the highlights video is mainly flipped to avoid copyright) – this might not be a weakness, but something to bare in mind.

Rodriguez is importantly also not someone afraid to do the defensive/pressing work: he won the ball back 13 times in the final third last season (Evanilson did so 19 times, but Elche, whilst not purely defensive, were not as high-pressing as AFCB). He won 49 fouls across the season (compared to 37 from Evanilson), showing that he is a handful – but Evanilson did complete 136 defensive contributions compared to 54 from Rodriguez. Again, whilst both sides shared a direct style of play at times, Elche focused on more possession based football to try and control games, unlike AFCB. As mentioned above, that Rodriguez won a high % of duels will also help in the defensive side of the game.

Where Rodriguez and Evanilson may unfortunately not differ too much is in front of goal – both underperformed their ‘xG’ for the season. For some that may mean nothing, but it shows they should have scored more goals than they did. Rodriguez had an ‘xG’ of 8.85 and scored seven, which is better than Evanilson who scored only six with a 10.59 ‘xG’.

Comparing Evanilson and Rodriguez may be futile, given that Rodriguez is replacing the likely outgoing Enes Unal, who was unable to offer AFCB much last season after returning from a second ACL injury. Junior Kroupi is likely to play in the ’10’ again or as a second striker, given his showings last season suggested he is not yet physically ready to lead the line in the Premier League. Playing Rodriguez and Kroupi could be a perfect pairing – Kroupi’s impeccable finishing and Rodriguez’s link up play could inspire the return of ‘little-and-large’ strike partnerships in the Premier League. The same of course goes for if he was paired with Evanilson – Rodriguez could be the man to finally find one of Evanilson’s 135903 runs a game in behind the defence. With Kroupi’s finishing, Evanilson’s hold up play, Rodriguez’s height (and the skill of all three), merging them into one player might produce one of the all time great strikers. But on their own, it’s great to have a multitude of options.

What cannot be doubted is that Rodriguez, assuming the signing is made, will be a very refreshing one for the club, whether he starts or comes off the bench, he will provide a different calibre of striker and some much needed competition for Evanilson. I have repeated this ten million times before – but if AFCB are to do well in Europe and the Premier League simultaneously, they need good squad depth, and this signing certainly provides an upgrade in the forward department. Often I watch us get the ball out wide and wonder why we are going to cross the ball into a small group of players against often giant defenders – having a man of his height up front will change that, which is great news for our wingers too. We may even finally be able to get excited about set pieces if he’s on the pitch!

All in all, it looks like a very shrewd acquisition for the club, should it get over the line, for a young player with high potential and already good experience in the top flight and coming through at a big club under his belt.