Mauricio Pochettino was one of the revelations of last season after his young and inexperienced Tottenham squad ran Premier League champions Leicester City close before collapsing at the very last minute in April against Chelsea which handed the trophy to Leicester at the end of the season.
This season, such memories seem so distant despite it been only eight months ago largely due to the inconsistent form of Spurs this season even though the club fought so hard to retain the core of their last season’s first team players coupled with the addition of top defensive midfielder Victor Wanyama from Southampton for £11 million and Dutch Eredivisie top scorer (more than 20 goals ) Vincent Janssen from AZ -Alkmaar signed for around £ 20 million and then signing of youthful and talented midfielder Kelvin Nkoudou from Marseille for less than £12 million. Spurs are presently 5th in the league 10 points off the pace behind leaders Chelsea, out of the League Cup and unable to qualify for Champions League round of 16 despite being grouped with the likes of
CSKA Moscow, Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen.
In the English Premier League, Spurs have kept six clean sheets this season, which is second only behind Chelsea’s seven (Chelsea have won nine games on a row conceding only twice and scoring 23 goals). Spurs on their part are a difficult side to play as Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City found out in September after Spurs ran them riot beating them 2-0 on the day. With an aggressive and multi-talented defence that has the likes of Kyle Walker, Toby Alderweireld , Vertonghen and Danny Rose coupled with the tireless, passionate and highly efficient duo of Wanyama and Moussa Dembele in the centre of the park playing together as a double pivot defensive midfield pair, Spurs are one of the best defensively in the completion. In attack the opposite is the case as the North London side are a shambles in that area with Harry Kane struggling (had one touch in United’s penalty box despite playing as the lone striker and the full 90 minutes ) and Dele Alli worse off (couldn’t even register a shot or complete a take on despite playing slightly behind Kane and also the full 90 minutes against United in the league this Sunday ) a game Spurs lost to an improved and more efficient Manchester United. The case of Kane is pathetic given that while the Spurs Academy graduate has being the goal machine for the North London club for over two seasons now scoring over 45 league goals in the process , judging from the North London’s squad it appears that Kane is irreplaceable as Janssen had failed to take his chance earlier in the season when Kane was out injured. Although Pochettino had also tried to play Hyeng Min Son as a false 9 during that period given the failure of Janssen to deliver, the experiment had mixed result as Son faded after the first two games. What this entails is that Spurs are ill-equipped in the front row and must stick with Kane who lost possession In the centre of the pitch as United scored the lone goal after recovering the ball from him. Alli on his part has been a shadow of himself for some time now playing poorly against Chelsea in Spurs’ 2-1 loss away before diving (stimulating) in order to win a penalty against Swansea. It wasn’t to be against United as the former MK Dons midfielder has struggled this season despite scoring 10 goals in 46 games in all competitions last season after making a seamless upgrade from League One to the Premiership. This season, Alli’s stat isn’t entirely bad as he has so far recorded four goals in 20 games in all competitions yet this has done nothing to paper the crack that has shown he needs some time off on the bench considering the impressive promise of Kelvin Nkoudou who was a thorn in the flesh of Chelsea’s Victor Moses and Cesar Azpicuerta a fortnight ago when introduced in the second half.
It might be interesting for Pochettino to slightly tinker with his team set-up to maximise the effectiveness of his players in the festive period with more than five league games to play from now until the new year. In this new system, Hyeng Min Son could be moved to play more centrally behind Kane while Nkoudou or Sissoko take charge of the right side of attack in the absence of Erik Lamela who is still nursing an injury. Sisssoko might have a very poor stat by his standards having recorded only one goal in 39 games in all competitions for Newcastle United last season and at the same time unable to score this season despite playing 12 games in all competitions although most of his games have been as a substitute. On the other hand the former Toulouse midfielder has demonstrated in most of his games notably against Manchester City and then Manchester United that he offers a goal threat that might be impossible to ignore having completed more take-ons than any other player in the field of play on Sunday (attempted six and completed four) despite coming on at the 57th minute. The Frenchman it should be remembered made a controversial and highly shocking £30 million summer move to Spurs on the last day of the transfer window despite Everton hiring a helicopter to fly him from Newcastle to Merseyside before his sudden change of heart. Against United, Sissoko embarrassed United’s right back Darmian who is naturally a right back, often out- running him and dispossessing the Italian so very often although his crossing left a lot to be desired.
Finally for now it appears that as Spurs lie 5th in the table , three points behind Manchester City on 4th and 10 points behind leaders Chelsea, there is very little Pochettino can do other than reshuffling his team and dropping those that have failed to perform (Alli) in favour of those that are presently performing (Nkoudou and Sissoko).
Stats powered by Opta.
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