Premier League Tactics: What to Watch at Tottenham Hotspur This Season
The Premier League season is, amazingly, upon us. On August 8, fans will gather for their well-rehearsed rituals ahead of the weekend's ultimate treat: competitive football's return.
Tottenham Hotspur fans have been glancing around nervously all summer as the five clubs around them secure premium players in the transfer market, while Mauricio Pochettino is yet to truly make a splash.
Kevin Wimmer, Toby Alderweireld and Kieran Trippier have joined, but only one's a certified first-XI player. Deadwood has been cut adrift, and more could follow, but that simply makes the wage bill prettier, not the squad stronger.
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That said, Spurs possess the building blocks of a potentially great team, and Pochettino will hope they can continue to move through the gears and improve with every month. With that in mind, we take a look at the key tactical questions and propositions facing the Lilywhites in 2015-16 and discuss their chances of a top-four Premier League berth.
1. Harry Kane the Fulcrum
In the recent past, Tottenham Hotspur have built their system and approach around the likes of Luka Modric, Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale. It's only natural to place the strain on a creative or dynamic midfield outlet, but under Mauricio Pochettino, this side is modelled differently.
Harry Kane is the undoubted fulcrum of this side; his rise and rise in 2014-15 sparked speculation Manchester United could drop £45 million on him, per the Daily Star, but a new five-year deal in January plus the honour of the captain's armband late in the campaign places how highly Spurs think of him in plain sight.
The term "one-season wonder" is thrown around liberally and without care in contemporary times—some still (strangely) believe Christian Benteke was one—and Kane has his fair share of doubters. A poor European Under-21 Championship under Gareth Southgate's stewardship merely provided ammo for the naysayers. His shooting was off throughout the competition, and he was incredibly wasteful of strong positions, often prioritising the chance to score from 30 yards over laying in a team-mate.
The 2015-16 campaign will be a mammoth test of his true abilities after the form slate was wiped clean, and he heads into August not as an unknown quantity, but as a marked man. Some expect him to fall flat, but those watching his game closely will see a well-developed, rounded target striker capable of carrying his team in the final third.
There is perhaps no greater compliment for a player than Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho earmarking you for special defensive attention; the Portuguese fielded Kurt Zouma in a cancellation midfield setup in the Capital One Cup final in February, swamping the zones Kane operates in and removing him from the game.
Kane's a playmaker and a finisher rolled into one. In fact, the most accurate description of him may just be "sniper"—the word the Lithuanian manager's translator accidentally said instead of "striker" after his memorable, goalscoring England debut. He seems to find the corner every time, placing his strikes so accurately despite putting his foot right through them.
He's strong as an ox, very capable holding the ball and links to playmakers well. He can also drop in, sense his runners on his shoulders and play inch-perfect passes into their path—a distinguished skill that means he's part of the performance at all times, even if he's not scoring.
Kane's an excellent overall player and has several key elements to his game; he's comparable to none of the most famous one-season wonders or flops, and Pochettino knows it. It's why he's made him the focus of Tottenham both on the pitch and off it. The Spurs attack will flow through the Englishman, playing long to his chest, short to his feet and up to his head from set pieces.
2. Enter Alex Pritchard
Christian Eriksen was ridiculously overworked last season, playing far too many minutes and seeing his form drop as a result. There were patches here and there where the Dane excelled, but he struggled to pin it together week in, week out due to fatigue.
Pochettino asked a lot of him—too much, if we're being honest. A lack of rotation killed his season, and it wasn't just Eriksen who played too much. Kane amassed an awful lot of minutes, central midfield saw Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb take to the field every game, while the back four, injuries allowing, rarely shifted.
Of all the players likely to feature for Spurs this coming year, Eriksen is the one who must be looked after, despite his surprising durability. At his best he finds ways to settle games—be it with a clever pass, clutch goal or arrowed free-kick ripe for heading home—but he won't be at his best if he's knackered.
This is where Pritchard comes in. Once he gets off the treatment table—he sustained a rough ankle injury playing for the under-21s in the Czech Republic this summer—he should be a prime contender to rotate in the advanced midfield line and pick up the slack. All indications are he's ready, and Pochettino considers him important.
The 22-year-old has done his time in League One and the Championship on loan, seriously impressing last season for Brentford as they reached the play-offs. Even in just a fluttering cameo at the under-21s, he looked a zesty, exciting playmaker capable of taking hold of a game and dictating.
