Never before has the idiom 'when it rains, it pours' been more true than in relation to Tottenham Hotspur this season. On Wednesday night, despite taking the lead through Mathys Tel and then João Palhinha scoring a spectacular overhead kick, Spurs were beaten 3-2 by Bournemouth, conceding in the 95th minute at Dean Court.
That, though, only tells a tiny percentage of the story. Under-fire manager Thomas Frank was pictured drinking his hot beverage out of a paper cup with an Arsenal crest on it. Meantime, Micky van de Ven thought he had earned a penalty, only to be booked for diving. Then, after full time, he seemingly wanted to have it out with a furious supporter.
More importantly, Tottenham have now won only two of 12 Premier League matches since the start of November, losing six of them, so they are down in 14th place. The pressure is already intensifying on Frank, and defeat to Aston Villa in the FA Cup on Saturday could crank this up to 11. If Frank is going to turn things around in North London, he is going to have to do so without a key attacker.
Mohammed Kudus injury latest
In his pre-Aston Villa press conference on Thursday, Frank revealed the severity of Mohammed Kudus' injury. The Ghanian hobbled off just 19 minutes into Sunday's 1-1 draw with Sunderland, replaced by Randal Kolo Muani. Following a scan, the extent of Kudus' thigh injury is worse than first feared, thereby set to be sidelined until after the March international break.
During this period, Kudus could miss as many as 19 matches, including the start of the Champions League knockout stages, as well as Premier League clashes with both Manchester clubs, Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Since arriving from rivals West Ham for £55 million in the summer, Kudus has scored just three goals for Spurs, netting against Leeds, Fulham and Slavia Prague. Nevertheless, he has been a regular starter and, following the departure of Brennan Johnson, Frank is now very short of attacking options. So, which Tottenham player need to fulfill their full potential during this crucial period?
Spurs require their star creator to step up
Neither James Maddison nor Dejan Kuluševski have played a single minute this season so far, after both suffered serious injuries during pre-season.
Thus, it was clear that creativity was required. After failing in their attempts to sign both Morgan Gibbs-White and then Eberechi Eze, Xavi Simons arrived from RB Leipzig for a reported fee of â¬60 million, to much fanfare. However, the Dutchman has certainly not lived up to this hype to date, as the number make clear.
Xavi Simons' Tottenham statistics
As the table documents, Simons' statistics this season are generally pretty middling at best. The Dutchman's lack of end product is encapsulated by the fact that only 15% of his shots have found the target, while he has also been successful with only 33% of his take-ons.
Across his previous three campaigns, with PSV and then RB Leipzig, Simons accumulated 33, 25 and 19 combined goals and assists respectively, but is nowhere near replicating those numbers in North London.
Now though, with Kudus sidelined for months, if Tottenham harbour any hopes of making a success out of this season, they need Simons to start producing. As has been well documented, other midfield options such as Rodrigo Bentancur and João Palhinha are incapable of passing the ball forward, even if the latter is capable of a jaw-dropping bicycle kick.
Thus, the whole team should revolve around Simons in an attacking sense, so being made the central figure could be exactly what he needs to belatedly flourish.