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Tottenham Lack “Quality” – Here Are Two Areas Where They Can Reinforce The Squad

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This season hasn’t quite gone to plan for Tottenham. They are out of the Champions League and really struggling for quality going forward in the league. They have one of the best defences in the division, and that has kept them within touching distance of the top, but unless they start to score goals they won’t be there for very long.

The obvious reason for this is the lack of quality in two key areas. We look at what these areas are, and how they could improve.

Defensive midfield

In the summer, Tottenham brought Victor Wanyama in from Southampton and his early season performances have helped him to secure a first team spot. It’s fair to say that the protection he offers his defence has been a large reason why Tottenham have kept so many clean sheets defensively.

But Wanyama lacks technical ability, he is purely there to break up the play and play it simple. This was highlighted especially in the Champions League.

His midfield partner is usually Moussa Dembele, a player whose strength and dribbling ability are two incredible assets, but once again, when it comes to passing, he is severely lacking.

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You see, many clubs now defend deep against Tottenham, and by the time Victor Wanyama has played a simple 5-yard pass to Dembele, who then tried to dribble around 2 or 3 players, the opposition have themselves set in their defensive shape, leaving 10 players for Tottenham to try to break through.

They lack somebody who can pick up the ball and play a forward pass into the feet of the likes of Kane and Alli, to get Tottenham on the attack whilst the oppositions are unsettled. Tottenham have never replaced Luka Modric. That is a pretty hard task, but they haven’t even tried. Not one midfielder has walked through the doors at Tottenham who is capable of passing the ball, so things have become very predictable.

Attacking midfield

Also highlighted during this run, is that they lack real technical ability and movement in the final third, and they probably lack two type of players here to be able to compete at the top level. You only need to look at the type of players Liverpool have in these positions to see what Spurs lack.

Firstly, they don’t have anyone with real pace and dribbling ability to put defences on the back foot, and get beyond the likes of Kane. Opposition teams are content with knowing that Tottenham will play in front of them, and what you can see can’t hurt you. Perhaps Son can provide this to some extent, but despite his early season form, whether he is good enough remains to be seen.

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And secondly, they lack anybody with real movement and cute play. Christian Eriksen is supposed to be this player for Tottenham, but he is really letting both himself and the club down this season. He has become a functional player, instead of a magician like the likes of Coutinho, Ozil and Silva. He plays in straight lines and is far too predictable.

The same goes for Erik Lamela. He is lauded for his hard work, but as a creative attacking midfielder playing for a top club, should hard work be seen as a positive when it is your defining attribute?

Tottenham really failed in the transfer market when they signed Moussa Sissoko to rectify these glaring problems. He is severely lacking in technical ability, and his only obvious attribute is that he can run fast and looks relatively strong.

Perhaps Pochettino needs to focus on giving some of his attacking players their identity back, and place flair and creativity above work rate?

The Tottenham manager keeps talking about mentality, and hard work. But it is clear what is missing here – quality.