His touch and technique are superb, and he's flashy yet productive. He works hard off the ball and will suit Pochettino's high-pressure strategy should Spurs revert to it, and he can provide a focal point for creativity in Eriksen's absence.
He can feature wide, too, making him a rotational option on the flanks, but his main purpose this season will be to take study under Eriksen's wing; despite there being just a year between them, the difference in proven ability right now is vast. Pritchard should make it his seasonal mission to close it.
3. Where's the Depth?
The idea that Pochettino demands a high-pressing strategy is at least part-myth. At Southampton, in his only full season in charge, they stopped pressing fairly early on in the season to conserve energy (a fact missed by many when continuing to praise the Argentinian's energetic charges) and never really went back to it.
At Spurs, too, the intensity died off as the season progressed; Pochettino isn't Marcelo Bielsa—he knows what players can handle and what they can't. Still, high press or no, the lack of depth running through this side is concerning.
The defence is fine—Wimmer and Alderweireld in, Vlad Chiriches and Younes Kaboul out is the very definition of an upgrade—and Pochettino has two players for each full-back position who are firmly Premier League quality.
But as we move through the team, holes start to appear. All told, Spurs have one striker they actually want (Kane), two wingers (Nacer Chadli and Erik Lamela) and two central midfielders (Mason and Bentaleb). Dele Alli is in for a prominent role this season, but Andros Townsend, Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor appear to have fallen out of favour, having been left out of the squad for the team's trip to the United States.
There's no doubt Pochettino has tried to address this issue. Per the Metro's Jamie Sanderson, the club are attempting to lure Dynamo Kyiv wide man Andriy Yarmolenko, and B/R can reveal Tottenham tried and failed to secure Idrissa Gueye's services, with the player preferring a guaranteed first-team role at Aston Villa.
It's going to be an extremely difficult season should Spurs continue to press on with the numbers they have at midfield and in the forward line. A central midfielder, a winger and a striker are all needed to enable to play at the expected tempo for 38 games plus cups.
4. Genuine Wing Play, Anyone?
Pochettino's Southampton side were impressive for a plethora of reasons, but one particularly eye-catching part of their play was the ability to coax true width into their approach and utilise the wide men.
Jay Rodriguez formed a magnificent big man-small man bond with Rickie Lambert, with the former flying in behind and round the outside, sniffing for clever flick-ons from his colleague. Adam Lallana shifted wide and stretched the pitch, while Southampton as a team visibly shifted over to the right to allow Luke Shaw to steam down the left with the ball at his feet.
All of these qualities made Saints a feared side, but at Spurs the wide play Pochettino loves is yet to form.
Andros Townsend and Erik Lamela both cut in, shoot and remain very inconsistent, while Chadli seems like he's in his own little world at times. Kyle Walker badly fizzled out last season, Ben Davies is too careful to make the desired impact and Danny Rose must continue to improve in order to assume the mantle.
The answer probably isn't the restoration of Aaron Lennon to the XI, but finding a natural winger who can maintain the width of the pitch should be a priority. The link to Yarmolenko, though, makes a lot of sense.
The 25-year-old is a strange player; he's not your typical winger, not by a long stretch. At 6'2" he looks too tall to play on the flank, but Ukraine have shown how he's best used over the years by launching longer diagonal passes over to him to control, allowing him to win his duel with the full-back, and spark an attack.
He's the sort of touchline-wide presence Manuel Pellegrini wants Jesus Navas to be (if only he could cross, shoot, or pass), capable of expanding the pitch and creating space for others to utilise. When you've got tricky No. 10s like Pritchard and Eriksen, opening up those pockets can be rather fruitful indeed.
Projection
Despite Kane's killer instinct, Eriksen's excellence, Bentaleb's brilliance and the new-found depth in defence, Spurs stand a long way off the Premier League's top four. They haven't lost any key players this summer, and that's a positive, but they've more or less stood still while the five clubs they're competing with continue to pick up strong assets on the market.
The new stadium news is fantastic, and being able to offload the likes of Paulinho (for money) and Etienne Capoue is great, but if you're making a profit on a window, you're not keeping up.
The keys to this season will be Kane proving he's as good as his first season suggests, the Bentaleb-Mason combination continuing to grow and the under-the-radar impact an all-Belgian central-defensive partnership can have.
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