Tottenham Hotspur's Biggest Need in Final Week of Transfer Window
Heading into its final week, Tottenham Hotspur's January transfer window has been on the quiet side.
Speculation abounds about various potential targets, but head coach Mauricio Pochettino has made it clear they will not sign anyone just for the sake of it. "We need to bring a player with the right profile and enough quality to improve the squad," he said last week, per ESPN FC's Dan Kilpatrick.
Fourth in the league and still in Europe and the FA Cup, Tottenham are not desperate like some Premier League outfits. But with the heavy schedule that progression in those competitions would entail, addressing the club's numbers-light strike force in particular remains a possibly big need.
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"Possibly" because, with a bit of luck fitness-wise, Pochettino may believe they can get by with what he already has.
There is plenty on the side of that being the case. Ultimately, though, it remains a risky approach.
Getting By
Discussing doubts over depth in Tottenham's attack is familiar territory. Pochettino was fielding questions over it at the end of last summer's shopping period.
"It’s true that a lot of rumours around us, with different players different names," he said prior to his side's 0-0 draw with Everton in August. "I am happy that only left five days of the transfer window because I think we need to be focusing only football and my job that is on the pitch."
In places, he will be content with how work has gone since August. The options he and Spurs' recruiting staff assembled have helped guide the club into a healthy position midway through the campaign.
The main concern has been and is about how Spurs can fare without Harry Kane. Their top scorer again this season, the 22-year-old is the squad's only out-and-out striker with any considerable experience regularly leading the line of a Premier League side.
Spurs largely managed through Kane's early-season goal drought. The England international's all-round game still allowing him to participate in other creative, helpful ways and not become a passenger.
The more pertinent examples of how Spurs could get by in a Kane-less configuration have occurred more sporadically. In their use of last summer's two additions to the attack, they have eased some concerns.
Making his first start in September's Europa League win over Qarabag, Heung-min Son revelled in a freedom-accentuated, nominal central role (the team essentially set up in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation). Combining especially well with Dele Alli, the rapid exchanges and confident movement quickly put the Azerbaijani outfit on the back foot.
Scoring twice in that game, Son did so again while having a similar impact in the FA Cup third-round replay win over Leicester City. This time he benefited from the more direct presence of Nacer Chadli and a marauding Christian Eriksen. Spurs kept prodding at the Foxes until they recoiled sufficiently for Tottenham to exploit.
In December against Monaco, Son joined Erik Lamela and fellow new signing Clinton Njie in a more standard three-man attack.
Njie's start to life in England had been a little tougher than Son's. His one game leading the line away at Anderlecht was a nervy affair amid an off-colour Tottenham display.
Here against familiar opposition, the former Olympique Lyonnais man showed the problems his speed is capable of causing. With and without the ball.
Monaco were taken aback by his and Son's hounding. Lamela capitalised the possession regained in advanced positions to great affect, netting a memorable hat-trick as Spurs won 4-1.
Certain Requirements
Njie is still out from the knee injury he suffered in that Europa League win.
A blow to the 22-year-old's individual progression at his new club, it in-turn denied Pochettino getting a look at him performing with more well-earned confidence.
Even prior to last summer's pursuit of West Bromwich Albion's Saido Berahino not working out, the Tottenham boss has sought to create a perception of flexibility in his side's attack, where the loss of a more strictly recognised forward like Kane does not hurt so badly.
Even then, Pochettino has certain requirements that have to be met. Having an extra body or two in a specific position does not matter to him if he cannot perform in a certain way.
Son is a skillful, versatile operator who buys into his coach's notion that near-constant harrying of the opposition can lead to good creative opportunities. Njie was still getting on board with being asked to deliver such sustained aggression. Nevertheless, his ability to convert it into moments of transition has been hinted at encouragingly enough.
Attacking midfielders such as Alli, Chadli, Eriksen, and Lamela have all shown themselves adaptable to such demands, too, ready to occupy different needs when necessary.
Berahino's own blend of skill and speed earmarked him as a notably useful potential convert in Pochettino's ways. His good finishing and relative experience performing in a Premier League attack seem to be the clinchers in his favour as a preferred alternative and/or back-up to Kane.
The prospect of just bringing in a more traditional forward-type did not appeal to the Argentinian coach.
In November, the Guardian's David Hytner reported Spurs chairman Daniel Levy had raised the prospect of signing Queens Park Rangers' Charlie Austin (who this month joined Southampton). While supposedly an admirer of aspects of the striker's play, Pochettino declined.
Instead, thus far he has preferred to work with those he already knows than settle for anything he perceives as being less. Experienced or otherwise.
"We have a lot of young players with potential in the academy, like Shayon Harrison or Kazaiah Sterling—I can give a lot of names," Pochettino said prior to the Leicester cup win, per Sky Sports' Lyall Thomas.
Contingency
For all Pochettino's assertions Tottenham have enough in attack—and the aforementioned encouraging, if not quite infallible evidence, in that favour—he will know they could do with a little more in this department.
He did not deny it back in August, even with Njie and Son signed by then.
"Yes I think that it obvious we need one striker more," he said shortly before the summer window's closure. "This I think you know we need to provide for the squad the right balance to compete all the whole season."
Kane's settling into the campaign and good luck with injuries has meant thus far a contingency has not been needed. Give or take the odd game (late on at home to Stoke City, away at Anderlecht), Spurs have got by when resting him.
But as in the original FA Cup game against Leicester, when he came on to score a late equaliser, they had the option of using him. Going without him for a few games (or worse) may not be so manageable.
Alli and Son's strong work and the improved performances of Chadli and Eriksen in recent games has been a timely reiteration of Tottenham's threat from attacking midfield. Yet, there have been enough unyielding slogs up against deep-defending opposition this season to know they will not always make the difference in a way a proper goal-getter can.
The intelligent Harrison and dogged Sterling are talents to look out for. Expecting the academy hopefuls to provide goals or at least a useful penalty-box presence is a bit premature, however.
An immediate requirement trumping longer-term thinking is something Pochettino has admirably resisted where possible. Preferring to use coaching and creative tactical thinking over a quick fix that may not be compatible with his philosophy beyond a few months.
Right now, Pochettino has to decide how ready he is to back himself and his coaches here. To rely on a little luck keeping his players healthy.
Tottenham are on the cusp of a potentially big end to the season. Leaving themselves short may be asking too much.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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