Tottenham are continuing to overperform under Mauricio Pochettino - so what needs to change?
In spite of their progess, it’s still possible to quibble with some of Tottenham’s decisions and how they may have cost the club an even better season than usual under Pochettino
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Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham Hotspur have for the last two weeks been looking to bring in an attacker, but the likelihood of doing so before Thursday is now low. It is seen as a bit too difficult to get the right player in January – let alone this late in the month – and at the right price. Deals like that for Lucas Moura don’t come along too easily.
The Brazilian remains the last signing that Tottenham made, for £25m from Paris Saint-Germain 361 days ago – and it may now stay that way into the summer. Lucas represents more than just their last signing, though, since he is a player who in turn represents the limits of this squad and one of the major issues with Spurs right now.
The forward has become one of only a few players beyond the obvious best XI that Mauricio Pochettino appears to trust. He is one of just 13 outfield players to have had 10 or more starts in the Premier League this season – and that after 23 games.
While Victory Wanyama’s injury has denied Pochettino a midfielder he places a lot of faith in, it points to the fact this squad is just too small. Spurs do not have anywhere near enough strength in depth.
This is why injuries to Harry Kane and Dele Alli have hit Spurs so hard right now.
This is where the entire debate about prioritising the league and the Champions League over the domestic cups comes from, and this is essentially why they went out of the FA Cup on Sunday so soon after going out of the League Cup.
This is also why they’re likely to end yet another season without silverware, with the very real danger now rising that one of Spurs’ best ever teams could end up being broken with nothing to show for it.
The first reason for this is clearly resources. Spurs are by far the financially weakest of the ‘big six’, which is why Pochettino has done so supremely to consistently have them in the top three. It’s been remarkable.
On a macro level, it’s impossible to dispute he’s done an exceptional job and drastically overperformed. This is why Manchester United and Real Madrid have been so interested. This should be the foundation of any discussion.
That should not mean he can’t be questioned on a micro level, though, particularly as regards the more specific use of those resources.
The easy conclusion to any debate about Spurs’ depth is that Daniel Levy’s notorious parsimony is to blame, with that only compounded by the constraints made by the construction of the new stadium.
Other sources insist there is more money to spend than has been made out, but that Pochettino has been reluctant to spend it. This comes down to how he sees transfers, how he sees the team and how he sees management.
Most reasonably, the Argentine has always been consistent that he prefers to sign players in the summer, because his style is so particular that he needs them to more fully understand it through a pre-season.
It is possible, though, that this has created an undue reticence. There are stories of suggestions for signings that have done well elsewhere that Pochettino himself turned down.
More personally, then, there is the increasing belief from many who know the Argentine that he increasingly revels in his perception as a manager who can pull off wonders on limited resources, that he doesn’t need the riches of others.
It is a seductive idea, and there can be no doubt – for all the speculation about his future – that Pochettino’s major ambition is to deliver one of the two major trophies to this club in either the league or Champions League.
It’s just that might have created too great a reliance on a best XI, something that is all the more pointed since it is a factor otherwise out of synch with the modern game, where super-club super squads reign.
Spurs are never going to have depth that strong, but it now does feel needless that their available options are so short – as highlighted by the team they put out against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup.
It feels all the more needless when you consider this has been common knowledge for two years.
The core truth is that Pochettino has had a fine team operating at the peak of their capacity since 2016-17.
It did get to the tricky stage where to actually improve anyone in that best XI would have required fees of £30 to £60m, money Spurs haven’t really had. That doesn’t apply to back-up, though, which is why the current lack of depth is all the more confusing.
Spurs should have tried to buttress the squad over the last two years, rather than allow the club to reach this point where two injuries have caused so many spinning plates to crash in one tough January. A most delicate of balancing acts was always going to wobble at some point.
It can’t last, no matter how good the manager is. And no matter how much that manager talks about not wanting inferior players, it is now difficult to believe that there are not better options out there within Spurs’ price range than Georges-Kevin N’Koudou.
That reluctance – or refusal, whatever it is – to bolster the squad and change the nature of the balancing act always had the potential to come back in a damaging way.
In the space of a mere month, a team that was being built up as becoming a third title challenger and was still in four competitions is now out of two, way off the pace in the title race and facing up to another season without silverware.
That’s not to say it’s all doom and gloom. This is still likely just a blip. Son Heung-Min will be back for Wednesday; Harry Kane is – according to sources close to the striker – again recovering quicker than expected.
Tottenham will likely do enough to get top four again, and may yet reach the Champions League quarter-finals. Just getting back into Europe’s elite competition should really not be sniffed at, nor taken for granted, no matter how routine it now seems. This isn’t plateauing. It’s still overperforming. It remains a major achievement for a club of their resources.
Nonetheless, it’s still possible to quibble with some of Tottenham’s decisions and how they may have cost the club an even better season than usual under Pochettino.
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