Our columnist looks at the transfer rumours surrounding Spurs - and wonders whether a midfielder is what they really need this January.
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The January transfer window isn’t always as busy or as exciting as it gets hyped up to be. Deals are too expensive to make and teams often too poor to splash out without breaking the various spending rules they need to adhere to. But one Premier League side are likely to be very busy indeed this winter – Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs have both a huge amount of PSR headroom to work with and a laundry list of needs. Their squad is large but uneven, and filled to the brim with players who are dealing with persistent fitness issues, and it certainly hasn’t yet been moulded to Thomas Frank’s specifications.
Cash flow could yet prevent them from going truly wild in January, but if they can resolve that issue then the capacity is there for them to spend a significant amount. The gossip columns have linked them with a host of players, especially wingers and strikers – but while there’s work to be done in the final third, Spurs should have an even bigger priority as they head into the winter.
Why Tottenham Hotspur’s midfield has been their biggest problem this season
Spurs have been nothing if not inconsistent since Frank took charge, and the manager may have to take some of the blame for that – his tenure has been marked by considerable chopping and changing of formation as he tries to find a system which suits his squad.
That perhaps doesn’t reflect well too on Frank, who was flexible with his formation at Brentford but also able to instil a fundamental underlying playing style that underpinned the system through tweaks and changes. At Spurs, that hasn’t really been the case. There is a sense of disconnect between the players regardless of whether they are winning or losing.
Perhaps the biggest single issue has been the midfield – and that rather infamous 4-1 defeat to Arsenal was one of the matches which demonstrated why Spurs’ soft centre has made finding a tactical structure that worked so difficult.
Spurs have a host of ball-winning midfielders who essentially play the same game: Chasing lost causes, hunting down opposing ball carriers, and trying to disrupt attacks. But what the likes of Pape Sarr, João Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur have in common is a lack of positional discipline which is hurting team cohesion.
Against Arsenal, the two midfielders who were positioned to protect the back four were constantly drawn towards the ball when it went wide, leaving huge swathes of space open in front of the box for Eberechi Eze to exploit and score a hat-trick with. Compounding the problem was that none of the central midfielders are especially strong ball-carriers themselves or remarkably dynamic. Frank seems to want them to play box-to-box, and they aren’t up to the job.
As it stands, Spurs are rather cumbersome in possession as well as flaky out of it. They need a midfielder who not only has the positional awareness to effectively protect the defence when required, but who also has the combination of technical quality and pace to get the ball towards the attacking players quickly – someone who can do the kind of job that, say, Declan Rice does for their rivals down the road. Can they find that player in January?
The midfielders Spurs could sign this transfer window
With the gossip columns largely focusing on the more attacking additions Spurs might make – at least when they aren’t wondering about the future of Guglielmo Vicario – rumours connecting the club with midfielders have been a little less frequent. But they do exist.
Not all of them necessarily fit the template for a box-to-box midfielder. AZ Alkmaar youngster Kees Smit has been mentioned, but he is a more creative player who can’t be expected to contribute much defensively – more of a Luka Modrić figure. Between Smit and Lucas Bergvall, Spurs may well be able to build an exciting, forward-thinking midfield, but they would need a true holding midfielder to bring balance were that the direction in which they went.
Several stories from November suggested interest in Bournemouth’s Alex Scott, although that does seem to have gone a little quiet of late. Bournemouth are not likely to be prepared to sell Scott this winter, but he would fit the bill in a number of ways – the 22-year-old has the dynamism, defensive quality and fitness to impact all three thirds of the pitch with regularity.
Scott may not be an especially likely January signing, but he at least offers an image of the kind of midfielder Spurs could do with – one who can plug gaps in midfield without haring out of position at the drop of a hat, while also being able to carry the ball downfield quickly to spark and join attacking moves. That was something that Palhinha did for Fulham, but has struggled to replicate since joining Spurs.
Former Wolves man Rúben Neves would offer a more experienced solution to the same problem – a superb passer who forces a high volume of turnovers in deeper areas, he isn’t necessarily fast but he can get the ball to the front line with accuracy and create chances. He may also be more obtainable.
Like Scott, most of the links between Spurs and Neves came about in November and may well have passed out of the gossip columns for a reason, but there is evidence that Al-Hilal want to move on from him to free up overseas player slot for fancier, more expensive additions, and if Neves is prepared to take a pay cut to return to the Premier League then he could well be a player who is easier to get hold of in January than Scott is likely to be.
Smit, Scott and Neves are very different players but could all be pieces of the puzzle – slightly different puzzles, perhaps, and Frank would need to pick his tactical lane when signing any of them, something he has yet to decisively do at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But whichever direction Frank takes the team in, and whichever players they target in January, it’s hard to envisage Spurs realising their potential if they don’t find a way to address a midfield that has, so far, wound up as being rather less than the sum of its parts.