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How Nashville SC soccer's Sam Surridge is different from his predecessors
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- How Nashville SC soccer's Sam Surridge is different from his predecessors
Sam Surridge , Nashville SC 's newest signing , is adaptable — unlike two of his predecessors, who fizzled out fast for the club — and promises to offer a brand of versatility and talent the team hasn't seen.
"Obviously naturally I'm a 9, I like to play in the center," Surridge said Thursday in his introductory news conference before Nashville SC faced Toluca in Leagues Cup play. "I can play on the left, on the right … but ultimately, I wanna score goals."
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Nottingham Forest 's former talisman has found himself scoring at multiple levels of English soccer with resounding efficiency because he's a striker who "wants to keep scoring."
Now on a team starved for offensive help, Surridge fits the necessary profile for Nashville. He had 22 goals in 73 games as a teenager in England's National League. He was also a vital attacker in 2022 during Nottingham Forest's first promotion into the Premier League since 1999.
As Nashville's sixth designated player signing, he has a chance to separate himself. The 6-foot-3 striker, with spells throughout England's most competitive soccer ranks, measures to be different from designated players Aké Loba and Jhonder Cádiz .
With a reputation for playing whatever offensive role is asked of him — whether in the National League or the Premier League — there's reason to believe Surridge fits well in Nashville SC coach Gary Smith's offense, which is famous for positionless attackers.
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"From what I can tell, the Nottingham Forest fans were sad to lose them and they're very happy that we've signed them because they think he could be a massive piece of what we're doing," midfielder Dax McCarty said. "So look, not to put too much pressure on him, but yeah, we think that he's going to be able to come in and complement the pieces that we already have really well."
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An ability to complement the offense was exactly where Loba and Cádiz struggled. Both failed to pressure opposing offenses when off the ball and buy into a demanding attacking role.
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They struggled to score as well. Cádiz scored five goals in 35 games, and Loba was unable to find the back of the net at a reasonable rate. He had two goals in 40 appearances; his contract was terminated in May.
Most notably, neither played for Nashville past his second season.
Surridge, the first Nashville designated player of his kind, could present something entirely different. As a lanky English-bred forward with a high work rate and a willingness to rotate through offensive positions, he brings something that his new team and star Hany Mukhtar can build on and succeed with.
"People talked about trying to get (Hany) help, it's more about trying to find someone who complements him," general manager Mike Jacobs said. "I think Sam's kinda tailor-made for how our team plays."
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For a team that has long searched for an additional fulcrum to the offense on Mukhtar's off-nights, it may have found its man in Surridge. At the very least, Walker Zimmerman seems to believe the standout character Surridge showed at Nottingham Forest is enough evidence that fitting in shouldn't be hard.
"That for me was like all I needed to hear," Zimmerman said. "Because I think we have a great group of guys in this locker room and hearing that piece makes me know that everything on the field will kind of take care of itself, knowing that he'll buy into the group."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville SC soccer's signing of Sam Surridge is boost for offense
