A Progress Report on Tottenham Heading into October International Break
Tottenham Hotspur's rebuilding of White Hart Lane properly commencing last season might have seemed an ideal metaphor for the beginning of Mauricio Pochettino's own work at the club. In actuality, the officially titled Northumberland Development Project only really getting underway in the last few months works more appropriately.
Swap overcoming legal obstacles for being rid of unwanted players and successfully encouraging the adoption of a more palatable behind-the-scenes setup, and you get the more serious advancement that Pochettino's own plans are now in the midst of.
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Things have noticeably changed already around the Lane. Heading into the October international break, the same is true of a Tottenham team currently sitting eighth in the Premier League after eight matches—just a couple of points out of the Champions League qualification spots.
Pochettino's project is all the more intriguing for the lack of the kind of timeline and predictable milestones that comes with building a stadium.
An inconsistent Spurs side finishing fifth last season hinted promisingly at what the Argentinian's squad may be capable of with his ideas more fully implemented. But predecessors like Juande Ramos and Andre Villas-Boas had ambition to build on encouraging starts of their own too, only to be dispensed by the club's decision-makers when the follow-up underwhelmed.
Perhaps things are different with Pochettino and Spurs now.
Unlike Ramos and Villas-Boas, he has been working with recruitment staff whose appointments he has had more or some input in (the head of recruitment and analysis, Paul Mitchell, was someone he worked with at Southampton). Surely by now the club will also have realised their aspirations to become a regular part of the Premier League's top four will not be achieved without stability. Because even then, the competitiveness in the division's upper echelon is such that staying there is more difficult than ever.
Pochettino began the campaign pleased with 2014-15's achievements—"to achieve fifth on the table, I think that was fantastic for us, over Liverpool"—with the obvious hope "we need to do better than the last season."
"I think that this is our aim, our challenge is to reduce the gap with the top four," he added in his press conference on the eve of the season opener with Manchester United. "I think always we need to put our targets higher, but we know that we need to compete and we need to improve our game."
Pochettino and his players have started slowly, but increasingly surely, in creating optimism they can bust into the Champions League places in May. Any dips to come will inform us of their real backing, but as of now chairman Daniel Levy and the club's hierarchy should be sufficiently appeased in continuing to back their head coach.
No win in Tottenham's first four league matches was not an ideal start. But dig below the three points from four matches, and you had a team who could and should have ended August in better shape.
One costly error set them back against a Man United team they had looked more than comfortable playing (pleasingly so given how the Red Devils had torn them apart in March). Leads versus Stoke City (well-deserved) and Leicester City (less so) were blown before Everton escaped from north London with a 0-0 draw thanks to their goalkeeper Tim Howard.
A mix of defensive laxness and a failure to sustain periods of control upfield ultimately undermined Spurs. The improvement that followed after September's international break showed a team trying to learn from their mistakes.
Sunderland away was hard going for a long time, Spurs enjoying large spells of possession but coming close to falling behind. They kept at it, though, and Pochettino brought on Erik Lamela and Andros Townsend to good effect. The former set up Ryan Mason's excellent winner, the midfielder sadly getting injured in the process of his grabbing the game by the scruff of its neck.
A first league win secured, the Europa League defeat of Qarabag offered another confidence boost before a tough Crystal Palace outfit were then dispatched back home in Spurs' most solid showing up to that point. New signing Heung-Min Son netted three goals in those two games.
Team changes for Arsenal in the Capital One Cup did not work out, but Spurs responded to derby disappointment with an impressive 4-1 thrashing of Manchester City. Subsequent draws against Monaco and Swansea City have tempered the positivity created by that result somewhat. But that thrilling example of what Spurs are capable of producing is one Pochettino will be striving to find ways of replicating more frequently post-international break.
Conflict between embracing ambition and not getting too ahead of themselves continues to underpin Tottenham's work—an understandable feeling given the middle ground between success and mediocrity they have primarily occupied in the last several years.
Take Toby Alderweireld's response to the 2-2 draw with Swansea in which Spurs twice fought back from being behind. "We deserved to win, unfortunately that didn’t happen, but a point at Swansea is not bad," the defender told his club's official website, "although the overall feeling is that we’ve dropped points, which says a lot about where we’re at."
Contrary to what Alderweireld says, a draw at the Liberty Stadium was the fair result. The larger point is his uncertainty over whether to be proud of a hard-earned point, or disappointed at not defeating a side who have not beaten Spurs this decade, suggests they are as unsure about how good their team is as the rest of us.
Nonetheless—within the realms of realistic acquisitions—this is the group of players Pochettino wanted to work with, the ones he trusts to implement his vision over the course of 2015-16 and possibly beyond.
Gone are some of the signings made before (such as Paulinho and Roberto Soldado) and even during the early days of his tenure (Benjamin Stambouli left, while Federico Fazio was seemingly allowed to leave if he had wanted). In their place have arrived a mix of young prospects and more established performers with experience on the European stage.
Alderweireld had a patchy start but has improved in recent weeks alongside fellow Belgium international Jan Vertonghen as Pochettino attempts to establish more all-round consistency at the back. Son has begun his Premier League stay with a bang, providing directness and speed to an attack whose hesitancy has been its greatest weakness (though he has unfortunately since been injured). Dele Alli has successfully augmented a talented young midfield, earning himself an England call-up in the process.
Clinton Njie, Kieran Trippier and Kevin Wimmer have had less opportunity to impress, but Pochettino's use of them shows he will be willing to call on them. Something that was not the case with several of his squad last season.
In attempting to refine the use of those who remained there has been more mixed results.
Nabil Bentaleb, Nacer Chadli and Kane have not yet been able to match, let alone improve, on last season's strong form (albeit the Algerian has missed plenty of time through injury). Others like Tom Carroll, Ben Davies and Walker have done better but still have room for improvement.
Captain and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has been typically excellent, though, while moved forward from defence into midfield, Eric Dier has been arguably Spurs' standout player. Before getting injured, Mousa Dembele and Mason were among the team's better performers in the opening winless run, while the form of Christian Eriksen, Lamela and Vertonghen has gradually picked up.
Just like the fences, digging and general restructuring going up and being done around White Hart Lane, the building of this Tottenham team is very visibly a work in progress. You cannot completely see how it is going to come together yet, and the fine details are still to be established.
The challenge now is minimising the problems that may upset the process. To show that if they can do this, the makings of something very good could be in the offing.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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