It just has to be said, Tottenham played some scintillating football last season. Under new manager Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham made a dramatic stylistic change from the more defensive (read: haramball) eras of Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte to something that is more akin to Wengerball than anything else.
And let me tell you, as an Arsenal fan, I hated typing that last sentence. Just look at Sanch and I hurting in public over this fact a few months ago.
Fast, free-flowing football, expansive midfield play, positional fluidity, a double pivot central midfielder at lone 6, and defensive fragility. It's Wengerball through and through and there's a lot to be excited about for the new season if you're a Spurs fan.
So, off the back of a season that saw Tottenham play great football, and narrowly miss out on Champions League football, what does the squad look like going into the season?
The Spurs Defence
Micky Van de Ven mate. I don't care who you are, I know that you want him at your club. I do too. I was surprised when Liverpool stopped pursuing him last summer as I thought he would have been a great replacement for Andy Robertson at left-back. I could write a whole essay about the guy, but this is not that essay.
So, let's talk about the Tottenham defence. It was... crazy to say the least. Ange's defenders took Pep's inverted fullback system and spiked it with cocaine. I remember watching a game and thinking that anyone watching football for the first time wouldn't believe that Pedro Porro is a defensive player.
The typical lineup was Udogie - Van de Ven - Romero - Porro.
Porro and Udogie were given license to roam as far forward as they could giving a numerical advantage to Tottenham further up the pitch. This meant that Van de Ven and Romero had to cover twice the amount of space, which made it easy for opposing teams to counter as there was a lot of space vacated by the fullbacks to exploit.
Consequently, they conceded an ungodly amount of goals for a side with top 4 ambitions (61), more goals than Crystal Palace (58). Not good enough going forward.
And yet as I write, Tottenham has yet to sign a defensive player this summer, nor do they seem to be prioritising one at the moment. With Djed Spence and Sergio Reguilon back from loan their defensive options going into the season are:
Gugliemo Vicario, Fraser Forster, Cristian Romero, Micky Van de Ven, Destiny Udogie, Pedro Porro, Radu Dragusin, Ben Davies, Emerson Royal, Djed Spence, and Sergio Reguilon
I have three main concerns about this defensive group.
First, with the starting back four all fit, how can they concede less goals than they did last season? So far Ange doesn't seem like a man who has a plan b. He's insistent on playing exactly how he wants and putting the burden on his players to execute that plan well enough. Should he persist with moving his fullbacks forward and leaving space in behind, it could rain goals again this season. Keep one fullback a bit low mate.
Secondly, injuries. Every single time one of the starting defenders in this side had an injury last year, the team collapsed. The drop-off in quality from each of the players in the backline to their replacement in the squad (especially in terms of how they want to play) is massive. And being in Europe this season means more games, which means higher chances of injuries. Right now I have no idea how Ange plans to cope with injuries to this backline as the season progresses.
Finally, Europe. Will Ange play his incredibly high line in Europe against the continent's best? As Brighton found out in the Europa League last season, Europe can be an entirely different proposition than the Premier League. Teams are more tenacious, better on average (especially deeper into the competition), and most importantly, relentless attackers. You just know that some random Danish team with young, pacy wingers is looking at that Spurs high line and licking their lips.
In summary, Tottenham haven't really strengthened defensively this summer, at least not in terms of signing new players. So it all comes down to the manager to figure out how to get the best out of this group over a season-long campaign. It will be fascinating to see how that goes.
This is Part I in a series of three articles on Tottenham. Read Part II and Part III.
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