How Big a Miss Is Victor Wanyama for Tottenham Hotspur?

In the 2014-15 season, with a few notable exceptions, Tottenham Hotspur struggled to control games.

More often than not, Mauricio Pochettino chose to pair Ryan Mason with Nabil Bentaleb at the base of his midfield with a mix of Nacer Chadli, Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Andros Townsend ahead of them.

Neither Mason nor Bentaleb is particularly proficient as a defensive midfielder, and both generally struggled to excel with the dual burdens of Pochettino's pressing game and their own key roles in Spurs' attack.

Chadli and Eriksen are entirely unreliable in their own defensive duties.

While not their chief roles, the attacking midfield line must contribute in defence.

When they do not, the central midfielders are overwhelmed.

In turn, the back line, if exposed, and the defenders are forced to make difficult decisions. This leads to far more numerous opportunities for the opposition than would be ideal.

Early in this campaign, Eric Dier has been deployed as an ersatz defensive midfielder and flourished as much as could be expected. Dier is an excellent young player with an exceptionally bright future, but defensive midfield will not be his permanent position.

The time spent in the middle of the pitch will be helping Dier's development, but it is not the ideal solution for his team.

With that in mind, Tottenham were repeatedly linked with defensive specialists during the now-closed summer transfer window.

According to the Telegraph's Matt Law, Zenit's Belgian midfielder Axel Witsel, Borussia Dortmund anchorman Sven Bender and Southampton's Victor Wanyama were among the star names that were mentioned as transfer targets.

Witsel and Bender would have proven great coups for Pochettino and Tottenham, but they were probably out of reach.

Reminiscent of Tottenham's infamous bid for then-Atletico Madrid star Sergio Aguero in January 2011, the approaches for Witsel and Bender seem more like cynical, politically motivated moves than genuine transfer bids.

The inevitable failure of these moves should reflect poorly on the club's ownership but will likely receive praise for ambition.

Unlike the other two, the Wanyama bids seemed to stand some chance of coming to fruition.

Southampton have proven themselves willing to accept large bids for even their best players.

Last summer's exodus was evidence enough, while the sales of Nathaniel Clyne and Morgan Schneiderlin in this most recent window confirmed that the policy was unchanged.

When Wanyama was omitted from Southampton's lineup against Norwich, it seemed to portend that a move was underway. The confirmation by the BBC that he had issued a transfer request backed that up.

Unfortunately, the move has not materialised and Spurs are now left with the same issue that plagued them throughout their last campaign.

Jon Super/Associated Press

While the defence and wide options have been drastically improved in this window, the failure to capture Wanyama rankles.

Saints were under no obligation to sell one of their most important players and should be applauded for retaining him as much as Tottenham should face criticism for their failure.

Last season Spurs simply conceded too many silly goals.

The individual errors that led to those goals were, in some cases, avoidable.

The sales of Vlad Chiriches and Younes Kaboul and the acquisition of a genuine deputy to Kyle Walker in Kieran Trippier will palliate those issues somewhat.

Clubs are well-advised to get their transfer business done early.

Given Tottenham's position in the food chain of global football, they are not always able to do so, but the failure to resolve so fundamental a weakness is inexcusable.

That Goal.com's Dennis Mabuka reported the Spurs offered in excess of £20 million plus Erik Lamela on loan suggests that they recognise the seriousness of this error.

Unless Pochettino is willing to adapt his system to incorporate a third midfielder, something he has shown little evidence of so far, Spurs will have a baked-in weakness until January at the very least.

Dier showed against Everton that he is capable of playing the role of aggressive, hard-tackling midfield enforcer, but his proclivity to pick up yellow cards suggests he will be sent off or suspended before long.

He is a fine emergency option but should not be the first-choice option.

He should even be good enough against the bottom-half sides but will not be sufficient against the top sides.

The only realistic option for Tottenham there is to adopt the hyper-aggressive style that marked out their best wins last season: the 2-1 victory over Arsenal and the 5-3 destruction of champions-in-waiting Chelsea.

Tottenham have made a rod for their manager's back in this transfer window.

Not for the first time, their biggest weakness is now a problem of their own making.