First game of the season, done and dusted it was evident that Tottenham could have done better and were certainly lacking in certain areas of the pitch. Yes, they did their homework over the summer and strengthened in the defensive positions with the signings of Toby Alderweireld and Kieran Trippier. But they have failed to bring in the back up striker who can help lift some pressure of young Harry Kane’s shoulders.
Delle Alli has returned from his loan spell along with Alex Pritchard and Tom Caroll, the trio play in the central mid-field regions and may be the reason why Pochettino hasn’t made an approach to sign a central midfielder, in fact he got rid of 3 from the squad he registered with the Premier League last season, namely Paulinho, Capoue and Stambouli. But Spurs lack an experienced mid-field commander. Someone who can help Bentaleb. True, the above mentioned players could one day become big names at Tottenham or anywhere else but right now, they aren’t simply good enough to start week after week in the Premier League and hope for a top 4 finish. Ryan Mason could perform that role like last season, but then again, with some effort Spurs could land a much better central midfielder.
Coming to the away game they just unfortunately lost at Old Trafford, it was quite clear that Spurs missed in dragging the opposition defence wide of the pitch. Width was clearly not on offer as the trio behind Kane are all CAMs who can play out wide. Erik Lamela is the only pure winger in the squad, of course there are Townsend and Lennon but Spurs really need to sign another of the same quality of Lamela at least if they want to have any chance of not running into an uni-dimensional attacking team.
3 signings that Tottenham need to become better
Now that I have identified the 3 positions that the squad needs to improve, here are the 3 players I think Tottenham should sign to fill in these voids.
To start from the top, as back up striker, Javier Hernandez would be a good signing. The Mexican has returned back to Manchester after enjoying a good loan spell but he has shown he has had better years than the last 2 seasons of his career. At Tottenham, he will have that platform to resurrect an almost fading away career. He’d have much more of a shot of a starting place if he is willing to fight Harry Kane for it and he wouldn’t cost Tottenham much more than the 15M pounds mark. With adequate Premier League experience and an eye for goals, he’d be an ideal back up for Harry Kane.
Moving on, we come to the wings. Lamela prefers to play down the right, which means Spurs should concentrate on a winger who can play predominantly on the left but is okay with the opposite flank as well. They have been linked with Stuttgart’s Timo Werner but in my opinion, Spurs should look at someone with more experience. They signed a young quality winger 2 years ago, who is yet to completely adapt to the Premier League, they would not want to repeat that mistake again. Of the top of my mind, Mirallas, Fekir or Shaqiri would make ideal signings for Spurs, but it looks as though Clinton N’Jie of Lyon would be their man as recent rumours suggest. If I were Levy, I would spend close to 20M pounds to get a good winger, no matter who it is.
Finally, the central midfield position. With the youngsters serving as ideal back up and for the cup games, Spurs should sign someone who is in the prime of his career and has good experience playing in Europe. Either of the Bender brothers would be remarkable but Lars Bender would be tough given he is the captain of a Leverkusen side who are in the Champions League. With Dortmund in the Europa it would be easier to convince Sven to make the move but it wont be very easy either. There is another German who should be a target. Kramer. Enjoyed 2 good seasons in the Bundesliga, the opportunity to play in the Premier League could be enough to convince him to make the switch. He would cost Spurs around 15M pounds at the max and would surely make the squad much stronger than now.
Of course, these are all just my speculations. It remains to be seen if Spurs will actually make any additions to their squad. But fans can be confident after all Pochettino did say they expect to get a new member at least before the window closes.