Stoke City could reach new heights this season thanks to Andre Vidigal | OneFootball

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The aura around the Bet365 Stadium at present is one of renewed hope, optimism and tentative excitement.

Stoke City have pulled no punches in the summer transfer market in a bid to bolster their squad and surge towards the play-offs by bringing in a league-high 11 players.

Enda Stevens, Michael Rose and Daniel Johnson have arrived on free transfers and Ki-Jana Hoever and Ben Pearson have both returned to Staffordshire after last season on a temporary and permanent basis respectively.

Their utilisation of the loan shopping aisle has been proactive too, with Chiquinho, Mark Travers and Luke McNally all accompanying Hoever by these means, whereas Ryan Mmaee and Wesley both come as somewhat ambitious swoops, too.

With such a significant influx of players, and the changes to Alex Neil's modus operandi that will follow through attempts to gel the squad, it will no doubt take time for some Stoke players to adapt and find their feet at the club.

Some players may not, even.

It is still early days, after all, but one player who has is Andre Vidigal, who has hit the ground running more than any other Stoke summer signing.

Andre Vidigal signs for Stoke City

The attacker joined Stoke last month for an undisclosed fee from Portuguese outfit Martimo, agreeing a three-year deal in the process.

Vidigal, a former Portugese youth international, scored eight times last term in his homeland's top-flight, though he was ultimately unable to prevent their relegation to the second-tier.

Have Stoke City found a new star in Andre Vidigal?

Although cautiousness is often required when deciphering early-season performances, it is nonetheless difficult to not be excited by Vidigal, who looks every bit a player capable of causing serious damage in the Championship this term.

He has found the back of the net in both of his opening two competitive outings for Stoke, notching a brace in the 4-1 rout against Rotherham United over the weekend before dispatching the winner in Tuesday's Carabao Cup victory over West Bromwich Albion.

And the underlying metrics informed by SofaScore paint the picture of his footballing profile.

Incredibly direct with a potent goalscoring nature, many of his movements on the heat map against the Baggies came in half spaces in the final third, in which he would take the ball inside to find shooting angles instead of blitzing down the line and beating his man as your archetypal Championship wide player would tend to.

He feels very much like an inside forward as opposed to an out-and-out winger and his willingness to take up good areas to angle attempts at goal is enforced by an xG of 0.94 despite only being on the pitch for 29 minutes, missing one big chance but crucially putting another away.

Such a forthright emphasis upon end product has, for now at least, arrived at the expense of invention, with Vidigal creating just two chances and failing to complete a dribble across both fixtures and, indeed, SofaScore state one of the player's weaknesses to be his ball control.

However, Stoke have struck balance in their width by signing compatriot Chiquinho from Wolves, who is a much more expressive outlet in possession and may prove better for the team as a creative force in transition, courtesy of his ability to stand up defenders in 1v1 situations and carve out chances through just that.

Neil subscribes to the school of thought regarding Vidigal's instinctive finishing characteristics, too.

Speaking to the Stoke Sentinel after the Potters progressed to the second round this week, he said of the 24-year-old: “He smells a goal.

“That’s his best quality. I think I said this a couple of weeks ago before he’d even scored.

“If you describe people’s best qualities, obviously with Wesley it’s his physical stature.

"Everyone has got different qualities but Vidigal’s best quality is knowing where the goal is and those players are vital in tight games when it’s nip and tuck and there’s nothing in it and you need someone to take an opportunity. He’s scored three goals in one and a half games, not even that.”

Ultimately, goalscoring wingers are a precious commodity in modern football, not least in the Championship.

Most notably, Mohamed Salah has conquered this very efficient art at Liverpool, of course, and the intelligence, movement and spacial awareness required to cut into dangerous positions on a routine basis and provide a genuine goal threat makes wide players capable of doing so worth their weight in gold.

Far too often, Championship wingers can, by and large, self-stagnate by not having the necessary end product to decide football matches, as progressive and tricky dribbling, or continuous chance creation is often not enough for supporters if the final ball is not there, too.

Now, Vidigal may not have those traits - or, he has not shown them yet, anyway.

But, what he does have is a pretty remarkable knack of single-handedly changing games; consistently taking up the right positions, moving into the right areas and advancing the ball into zones of the pitch that open up chances, and then obviously putting them away with commendable, incisive ball-striking ability is easier said than done.