Sherwood backs Soldado to break drought

Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood has backed striker Roberto Soldado to recapture his goalscoring form.

The Spaniard has scored just five times since his £26million move from Valencia in August last year, failing to do so in 2014.

Soldado, 28, missed an open goal during Tottenham’s 1-0 loss to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the UEFA Europa League last week.

Sherwood believes the goals will come for Soldado, who will lead the line in the second leg against the Ukrainians on Thursday.

“I sat down with him this week, had a chat with him and said, ‘It will happen, it’s a matter of time’,” Sherwood said.

“We know he’s a top player. Now’s the time for one to ricochet off his backside and go in the back of the net and he’ll be off on a run like Emmanuel Adebayor (who has scored nine times in 13 matches).

“All of a sudden the confidence floods back. I hope he can walk away with a match ball tomorrow.”

Sherwood compared Soldado’s struggles to Luis Suarez, with the Liverpool striker having scored just once in his past eight games.

The Uruguayan, however, has scored 23 goals in the Premier League season.

“Suarez is going through one at the moment and no-one is pointing any fingers as they are winning games,” Sherwood said.

“Is Roberto practising shooting into an empty net? What about if he misses the goal?! No, he’s had no problem. He has to have the character and be big enough to come through that.”