Pochettino needs a player with touch of magic to lift Spurs
AS a Tottenham man, I was alarmed to see the performance against Bayer Leverkusen at Wembley on Wednesday night. It was as bad as I have seen the team play for 18 months and a real worry going into such an important game as the north London derby against Arsenal today.
Only now are you seeing the fragility of this team and their weakness. In a sense, that is a credit to Mauricio Pochettino, in that he has kept them at such a high level for so long. But I think that Wednesday and the recent run of six games without a win is beginning to show why they fell short of the league title last season.
At their best, as they were against Manchester City just a few weeks ago and the game before this run started, they are an excellent team. But their prime strength is off the ball; the way they harry teams and chase them down; the way they are so organised and so methodical in getting the ball back. That is what propelled them to a title challenge last season.
Yet ultimately, they fell short and it was home games against Newcastle, Leicester and then, at the end of the season, against West Brom, which let them down; teams they couldn’t break down and finish off because they lack that one special player who can change a game in an instant.
Of course, there are some other mitigating factors surrounding this recent run. Toby Alderweireld is a massive miss. It’s pretty clear he’s the best defender in the Premier League and any team would miss his presence. And, of course, without Harry Kane, goals have been hard to come by. The club always seem to be somewhat over-reliant on Harry and so it has proved now he has the first serious injury.
IT isn’t just his goals though. He sets the tone for the whole team with his pressing and determination to win the ball back. That provides the tempo for everyone. He may be available today for some of the match but he will have to ease himself in and play in a more restrained manner in the first few weeks back, because he won’t be fully fit. He will have to resist the urge to go out wide and chase down the ball all the time.
But though Harry can change games with his goals, I’m talking more about the kind of players that Tottenham will face today in Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez; or Eden Hazard at Chelsea; and David Silva and Sergio Aguero at Manchester City. Leicester had Riyad Mahrez and maybe that was the difference between the teams last season. The kind of player who is really clever and comfortable on the ball and will lift you when it’s a struggle to break a team down.
Of course, it’s not easy simply to pick up a player like that. There was talk of Isco coming from Real Madrid and maybe he would have helped. But Tottenham at present are relying on Erik Lamela, when he’s back fit, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen to provide that spark. To my mind, they need someone with a degree more composure on the ball. Those three all have to be at their very best to give that creativity to Tottenham; and that isn’t the case at present. Alli might become that player one day but he’s very young for that burden to be loaded on to him now and at present he isn’t showing enough consistency. That’s inevitable in a 20-year-old with only one full season behind him in the Premier League. But in the meantime, Tottenham need to fill this gap by buying. The trouble is, that type of player is usually a signing which will take some time to deliver, not one that can be quickly signed in January.
It doesn’t feel as though the players they have signed in the summer have substantially strengthened them. Victor Wanyama has been a success and is a strong presence in midfield; but against that, Eric Dier is now much more unsettled, having been pushed out of that position.
Vincent Jansen cannot adjust at the moment and his confidence looks some way short of what is needed. And for £30million you would expect an awful lot than what Moussa Sissoko is showing at present. He had a fine Euros, which was something of a turn-up after his displays at Newcastle; now we’re back to the player who, though talented, underwhelmed at St James’ Park.
It’s a concern for Pochettino and I wonder whether switching to three at the back for a while would give the team a stimulus. When Alderweireld is back, with Dier and Jan Vertonghen, they have the perfect trio to play that formation. It would help Dier, as he loves to bring the ball out. And doing it from a sweeper role means you’re always stepping forward to do so, which gets you on the front foot, rather than stepping back to receive the ball from midfield. They already have full-backs who play like wingbacks. That system would allow him to go to two up front and it’s one which Pochettino himself played in for Argentina under Marcelo Bielsa.
Something needs to change for Spurs. These are a crucial couple of seasons as they transition into what will be a magnificent new stadium. They need to maintain the momentum gathered last season going into that move. Today would be an excellent time to start.