A huge amount of pressure was placed on Xavi Simons’ shoulders when he joined Tottenham Hotspur from RB Leipzig for €60million in August.
The 22-year-old was expected to instantly provide Spurs with creativity while Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison recovered from long-term knee injuries. All while adapting to a new league, country and a squad coming to terms with the arrival of Thomas Frank as head coach.
Simons showed flashes of his quality over the first few months of the season but failed to score and, at times, looked too lightweight for the Premier League. He had been left out of the starting XI by Frank for four consecutive matches, including the 5-3 defeat by his former club Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, before Spurs beat Brentford 2-0 on Saturday. The Netherlands international will hope his exceptional solo effort in the 43rd minute ignites his campaign.
Simons was a victim of circumstances outside of his control after moving to north London. Spurs failed to sign Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze in the summer. The fanbase was excited by Simons’ arrival but frustrated Spurs missed out on their first-choice targets.
Simons is younger than Gibbs-White (25) and Eze (27) but has more caps (32) than the England pair combined (22). He grew up in Barcelona’s academy and finished his footballing education with PSG.
He scored against England from outside the box in the semi-final of last year’s European Championship and directly contributed to 35 goals in 58 Bundesliga appearances for Leipzig.
Simons’ quality has never been in doubt, he may even evolve into a better player than Eze and Gibbs-White, but he lacked Premier League experience. Spurs required someone to hit the ground running in Frank’s first season. None of that was Simons’ fault.
Last week, Frank compared him to Florian Wirtz. They excelled in Germany’s top-flight before earning moves to England. Wirtz has started more league games (10) than Simons (seven) and recorded more minutes (920 to 712). Wirtz cost Liverpool more than double the amount of Simons (€136.3m) and they are the perfect examples of players who need time to adapt to English football.
Simons appears to be further along in his development even though Wirtz benefitted from joining Liverpool in pre-season. There is evidence which suggests Simons is becoming stronger. He always works hard off the ball and is unafraid to jump into challenges but he won multiple duels, including with Brentford’s athletic right-back Michael Kayode, by cleverly using his body.
It was the majestic nature of Simons’ goal which should convince Frank this was a genuine turning point and he should start consistently. Simons miscontrolled Cristian Romero’s pass but won the ball back from Mikkel Damsgaard with a firm slide tackle.
Simons slipped away from Damsgaard in the centre circle before accelerating beyond Sepp van den Berg and Yehor Yarmoliuk. He calmly rolled the ball past Caoimhin Kelleher before his trademark celebration. It was a breakout out goal for Simons which his team-mates, Frank and the entire stadium desperately craved too.
It ensured Spurs won at home in the league for only the second time this season. Simons was signed to produce those match-winning moments and this needs to be the first of many.
Brentford’s head coach Keith Andrews said it was “difficult to fathom” Simons scoring six seconds after winning the ball in his own half and that “it was a goal that was very much avoidable”. Andrews was understandably irritated after Brentford lost for the second time in four days but his comments discredit the poise and sharp-thinking Simons displayed.
Simons had already set up Richarlison’s opening goal too. He tricked Van den Berg with a clever piece of movement before firing a first-time cross towards the back post.
Frank used a 4-2-3-1 system against Brentford which seemed to suit everybody. Randal Kolo Muani prefers to play centrally but linked up well with Djed Spence on the left wing. Simons drifted across the pitch and supported Mohammed Kudus on the right. Tottenham’s attack has looked disjointed in a lot of their home games but they played with freedom and fluidity.
Frank said he was “extremely happy with the offensive performance” and the team’s structure “just looked more right”. He praised Simons too and said the attacking midfielder “had that extra bit of lightness in his step” after scoring.
“Every player needs that extra good performance, so I’m happy for him,” Frank said. “He’s been working very hard. He’s a top pro, he’s so determined, he wants it so badly in every aspect of his game. And it’s just a little bit of adaptation, also that the team is a little bit out of sync. For example, Kudus after a great start, (had) a little dip because of the little injury, and a lot better today as Xavi is in a good place. Kolo (Muani) is in a better place, Richy. So everything is just coming more and more together — we need to build on it.
“That’s what I believed from the beginning, that Xavi can produce that out of nothing. Everything just needs a little bit of adaptation sometimes. This was a very good step. Now it’s the next thing to do it again and again and again.”