I detest a thousand things about the discourse surrounding football nowadays, which has somehow descended to a level below its previous lowest common denominator due to the decline in quality of football websites and the rise in popularity of social media accounts dedicated to involvement.
I start this piece with a tirade since Tottenham appears to receive more unjustified criticism than any other team. They are easily meme’d by the vast majority of Internet idiots, and not a single one of them really gives their claims any serious thought.
Tottenham is coming off a very disappointing loss to Brighton, where they lost 3-2 despite squandering a 2-0 lead against one of the Premier League’s best-coached and most talented teams.
To be honest, there’s no shame in losing to Brighton 3-2. Brighton is indeed extremely excellent; even on their best days, the Seagulls might outperform Arsenal and Manchester City.
If Tottenham had lost 3-2 in a game where they led 1-0, drew 1-1, trailed 2-1, tied the game at 2-2, and ultimately lost 3-2, we wouldn’t have to endure the same cliched criticism of “Spursiness” and see that smug photo of Giorgio Chiellini celebrating his team’s victory over well favoured Juventus. (By the way, consider all the crucial Champions League games Chiellini lost throughout his tenure.)
The greatest issue facing Totteham isn’t Ange Postecoglou, a legendary curse, or any of the many strange justifications people keep coming up with. The issue is that Tottenham and Postecoglou have positioned their club to be high-risk, high-reward and are prepared to assume risks that make them vulnerable to these types of
Tottenham was expected to spend heavily this past summer revamping a midfield that was far from good enough for the top four. This is sort of a backhanded way of complimenting Spurs, as they were only one season away from the top four after missing out on Europe completely, and that was with the help of Harry Kane, the best striker in the world.
On the one hand, Tottenham paid more than 50 million euros for Archie Grey and Lucas Bergvall, two young and extremely talented midfield players. Conversely, though, Tottenham failed to add a single veteran midfield player who might provide Spurs the instant stability they need to stave off impending defensive breakdowns or disasters.
Spurs’ centre back three of Radu Dragusin, Micky van de Ven, and Cristian Romero is among the greatest in international football. All three of them are unquestionably among the greatest in the league on their own, and many Tottenham supporters could make a strong case that Romero, regardless of position, is among the league’s finest players overall.
The problem is that, similar to how Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie prefer to move forward at fullback, all three of those men are excellent athletes who are skilled with the ball and enjoy taking risks and aggressively playing defence.
Then, with Rodrigo Bentancur at the foundation of a 4-3-3 midfield, Tottenham manager Postecoglou is starting Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison, which, although very entertaining, doesn’t exactly evoke a feeling of defensive security.
Tottenham’s midfield isn’t conventional. They exchanged the lack of innovation and stagnation from the previous season for something that occasionally approaches a disorganised jumble.
Tottenham has played seven games and is now ranked ninth in the league, four positions lower than their previous season’s result and far behind their objective of making the top four.
Defensively and offensively, Spurs have a lot to like with an excellent back four and a talented attacking trident with new striker Dominic Solanke, so far, impressing next to superstar left winger Son Heung-min. The problem is that Tottenham are going to disappoint their fans with a few more displays like the one against Brighton, precisely because they don’t have a real 6 or even an upgrade on the 8 situations from last season. Until Tottenham sign a world-class anchoring midfielder, a top box-to-box player, and a deep lying playmaker who can screen adequately, they are going to struggle to keep up with the other teams competing in the top four.
There’s a lot to like about Spurs under Postecoglou, but they don’t have as balanced of a squad as Liverpool or Aston Villa, for example, and forget comparing them to Manchester City or Arsenal at this juncture. Right now, their loss to Brighton shows you that, compared to a team close to them in the table, Spurs still have a talent gap they haven’t bridged in the immediate future, and despite Solanke’s decent start to life in London, perhaps they would have been better-served spending a portion of that transfer fee on the midfield help everyone knew they needed.
Forget this talk about “Spursiness” or a nebulous discussion about “mentality’. Tottenham are honestly fine on that front. And they do have a great squad in most respects. They just have one glaring weakness, and, unfortunately, that weakness is in the very foundation of any squad trying to be truly great.
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