Football League World
·27 July 2024
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·27 July 2024
FLW's Plymouth Argyle fan pundit discussed the role that Muhamed Tijani will play this season
This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Plymouth Argyle's new striker Muhamed Tijani has been tipped for a big season after his loan move from Slavia Prague.
The 23-year-old has spent his entire professional career in the Czech Republic but has been added to Wayne Rooney's squad as the Pilgrims look to enjoy a more successful 2024/25 campaign after narrowly avoiding relegation on the final day last time around.
The 6'3" striker looks set to add something different to Plymouth's attack, and he's certainly got an incentive to perform well, with the club having an option to buy him should he impress during his loan at Home Park.
Our Plymouth Argyle fan pundit, Chris, believes the addition of Tijani will give Rooney's side something they were desperately missing last season, and have been missing since Sam Cosgrove's loan spell at the club came to an end.
Speaking to Football League World, Chris said: "One of the key elements of Tijani is in the 2022/23 season we had Sam Cosgrove on loan from Birmingham, who offered that dynamic of having a strong centre-forward and offered the height range to score headed goals, and provide extra strength to pull defenders away from our faster striker of Ryan Hardie.
“In the 2023/24 season, we didn’t have that. We had Ryan Hardie, Ben Waine, and Mustapha Bundu, but he was more of a winger than a striker. Because of that, he really struggled in the goalscoring department, with Hardie struggling against teams like Stoke and Blackburn Rovers, who had big defenders.
“His tactic was to hope the ball went over the top of them and run through them, but without that strength pulling defenders away, Hardie struggled, same with Warne. “So by having Tijani, or a guy like Tijani who’s really tall, very strong and a muscular centre-forward, putting them in the mix again, I think we’ll see a lot more goals happen like we did when Cosgrove came in during the League One-winning season. “I think it’s going to be really important to implement Tijani to the style of play that Rooney wants to bring in, which is very attack-minded, and it’s important that he hits the ground running. “Tijani has already stated in podcasts and interviews that he’s very excited to work with Wayne Rooney, and he’s one of the key reasons for joining the club, and he’s keen to show his place in the team. “He’s already scored two goals in pre-season, so he’s done very well there, and I think it’s going to go from strength-to-strength to him to really build up a strong forward momentum for this team.
"We’ve also had some other high-quality signings which are also providing that strength, with Ibrahim Cissoko from Toulouse also being a strong player and very technical, so I think Tijani’s role as a powerful striker is a very important bit of business."
Thanks to his height and physicality, Tijani could be a nightmare for defenders to deal with, and he looks set to add another dimension to Plymouth's attack.
He scored two goals in their recent 5-1 win against Cheltenham in pre-season, and drew praise from boss Rooney, who seems excited about his addition.
Speaking to the Plymouth Herald in the aftermath, Rooney said: "We know he's not the finished article and that's on us to work with him and try to improve that as well. What he is, he's a big lad, he works hard, he's game, he puts himself into some really good positions to score goals.
"I was really pleased with him getting the two goals (against Cheltenham) and he will be a real handful for defenders during the season."
The striker has never played outside the Czech Republic before, so it remains to be seen how he'll adapt to Championship football, but he's played and scored in the Europa League, so he certainly comes with a decent pedigree.
He struggled for regular starts with Slavia Prague last season, making just ten starts in the league, but he's still a young man, and he appears to have all the raw ingredients to be a success in Devon this season.
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