Tottenham were well beaten by Liverpool on Saturday, a result which likely puts the title beyond their reach. That would be two near misses in two seasons for Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs side, which begs the question: are Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, et al good enough to win a title, or do the club need to invest in some more established talent? In our weekly roundtable, FanSided’s soccer staff share their thoughts.
Tottenham have the talent, but they need a new mindset
James Dudko, @JamesDudko
Tottenham can win a Premier League title with their current core of players. They’re just going to need a change of philosophy to do it.
Spurs got all the motivation they need to alter their mentality after wilting under the pressure during Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield. The loss has left Tottenham trailing league leaders Chelsea by 10 points, while also serving as an indictment of manager Mauricio Pochettino’s conservative pragmatism.
Dissing Pochettino’s managerial chops has become unfashionable since he reshaped Spurs from an annual soft touch into a formidable force in England’s top flight. But Poch’s success at Tottenham is something of a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, the Argentinian strategist has undoubtedly toughened Spurs up. He’s added the resilience and stubborn stinginess a side pushed around for years by the division’s big boys lacked.
Yet that solidity has come at a cost. The cost has been the steady decline of Tottenham’s style and verve going forward. A club traditionally known for its fidelity to the beautiful game is now defined more by brawn-induced negation.
The most common critique to make against this Spurs squad is the apparent lack of creative and goalscoring support for star striker Harry Kane. Yet something doesn’t quite ring true about the complaint. Specifically, Spurs are no more short of flair players and technical acumen than any of the Premier League’s top six.
How can they be when attacking midfielder Dele Alli has scored 11 league goals himself? Alli is perhaps the brightest young star in the game, and he and Kane are as dynamic as any two players at their respective positions.
Meanwhile, few would contend Danish pass-master Christian Eriksen isn’t a maestro in the same class as Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil, Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas, Liverpool ace Philippe Coutinho, Manchester United’s Armenian forward Henrikh Mkhitaryan or Manchester City schemer David Silva. Any of those teams ought to welcome an attacker as mercurial as Tottenham’s classy South Korean forward Heung-min Son.
Spurs have the players to decide big matches with inspiration and magic as well as graft. Pochettino just has to turn them loose. It’s not something the 44-year-old always appears comfortable doing, though.
Instead, Pochettino consistently fields teams geared more toward cancelling out opponents rather than bewildering them. It’s why he signed a beefy destroyer like Victor Wanyama to play in a midfield already featuring Eric Dier. It’s why a player with the technical acumen of Mousa Dembele has been turned into an enforcer rather than being allowed to be a positive, creative influence.
Pochettino’s predilection for physicality over skill explains why Tottenham would drop £30 million to sign a powerful yet one-dimensional runner like Moussa Sissoko in the summer, rather than a more astute ball player.
Even when the personnel should be used, Pochettino can’t be relied upon to indulge attacking instincts. How else do you explain taking Son off to make way for Dutch centre-forward Vincent Janssen at Anfield? Trailing 2-0, Spurs needed three strikers on the pitch. Yet Pochettino still remained cautious, opting for a more conservative, like-for-like swap. The decision said everything about how highly the manager places pragmatism above artistry.
But the truth is Spurs won’t win a title without a healthy diet of both. This Tottenham squad has all the flair players it needs to collect wins alongside style points, yet still be able to grind out enough results when needed to lift the league crown.
Sadly, Pochettino has steered his side too far toward the dour side of the game. Loosening the shackles is the only way not waste the title-winning potential of Tottenham’s current core.
Tottenham need proven stars, not potential
Anthony Gallo, @Gallo_Calcio
After failing to grab a crucial three points against Liverpool on the road, Tottenham now sit 10 points behind leaders Chelsea.
Going into the match on Saturday, Tottenham had only lost twice in Premier League play. Both of those losses came to top six clubs — 2-1 to Chelsea on Nov. 26 and 1-0 to Manchester United on Dec. 11.
After that United loss, Spurs won seven and drew two of their next nine matches, and ended Chelsea’s 13-match winning streak. However, things haven’t gone quite as smoothly since then — Tottenham have won only two of their five league matches since beating the Blues.
Tottenham are an interesting team. They certainly have talent — Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Heung-min Son have all impressed this season — but the past two seasons suggest the current core may not have what it takes to overhaul the league’s very best.
You can’t always rely on four or five players to win a league. It has to be a team effort. And outside their starting XI, Tottenham don’t have a quality player that can fight for a spot in the starting lineup.
So far this season, players like Vincent Janssen, Harry Winks and Moussa Sissoko have come off the bench to give the team that added push to win a game. While a team like Chelsea can call upon players like Pedro, Willian and Cesc Fabregas.
Who is that player that can help Tottenham? I would like to think they’re one impactful midfielder away from being an elite team. Maybe an N’Golo Kante type midfielder is what they need. A player who can solidify the space between defense and midfield would help attack minded players like Eriksen, Alli and Son to push up more and create chances for the lethal Kane.
But there’s also an argument Spurs star players aren’t quite starry enough. Kane, Alli and Eriksen are a pleasure to watch when they’re on their game, but they’ve not yet established themselves as truly elite stars (just look at Tottenham’s early exit from the Champions League this season).
Imagine if Mauricio Pochettino had Gareth Bale at his disposal rather than Son or the oft-injured Erik Lamela, the sort of player who can win a match by himself. Of course there are very real financial pressures that make it difficult for Spurs to retain that sort of talent.
But they’re reaching a point under Pochettino when it seems increasingly apparent they need to take some risks in the transfer market. To win in the Premier League, you need to spend money — Leicester were a great story last season, but waiting for a miracle would be a naive approach for a Spurs side who have established themselves as perennial top four contenders.
Just take a look at Arsenal. They’ve failed to spend for years, and as a result have had to watch their more cash-happy rivals win league titles left and right. It’s a difficult bind to be in, especially with the construction of a new stadium placing the club under extra financial strain.
But another summer in which players like Jansen and Sissoko are the prime transfer targets will likely result in another season in which second place is as much as Tottenham can hope for.
Again, Tottenham have a talented team, but the likes of Kane, Alli and Eriksen need genuine competition for places, not over-priced backups.