Time is running out for Randal Kolo Muani to prove that his loan to Tottenham Hotspur this season has not been a wasted opportunity.
The France international has failed to score or assist in 18 Premier League appearances for Spurs so far. Kolo Muani’s record in the Champions League is much better with three goals and two assists in seven games though, bizarrely, he has only found the net against his former employers Eintracht Frankfurt and current parent club Paris Saint-Germain.
With that in mind, Kolo Muani is probably desperate for a meeting with Juventus, where he spent the second half of last season on loan from PSG and who are one of already-qualified Tottenham’s four possible opponents in the round of 16, should the Italians overturn a 5-2 first-leg deficit at home and get past Galatasaray of Turkey in the ongoing play-off round.
Juventus are, of course, also the previous team of Tottenham’s new interim head coach, Igor Tudor.
Kolo Muani initially worked with Thiago Motta at the Turin club, scoring five times in his first three of 11 appearances under him but failing to find the net in the other eight.
Motta was then sacked in the March and replaced with Tudor, who has now arrived at Spurs in similar circumstances following last week’s dismissal of Thomas Frank. The 27-year-old will hope Tudor can reignite his form for the second year in a row, after he scored five times in six late-season games under him across Serie A and the Club World Cup, and boost his chances of making France’s squad for the World Cup.
He arrived on loan from PSG on the final day of the summer window and made his debut a couple of weeks later as a substitute in the Champions League opener against Villarreal but then suffered a dead leg in training that forced him to miss five games. Maybe that was an early sign this relationship was going to be tricky.
The majority of Kolo Muani’s 12 league starts for Spurs have come either at the tip of a 4-2-3-1 formation or on the left in support of Richarlison.
Frank experimented with personnel and the team’s shape a lot, which meant it was difficult for any of the attacking players to find consistent form.
Until he suffered a groin injury in January, £55million ($74.5m at the current rate) summer signing Mohammed Kudus’ position as the first-choice right-winger was secure, but the manager kept switching between Xavi Simons, Mathys Tel, Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert for the other positions behind a central striker.
Spurs never played to Kolo Muani’s strengths during the Dane’s brief reign.
He has only taken 11 shots in the Premier League, and registered an xG figure of 1.33. He has 1,028 minutes of top-flight game time for the north London side in total across 18 appearances.
Tottenham’s club-record signing Dominic Solanke, who returned from an August ankle injury a month ago, has only played 408 minutes in seven league outings but managed to take nine shots and score twice from an xG of 1.21. The England international tends to be more involved in the build-up play than the Frenchman, but it is not good enough that the latter has barely been presented with any high-quality chances by his team-mates.
Kolo Muani is capable of scoring a variety of goals.
Those three strikes against Frankfurt and PSG came from him reacting quickly around the six-yard box to pounce on a loose ball, while during his time in Turin last season he displayed a trademark move which Spurs fans have rarely seen him attempt.
Kolo Muani’s biggest assets are his speed and ability to carry under pressure. He excelled in Tudor’s 3-4-2-1 system at Juventus because it was built around moving the ball quickly. Whether it was Francisco Conceicao, Nicolas Gonzalez or Kenan Yildiz playing behind him, they knew to release the ball into space for Kolo Muani to chase, so he could drive at back-pedalling and off-balance defenders.
He scored twice in a 5-0 stroll past Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates in the group stage of the World Cup, and should have had a hat-trick. Here, he latches onto a simple long ball from Khephren Thuram for his second goal.
And here, in the 66th minute, Kolo Muani accelerates away from Al Ain’s disjointed defensive line but sees his attempt at a chipped finish saved by Rui Patricio. He had intelligently curved his run and moved across the defenders when they were too busy concentrating on Conceicao as he dribbled upfield.
There are lots of other examples of Kolo Muani tearing through teams with his pace.
He overtakes Antonio Rudiger and Aurelien Tchouameni in this next set of images but his chip over Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois lands on the roof of the net.
It is difficult to recall many occasions when he has been presented with similar opportunities during his time with Spurs, apart from last month’s 2-0 Champions League home win against Borussia Dortmund, when he should have shown more composure.
Tudor and his coaching staff need to maximise Kolo Muani’s threat on the counter.
Spurs released a video interview with Tudor on Tuesday, and there were a couple of lines in it which will give supporters a small dose of optimism.
The Croatian said “there is no time to find excuses”, which might sound like an obvious thing to say but fans became frustrated by Frank’s attempts to justify poor performances. Tudor added “I like to be positive” and “I like to play offensive football”, which will both be a relief ahead of his debut in the north London derby at home to league leaders Arsenal on Sunday. The last time these clubs met, in November, Spurs only registered an xG number of 0.03 in a 4-1 defeat.
The most interesting thing Tudor spoke about was in relation to injuries.
With Odobert joining Kudus and Dejan Kulusevski on the treatment table, Tudor does not have a natural right-winger. During his spells in charge of Marseille, Lazio and Juventus, he rarely moved away from playing a back three. However, Cristian Romero has only served one game of a four-match ban, while Kevin Danso, Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro are recovering from injury. There is a small pool of defenders to pick from.
“We need to find the best system that suits the players that are available at this moment,” Tudor said.
This suggests he is considering different formations.
Tudor’s preferred 3-4-2-1 system could work but would involve dropping midfielder Joao Palhinha in alongside Micky van de Ven and Radu Dragusin at centre-back. Djed Spence and Archie Gray could play as wing-backs with some combination of Solanke, Kolo Muani, Tel and Simons as the three up front. Frank already used a version of this towards the end of his reign. The problem is, one more injury would topple this whole plan.
Another option is a back four and two central strikers, with Simons roaming behind them. Solanke’s ability to drop deep could be beneficial for Kolo Muani by drawing defenders out of position and creating more space for the latter to run into.
They have only started once together so far — the 2-2 draw with visitors Manchester City earlier this month. Frank was unable to develop them as an effective combination due to Solanke’s injury struggles. Tudor could now benefit from having both available and desperate to prove they should play at the World Cup for their respective countries.
Kolo Muani scored with each of his first three shots for Juventus, though one of them was a freakish deflection. It is a level of efficiency Spurs are desperate for him to replicate in their final 12 games of the season as they seek to push clear of the relegation places.
In Tudor, they have arguably the perfect manager to unlock his talents.