Tyler Adams has just done at Bournemouth what he never did at Leeds United

Add as preferred source on Google

When a player suffers relegation in his debut Premier League campaign – as the former Leeds United enforcer did at Elland Road – the temptation always is view a successful move elsewhere through the lens of a ‘redemption arc’.

But if there was one member of that doomed Leeds United squad who’s time at Elland Road deserves to be remembered for more than an eventual 19th place finish, it’s Tyler Adams.

Across the entirety of the 2022/23 Premier League season, only Joao Palhinha completed more tackles per 90 minutes than Leeds’ all-action American. He also finished joint fifth in the interception charts, narrowly behind such luminaries as Declan Rice, Cristian Romero and Cheick Doucoure.

Put short, while Leeds conceded a staggering 78 goals en route to relegation, it is not out of the question that a place in the history books would have awaited them for all the wrong reasons if not for Adams dousing flames like Fireman Sam fuelled by a family-pack of Red Bull.

Fortunately for Adams, an impressive campaign from a personal perspective meant an immediate return to the Premier League for him, if not Leeds.

Former Leeds United ace Tyler Adams shining back in the Premier League with Bournemouth

Chelsea met the £20 million release clause in Adams’ contract before pulling out due to concerns over his fitness. AFC Bournemouth ended up treading where Chelsea did not dare, however, bringing the former RB Leipzig ball-winner to the Vitality Stadium soon after a potential switch to Stamford Bridge went up in smoke.

And, as hamstring and back issues limited Adams to only three appearances in his debut season on the South Coast, few would have imagined that Bournemouth would be seeing much return on their hefty investment.

Until very recently, Chelsea’s decision to pull the plug looked like a pretty inspired one.

That was, though, until Adams finally put those long months out of action behind him. Performing like a man possessed at the heart of Andoni Iraola’s midfield, not to mention one with a point to prove and a price-tag to justify, the tireless 25-year-old is relishing the chance to show what he can do in a Premier League midfield not flailing against the tide of an inevitable relegation.

It would be a stretch to suggest Adams is the glue which holds Bournemouth together – The Cherries were getting on pretty well without him – but the team flying high in seventh place have ascended to all-new, vertigo-inducing heights with the former Leeds battleaxe patrolling the centre of the park.

Bournemouth have lost none of the last nine league matches in which Adams has featured. In the last two, a 4-1 obliteration of Newcastle and a 5-0 smashing of fellow surprise packages Nottingham Forest, Adams appears to have added a new string to his bow.

A man renowned for stopping goals at one end is now becoming a pretty reliable provider of them at the other.

Adams set up one of Bournemouth’s four goals at St James’ Park and followed that up with two assists against Forest, including one sublime through-ball many of the division’s most vaunted playmakers would have been proud of.

Amid all the credit accumulated by Milos Kerkez, Antoine Semenyo, Justin Kluivert and Dango Ouattara – the latter duo hat-trick heroes in successive weekends – Tyler Adams is ‘the unsung hero’ in the Premier League’s most upwardly-mobile team.

“Even when he was on the bench at the start of the season, [Adams is so important] with his energy,” Troy Deeney tells BBC Sport, the Watford legend including Bournemouth’s number 12 in his Team of the Week.

“I think we forget that he had a tough time of it at Leeds United, and I like a redemption story.”

Tyler Adams thriving in Andoni Iraola’s South Coast success story

To say that it was Adams who ‘had a tough time’ in the 2022/23 campaign would be a little wide of the mark. It was more Leeds as a whole who struggled, with Adams a bright spark in a pretty dark season in West Yorkshire.

Marsch claimed that Tyler Adams belonged amongst the world’s best in his position, based on his Leeds performances alone.

And with the exception of those three assists – more than he managed in his entire Leeds spell – there is not really much of a difference between the Tyler Adams of Leeds and the Tyler Adams of Bournemouth.

It’s just that, with a far superior backline backing him up and Iraola’s tactics a lot more coherent and complementary than Jesse Marsch’s ever were, we are now seeing how a talented footballer can be wasted in one environment yet maximised in another.

“For me, the key with Tyler is that whenever we needed him, he has been good. He has played well,” Iraola, who himself was on Leeds’ radar before the ill-fated appointment of Javi Gracia two years ago, said in November at the start of Bournemouth’s thrilling run into European contention.

“The problem with him is to be available, to not have the injuries to have some continuity.Wwe have to manage this situation very well because, whenever he has put his foot on the pitch, he has performed really well.

“I think he’s a player that suits us very well, the style we want to play. As long as he is healthy, I think he’s going to be a super important player for us.”